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"I'm looking for chicory and angelica," said Heather to the woman behind the counter at the herb shop in Freeburg. It had been a long morning. She'd gotten stuck in a huge traffic jam on the way here, because of a pretty bad accident on Route 45. She'd been sitting at a standstill in traffic for about half an hour. It was lucky she'd left early to try to get these herbs, because otherwise, she would have been late for work. Heather had given the store a quick glance-through, but she hadn't seen what she was looking for. She figured it was just easier to ask the woman behind the counter.
The cashier was an elderly plump woman. She had glasses perched on the end of her nose, and, until Heather had spoken to her, had been reading a fat mystery paperback. She gave Heather a look that seemed to say, "You want me to get up and help you find things? You want me to work?"
"I looked around, but I didn't see either of them," said Heather, trying to explain why she was asking for help. "I just wondered if you could tell if you carried them and where they were."
The woman shrugged. "Well, if you couldn't find them, there's a good chance we don't have them."
Heather was exasperated. Could that book honestly be that good? Was it too much to ask the woman to get off her ass and look for the herbs? "Well, is there some place you could check? Maybe inventory sheets or in your computer or something?"
The woman looked at the computer. "I'm not really good with the computer," she said. "I can ring things up, but that's about it. When Jackie comes in a few hours, she might be able to do that, but I don't know how."
Old people! Heather couldn’t believe how stupid they were about technology. It was like they were afraid of it or something. "I can't come back in a few hours," said Heather. "You don't know what's sold in this store? And you have no way of finding out? And you won't help me look?"
"Those herbs are very peculiar. I'm not familiar with them, so we might not have them."
"I'm calling your manager," Heather snarled. Then she spent twenty minutes searching through the store again, more meticulously. She didn't find any chicory or angelica. She didn't know if she actually was going to call the woman's manager, but Heather was sick of people giving her crappy service. If she had a person working for her at the restaurant who acted like that, she would fire that person fast. People needed to treat customers a certain way, and not helping them, or refusing to get up was not one of those ways.
On the other hand, Heather reflected, she sounded like one of those customers she hated, getting angry and threatening to call supervisors. However, she was right to say what she had. The woman was incompetent.
Still angry, Heather dragged herself to work, knowing that she hadn't actually made any progress. She hadn't gotten the herbs they needed for the ritual, and that was the only herb shop that Heather knew of in existence. She had no idea where they were going to get the herbs now. She snapped at her hostess on the way in, because the hostess was wearing a nose ring, which was against the dress code. "Take it out or put a band aid on it," she said.
Throughout the day, people kept commenting on her mood. Heather couldn't help it. She was panicking more and more as the day wore on. She had hoped that after a little time had passed, she would think of some way to fix the fact she hadn't found the herbs. But she had nothing. She had no idea how to fix what she'd failed to do. There were no other herb shops in Freeburg. There was a store called The Herb Shop in Elston, but they sold cards and knickknacks, not actual herbs. She thought about just trying to go to Wal-mart and seeing if they had anything in their gardening section. You could never be sure about Wal-mart. Of course, that wouldn't work, because she'd have to dry the herbs herself, and they didn't have time for that. Plus, by the time she got off work, the gardening section would be closed. And beyond that tragically flawed idea, Heather hadn't had any.
After midnight, Heather told Regina to close the bar early. It was a weeknight, and there weren't very many people hanging out anyway.
"Sure," said Regina. "Hey, are you all right? You've seemed tense to me all day. Didn't I tell you living in Elston was a bad idea?"
Heather laughed. "Yeah, I guess it is. I'm just frustrated, because I was trying to buy something I needed, but I can't find it anywhere."
"What were you trying to buy?"
"Just some herbs."
"Herbs? I have an herb garden. I dry them myself. What were you looking for?"
"Um, chicory and angelica."
"Not a problem," said Regina. "Would you believe, I have some in my car?"
"Really?" Divine providence? Regina to the rescue? Whatever it was, Heather was grateful. She couldn't believe that she'd been lucky enough to talk to Regina. It was one problem solved.
Thinking about it, though, she wondered why she hadn't asked Regina in the first place. Regina was a Wiccan after all, and she probably used herbs like this far for often than Heather would. She should have just gone straight to Regina. It would have saved her a lot of headaches, and it would have saved her staff her yelling at them all day. She hoped that they would forgive her. Anyway, it didn't matter. She didn't think she'd be working here for much longer. Regardless of how this ritual went, she and Ramona were moving away.
"Angelica and chicory, huh?" said Regina. "That's a combination all right. You sure you know what you're doing?"
Heather nodded. But she wasn't sure. She wasn't sure at all.
Ramona was getting coffee on her lunch break at The Grind. She didn't generally drink coffee midday. After all, she'd had a large Icy Chalice that morning. But she felt sluggish and tired at work. She'd finally given up on the brochure project, and had tried to go to Maxine that morning and explain to her that there was nothing she could find out about Elston that she hadn't found out before. This truly was the most unhistorical historical town, ever. Nothing had ever happened here. Knowing what Ramona now knew about the vortex, she actually thought that made sense. But she couldn't tell Maxine about the vortex, and they certainly couldn't put that in the brochure. Maxine had taken the news fairly well, but Ramona could tell she wasn't entirely happy about it. Still, she thanked Ramona for the work she'd done, and said she appreciated that this had been a pretty tough assignment.
Maxine asked Ramona when Ramona was planning on leaving. Maxine had already advertised Ramona's position, and had actually conducted a couple of interviews. This made Ramona nervous, because she hadn't heard back on any of the résumés she'd sent out. Ramona was actually frightened that the vortex had gotten them lost in the mail or something. She didn't know whether it would be the right thing to call any of the places and see if they'd gotten the resume. Maxine told her to definitely do it. "When I hire people, I'm usually so busy. Someone calling and inquiring about the job never bothers me. It just makes me think that the person must really want the job. It's always a positive thing. Definitely follow up."
But Ramona didn't know when she was going to have time to do that. She worked during the same hours as every admissions office was open. She didn't want to call during work. That seemed too public. She didn't want everyone else in the office listening to her talk to people about getting another job. It just seemed sort of tacky. But she couldn't call after work, because they'd be closed. She guessed she could and just leave a message. Of course, what she really should do is just call right now, during her lunch break. But when it came right down to it, Ramona felt nervous. She was making all kinds of excuses for why she shouldn't do it. Like buying coffee.
She sipped at her drink, smoking a cigarette, and trying to gather the courage to just dial some numbers on her damned cell phone. She actually got the phone out and stared at it. Took deep breaths. Tried to muster her courage.
"Ramona," said someone.
Ramona's head snapped up. Garrett was standing right next to her. If it were possible, her heart started beating even faster. What with the influx of caffeine, her nervousness over calling, and the sight of Garrett, Ramona thought she just might have a heart attack. "What do you want?" Ramona asked. She wondered if she should just get up and run. She looked anxiously around her. There were cars lining the street. People walking to shops on Main Street. Even a few people sitting at the tables outside The Grind. She was probably safe. They couldn't all be monsters. Could they? She wished she'd asked Mason how many of them there actually were.
Garrett sat down at the table with her. "Ramona, we wonder if maybe we jumped to some conclusions," he said.
"Maybe you did," she said. "Who cares, now? Seriously. I want out of town more than anything on earth right at this moment."
"I bet you do," said Garrett. "Unfortunately, I just don't know if that's going to happen."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, we jumped to conclusions, but we scared the hell out of you, and we think that we may have tipped our hand a bit. By worrying about things that we thought you knew, we actually told you those things. The way we acted gave you more information than you had before."
"Why are you talking to me, Garrett? If you need a rationalization for killing me, maybe it's because there's just a little too much of all the people you've killed rolling around in your head. Feeling guilty, are you?"
"Nothing of the sort," he said. "I just thought you should understand why we have to do what we're doing."
"Are you going to do it to me right here, right now? In front of everyone?"
"Of course not," said Garrett. "But when you go back up to your apartment, I'm going to follow you, and we'll just see if you can get there faster than me." He grinned.
"I'm not going back to my apartment," said Ramona. "I'm going back to work."
"Sure you are," said Garrett.
"Are you going to follow me to work?"
"What would be the point of that? You'd be around all those admissions people."
"Okay, well, good then," Ramona said. She was shaking. She took a sip of her coffee and a little spilled onto her hand. She wished with all her might that Garrett would just go away. She wished that Heather wasn't working late at Applebee's. She wasn't going to be home until late, and that meant Ramona was going to be all alone in the apartment for hours. It wasn't that she thought Heather could save her or anything, but she would just feel better with someone else around. She wondered if, after work, she should just go to Mason's house. No. That was a bad idea. Because Mason was going to try to get the monsters off their trail. They couldn't hang out together.
Ramona looked back down at the phone in her hands. Maybe she could call the police. Say that Garrett had threatened her. Would they actually arrest him? She kind of doubted it. It was her word against his. Besides, throwing Garrett in jail wouldn't really solve much of anything. There were other monsters out there trying to get her. Well, she had planned to go upstairs to her apartment to each lunch, but she wasn't going to now. She'd just have to starve. But she wasn't leaving The Grind.
The phone in Ramona's hand rang. She jumped, but picked it up. She didn't recognize the number. "Hello?" she said timidly. Garrett was still sitting next to her. She turned away from him.
"Hi, may I speak to Ramona Brinks, please?" asked the person on the other line.
"This is Ramona."
"Hi, Ramona, this is Katie Glen from the VCU Admissions Department. How are you?"
Oh God! Her resumes hadn't gotten lost in the mail. "I'm fine," said Ramona. She wasn't in fear for her life from the guy next to her or anything.
"Great," said Katie. Katie was very bubbly and warm. This was good. Ramona needed bubbly and warm right now. "So, I see that you live in West Virginia. What, like, three or four hours away?"
"Yeah." Where was she going with this?
"So, that's kind of far. I guess you'd be thinking about relocating, then?"
"Yeah, I definitely am trying to find a job somewhere in the Richmond area, because I'm planning to move there."
"Awesome. Richmond's awesome. I love it here. So, anyway, I'm in a rush, and I guess it wouldn't be absolutely out of the ordinary for you to travel down here for an interview, but I need someone to start in like, well, as soon as possible. Um, so, I'm wondering if we could do a phone interview?"
"Absolutely," said Ramona.
"You're going to think I'm nuts, and it's totally cool if you're not available or not ready right now, but what are you doing right now?" Katie laughed self-deprecatingly.
"Uh, I've got forty-five minutes left on my lunch break," said Ramona. "So nothing."
"Can you do the interview now? If it's too much pressure, I totally understand. We could try another time."
"No, no. Now is absolutely fine. I'm outside, though. You can hear me all right and everything?"
"Yeah, you're crystal clear. So, you've been working in admissions for like five years, right? As a work study, and then full time?"
"That's correct."
"Wow, that's awesome, because all my other applicants have absolutely no experience. Um...gosh, Ramona, what do you like about admissions? What do you like about working at a university? What draws you to this job?"
Shit. Maybe an impromptu phone interview had been a bad idea. She sure as fuck couldn't tell the truth. That she needed to get the hell out of Elston and this was the only thing she knew how to do. Ramona racked her brain. What did she like about admissions? "I guess one of the things I like is being part of the atmosphere in a place where higher learning is the focus. I enjoy helping students find the right place for them to continue their education."
"That's great," said Katie, as if she didn't really care. "I'm sorry," she said. "Some of the questions I have to ask are really stupid. I did not write this interview."
Ramona laughed. She felt more at ease already.
"Um, tell me about a time when you succeeded at your job."
Ramona started talking about some project Maxine had given her that she'd done really well with. That was the easy question. She knew the hard question was coming next, and as she was talking, she tried to think of what she would say.
Sure enough, Katie said, "Tell me about a time when you felt like you didn't succeed at your job."
Great. "Well," said Ramona. "I was working on a brochure for the past couple months. It was supposed to highlight historical interest in Elston as a means of drawing students to Elston College. But I just kept running into brick walls. I did tons of research, but I couldn't really find much historical interest. Finally, I had to go to my boss with what I had and explain to her that I couldn't get what she wanted. She wasn't happy, but she had seen how much work I'd put into the project, and she said she appreciated how dedicated I was."
"Great," said Katie.
Good. She'd answered that question okay.
"Um..." Katie trailed off. "Oh, God, I hate all these questions. Forget this stupid pre-written interview. You majored in English, right? So you're good with grammar and with reading essays? Because we have to read tons of essays. And one of the things no one's any good at evaluating is how well the person, like, writes, which I think is important."
"Oh, yeah," said Ramona. "I can definitely do that. I wrote essays all through my undergrad."
"And I bet you're good at writing stuff too, like you said about that brochure copy you were working on," said Katie.
"Sure. I like writing."
"Okay, so, I suck at this. I know I should be tougher on you, but ever since I got your resume, I've been like, that's the chick I want. So I saved your interview for last, because I thought that as long as it went well, I would say to you that I'd like to offer you the job."
"You're kidding?!" Ramona leapt out of her chair. She noticed that Garrett was still there. She glared at him.
"Does that mean you'll take the position? Cause if you need to think about it..."
"I don't need to think about it."
"So cool," said Katie. "When can you start? I know you have to move and all, and you have another job, which you have to give notice to..."
"Actually, when I talked to my boss this morning, I got the impression she'd be okay if I had to leave sooner than two weeks."
"Cool. Well, let's make it two weeks, then. Is that doable?"
"Yes. Definitely doable."
"Awesome. I'll send you contracts in the mail--or should I fax them?"
Ramona gave Katie the fax number at work and after a little bit of small talk, hung up the phone. She turned to Garrett, who was still sitting there. "I just got a job," she said. "In Richmond. I'm blowing this popsicle stand. Why don't you people just leave me alone?"
Heather was surprised that Ramona was still awake when she got home. She was getting back a little earlier than she'd expected, because she'd closed the bar early, but Ramona had to get up early for work, so she usually was already snug in bed when Heather showed up. Instead, Ramona was drinking a glass of wine and putting folded sweaters into boxes. "Hi," said Ramona gleefully.
"Hi," said Heather. She held up the bag she'd gotten from Regina. "I got the herbs."
"I got a job," said Ramona.
Heather dropped the bag and gave Ramona a hug. "Oh, that's great. Where?"
"VCU. It was the craziest job interview I've ever had." Ramona explained the details.
"You rock," said Heather. "You have an awesome resume for Admissions. You're going to do great. This is so cool."
"I know, I know. I can't believe it's actually going to happen. I was beginning to think I would never fucking get out of Elston."
"Yeah, well you are. We are, baby," Heather said. She got herself a glass of wine too. "But why aren't you in bed? Don't you have to work tomorrow?"
"No. I told Maxine about the job, and she said that if I wanted, today could be my last day. She'd apparently got a replacement for me already lined up. So, I'm just going to chill out and get ready to go. I have to start in two weeks, so that gives me some time."
Heather nodded. "Yeah."
"I know. We need to find someplace to move in Richmond," said Ramona. "God, there's so much I need to do. I'm just so excited, I wanted to get started right away."
"You remember that one place we sent rental applications to, where they had a couple apartments they were really trying to fill? They said they were open to starting leases at odd times."
"Yeah, I guess so," said Ramona. "Where are you going with this?"
Heather wasn't exactly sure, but the sight of Ramona packing had gotten her excited too. She suddenly just could hardly wait to get out of Elston. The sooner, the better. "I think we should go as soon as we get packed and we get a place to live."
"Okay," said Ramona, "that's fine with me."
"I mean it. As soon as we can. Like tomorrow if possible," said Heather.
"Seriously?"
Heather nodded.
Ramona considered. "I won't be able to take my couches if we go tomorrow. Or my bed. And I can't leave them, because...well, I guess my security deposit is a lost cause. The landlord that owns this building never gives them back according to Zane." Ramona considered. "But what would we sleep on in Richmond?"
"I don't know," said Heather. "But I have savings, and we could buy cheap things. Plus, people are always trying to get rid of couches. We'd find something. We can't stay here, Ramona. People are trying to kill us."
"I guess you have a point."
Heather was suddenly adamant about it. She began helping Ramona with her sweaters. "We just need to figure out if we can pack everything and fit everything in both of our cars," she said.
"We'll get rid of what we can't take," said Ramona. "I don't need half this junk. We can do this." She went and got a notebook. "Let's make a list," she said. "Of everything we need to pack and everything we need to do, before we go."
"Okay," said Heather. She began to think. "Clothes, obviously. But maybe we should go through our stuff and try to get rid of some of that. We could take it to Goodwill."
"Wait," said Ramona. "If we go tomorrow, we can't do the ritual."
"I know," said Heather. "That's kind of the point."
Ramona sighed. "What about the crazy monsters killing people here? We can stop them, and we're not gonna try?"
"What the fuck do we care?" said Heather. "We're getting out. Let this town stay the way it is. That seems to be what it's determined to do anyway."
Ramona nodded. "Okay. Okay, yeah. I agree. Screw it. Trying to do anything just puts us in more danger, anyway. If we can get out with our lives, then we need to do it."
"Great," said Heather. "Then let's get packing. What else do we need?"
"I just thought of something else," said Ramona. "I don't have to go back to my job, but you do. I mean, if you don't give two weeks notice, they won't give you a good recommendation. And that's where all your experience managing is."
She was right. Damn it. Heather bit her lip. How could she have not thought about her goddamned job. Heather took a long drink of wine. "Damn it," she said. She really did not want to stick around this town for another two weeks. Not to work at Applebee's for god's sake. It wasn't that she hated working at Applebee's. It was just that it seemed so immaterial. "I haven't told them anything," she admitted. "I haven't told them I was planning on leaving. I haven't told them about Rick and I separating. The only person who knows that at work is the bartender Regina." No. Actually, wait, that was good. "Well, that's what I'll do," said Heather. "I'll tell them about Rick. I'll tell them he tried to kill me and that I have no place to live, and that I have to go to my parent's house. And that I'm really sorry, but I can't work there anymore. And they won't be able to argue with that. That's an excellent excuse. Isn't that an excellent excuse?"
Ramona grinned. "It's pretty excellent."
"Okay, then," said Heather. "Richmond, here we come."
She ran to the picture window in Ramona's apartment and threw it open. "Fuck you, Elston," she screamed into the night. Ramona laughed and joined her. "Fuck you, Elston!" they yelled together. They were free.
Copyright (c) 2010 Valerie Chambers