"Had a feeling this would happen," Mel stated as she shuffled her way quickly across the floor in front of me.
"Well, let's just focus on what we can do now," Katie encouraged from her usual seat at her usual desk.
I took a few steps into the room, right behind Mel's trail.
"Well, I'll tell you what we can do right now," Mel started, stopping her pacing a few feet in front of Katie to cross her arms over her chest. "We can either, one, get ourselves killed trying to save his ass before something happens to it or, two, get kidnapped and thrown in jail for trying or, three... move far away and get new jobs before either of those things have a chance of happening to us."
I stepped up to the edge of the nearest empty desk to the back of the room as she spoke, and then allowed my body to come to a still, silent stand.
"We're not going to jail," Katie affirmed, turning in her chair a little. "And we certainly are not getting killed any time soon." She gazed over at me for a long moment. "Mae, why don't you come tell us exactly how everything happened?"
I opened my mouth soon after to respond, but Mel piped up for me, instead.
"She already told me everything on the way back," she shot out. "It was all a set-up."
Katie looked back over at her, quietly.
"Should've known that, though," Mel went on. "Should've known that chance was too good to be true... really, really should have."
I looked back and forth between the two for a few seconds, only now actually closing my mouth.
"Mel..." Katie began to coax.
"No," Mel continued, before she had an opportunity to finish. "You should have known, I should have known... and Ace should have known." She paused. "Not that he would have ever thought of it on his own, anyway, but he should have." She glanced toward my direction. "Hell, even she probably should have known..." She looked back at Katie, and then concluded. "And she hasn't even been here a whole month!"
She swung her hands up with her finishing statement, and then smacked them down on the tops of her thighs.
I glanced over at Katie; she was gliding her eyes to the ground in front of herself.
"I just," Mel began, again. "I don't know what to do."
Katie flickered her eyes back up to her.
Mel threw her hands up in the air, once more, and then repeated herself.
"I don't know what to do!"
Immediately after that, she threw her hands back down to her sides, whipped herself around, and strode her way to the door across the room. I turned slightly to watch both her exit the area and step into the hallway, and then twisted back to Katie as the door she had slipped past slammed shut behind her back.
Katie sat still, her eyes glued to the ground, for... quite an extended period of time. After a few moments of which, my eyes started to wander the room and I leaned my weight onto one knee, unsure of... what to do, exactly.
After a well-length forever, though, Katie let out a small sigh and I darted my eyes right back to her.
"Well, Mae," she began as she gazed over to me. She paused to purse her lips before continuing. "You know, Ace will probably be fine and... we'll get him back as soon as we can; it's no big deal."
She turned in her chair for a moment, let a short silence fall once more, and then twisted back toward me.
"In the meantime, though..." she went on. "Why don't you and I have a little... decompression time?"
I looked her over as she gave me a sideway wink.
"Um," I started back. "Like... what, exactly?"
Katie smiled.
"Oh, it'll be fun," she stated. "You'll see."
___
"Yes, thanks for the ride!" Katie cheered from behind me as I stepped away from the side of the car and turned around.
I watched as she slid across the leather seats and into my direction.
"Y'all ladies have a good time, naw," I could hear the elderly, bearded driver say from behind the tinted front windows that shielded his face from outside.
"Thank you!" Katie responded, now stepping onto the sidewalk in front of me.
She slung her pink and white lace purse over her shoulder, and then grabbed the edge of the open, dirtied red door next to her.
"And be sure—" the man inside the car continued. Before he could finish speaking, however, Katie slammed the tattered door behind her back, promptly shutting off all current communication with him.
"No, I will not be sure to send a picture of me next to the broken airplane fountain to your wife," Katie mumbled while she stepped up to my side.
I let out a tiny chuckle as she slid her black-framed sunglasses over her eyes.
"Okay, Mae, where to, first?" she asked, now pacing forward, away from me.
"Um," I began to answer as I looked up at the long, wide walkway ahead. "Anywhere, really, I guess."
I started to step into Katie's footsteps, now glancing around to read the signs above a few of the buildings that surrounded the sidewalk area. One said, 'Victoria's Secret' and another read, 'Old Navy', both being places I actually knew existed. When I read yet another that said, 'Hand Jobs: Best Nail Salon Around', though, I was caught a little off-guard.
"Have you ever been to a taxidermy shop?" Katie asked, turning around to face me at the same time.
I glanced blankly back at her.
"No," I responded.
"Me neither," she smiled. "Let's check it out."
She turned back around and stepped along the right side of the sidewalk ahead, only pivoting toward the buildings next to us after a certain point. I quickly caught back up to her side and turned as well, now noticing that a propped open door sat in front of us, next to a large display window, which only actually displayed a small cardboard sign with the words 'taxidermy makes our earnings!' scribbled on it in red crayon.
Katie removed her sunglasses, collapsed them into her hand, and then made her way through the doorway to the store.
I squinted through the sunlight at the dark floor beyond the doorframe for a moment before following after her.
Once I had stepped inside, I glanced around at my surroundings.
I thought people only did taxidermy with deer heads, indoor cats, and pet dogs but, clearly, I was wrong.
Every single category, breed, and slight genetic difference of every non-extinct animal had become mummified, given a price tag, and placed onto a shelf somewhere in this room.
"Oh, look at this," Katie cooed, drawing my attention to where she stood, which was in the corner on the near right.
I paced up to her side and gazed downward at the creature in her palms.
A frozen blue jay with its wings spread completely outward and its beak in an open position.
"Oh, wow," I forced out, although my forged enthusiasm probably wasn't as convincing as it should have been.
Katie twisted the bird in her hands a moment more, and then set it back onto the glass cabinet top in front of herself. She turned to the left and began to walk farther into the store, so I did the same.
After just a step or two, though, she halted and pointed above her head.
"Oh, look," she urged as I glanced up at the unmoving spotted owl that hung from merely a thin string attached to a ceiling tile.
"Oh, my..." I, again, barely managed out.
Katie stepped forward, once more, and didn't stop again until we both reached the back-right corner of the shop, right next to a vacant glass sales counter.
"All of this stuff is crazy," she commented, now spinning around to head leftward.
"Oh, yeah, it's just..." I added as I stepped back to let her past my side. "It's insane, I mean, it's..."
I turned around to face a deceased cheetah pouncing toward me, its mouth forever stuck in a hungry growl.
"Yikes," I muttered.
I hurriedly turned toward Katie and followed her to the center aisle of the store, now noticing that two elderly men were conversing over a piece of... well, a dead animal for sale, I assume, near the other wall of the store.
"Could you lower it down a bit?" one of their voices inquired.
"Nah," the other replied. "Seven hundred is the lowest I go."
Katie made her way to the front of the store, walking more efficiently than before, and then turned back around to face me.
"Well, have you seen enough?" she asked.
"I've seen plenty," I shot back.
"Okay," she said with a smile, now beginning to exit the store.
Thank God.
Once I had also stepped back outside, I turned slightly to the right, somewhat in an attempt to shield my eyes from the blazing sun, but mostly because that was also the direction Katie began to move into. I watched her as she replaced her shades over her eyes and stepped along the sidewalk ahead, and then decided to do the same, minus the sunglass thing.
"Banana Republic, Forever 21, Bath and Body Works," Katie listed off as I stepped up to her side. "Marion's Furniture, Kaylee's Cupcakes..."
After hearing the final two foreign names, I glanced up, squinted desperately, and saw each of the names she had just read on signs hung over the pathway in front of us, each sticking out from a separate building.
Then, suddenly, Katie halted, let out a dramatic gasp, turned to me, grabbed both of my shoulders, and spun me toward herself.
"Mae," she began, an excited smile forming between her cheeks. "What if I got you a brand new pair of shoes?"
I studied her animated anticipation for a split second, and then forced out a tiny squeal of enthusiasm.
"Of course!" I replied.
"Woo-hoo!" she shouted, now seizing my left wrist and turning to jog along the sidewalk once more.
I hurried along behind her, not that I had much choice in the matter to not to, since she had a surprisingly strong grip on me. Soon enough, though, Katie swerved us to the right and came to a slight stop to let my hand go as well as open the glass door that we now stood in front of. As she did so, I glanced past her to take in the image of what must have been a billion rows of chest-high cabinets (well, chest-high to me) and the endless count of shoes in every different type and color that lined their tops.
As soon as Katie and I were both able to step inside the store, Katie turned to the right and rushed over to a section of footwear which was full of embellished heels and wedges.
"Oh, look at these," she cooed, now stepping down the row while her one hand ran gently across the tops of each of the shoes. "I haven't been able to wear anything like these out in a long time."
My eyes fell onto one red, shiny shoe with a flip flop-like structure and a stiletto on it that had to have been at least five inches high.
"I don't think I could ever walk in any of these," I commented.
Katie halted and looked back at me from over her shoulder.
"Have you ever tried?" she questioned.
I paused to think for a moment.
"I... can't remember," I eventually said.
Katie giggled.
"Oh, of course, Miss Amnesia," she laughed out.
She then twisted back around and stepped father into the store as I followed, both of us passing an older woman along the way.
"Well," she piped up, again, once we had reached the far end of our row. She reached down to grab the edge of the cabinet beside us, whipped herself around the corner of it, and then glanced over at me. "I know the exact kind of shoes you're gonna need."
I raised my eyebrows at her while she spun around and paced over to the next row. I stepped swiftly behind her, and then stopped at the same moment that she did, directly in front of a long arrangement of knee-high boots.
"These," she finished.
I looked from the organization of footwear to her focused expression.
"Um..." I began. "Isn't it a little... you know, hot... outside... to wear boots... right now?"
Katie gazed over at me and smiled.
"Yes, but..." she paused to pick up a brown boot with buckles and jewels embroidering its leg. "You know how much more stuff you can fit in these things?" She put the shoe back down and stepped back to look at the stack of orange-colored boxes underneath the countertop. "I mean, gadgets, and gizmos, and gear..." She turned back toward me as she completed her explanation. "It might be hot out, yes, but... suck it up, buttercup, you could really use a pair of these!"
I looked her over and tilted my head to the side.
I guess you couldn't argue much with that.
"Okay, now," she went on, grabbing a lone, black leathered stiletto boot with a three-inch heel and a long shoelace winding up its front. "Try this on."
"Uh, no, thank you," I stated, shaking my head.
"And why not?" she inquired, her eyes flickering over to mine. "What's wrong with it?"
I answered within, pretty much, a fiftieth of a second.
"Everything."
Katie smiled and rolled her eyes, now turning to pick up a different one.
"How about this one?" she asked, holding up a sleek, tan boot that was very similar to the last, except for the fact that it was plain and held no laces.
"No," I declared, a hint of stubbornness probably felt in my voice by now. "No heels."
Katie let out a sound of offense.
"Well," she started, stepping a little farther down the row. "You know what? You're gonna at least try a pair of heels on... whether you want to or not." She glanced at me from over her shoulder. "And, Little Miss Mae, at your height... you might find adding a few more inches could be to your benefit."
I pursed my lips and didn't respond.
"Now," she picked back up as she reached for a tall, shiny black boot with nothing on it but one zipper and the outline of a wedge-like heel on its bottom. "Try this one on. It's a wedge, so it's like a heel, but easier to walk in."
She twisted around and handed the shoe over to me. I looked it over in my hands for a second, and then stepped to the side and took a seat on a nearby cushioned stool.
"Is it the right size?" I asked, still closely studying it.
"Should be," Katie replied. "You wear a six, don't you?"
I set the shoe down on the floor underneath me and squinted up at her.
"How did you know what size I wear?"
Katie smiled, again, and crossed her arms.
"It was just a guess," she said.
I raised one eyebrow and lowered my expression back down to the shoe. I then kicked the plain grey flat I wore off of my right foot and proceeded to slip the long-legged boot over my bare toes. I leaned forward to zip up the tiny metal zipper on the side, and then threw my leg outward to observe the result.
"Here's the other one," Katie proclaimed, throwing the opposite boot down by my side.
I continued to put it on the other foot in a similar manner and, when I was ready, grabbed the edges of the chair underneath me, extended my arms, and pushed myself up to a stand.
"Walk over here," Katie ordered, pointing to the floor beside her, just a few feet away.
Putting one foot in front of the other, I did just that, and, afterward, glanced up at a waist-high mirror by her side.
I stepped back and admired the shiny knee-high boots that overlapped with my plain black leggings.
"Black on black," Katie observed. "I like it."
I turned in place a little and we both looked them over a few more moments, up until the point when Katie screeched with joy.
"Alright, let's get 'em!" she yelled.
I turned to face her as she tossed a large, light brown box into my direction. I caught it swiftly, and then made my way back over to the chair behind her. I proceeded to sit, remove the shoes, put them neatly back in their captivity, place my original shoes back on my feet, and follow Katie up to the front of the shop with the shoe box in-hand.
Once there, then, Katie walked up to a slightly messy countertop with a young, dark-skinned woman with large framed glasses behind it and swiped the box away from me.
"Did you find everything okay?" the woman politely inquired.
"Oh, yes, perfectly," Katie answered, handing her the box and removing her purse from her shoulder.
I turned to the right, leaned on one hip, and looked the rest of the store over as Katie continued to purchase the shoes.
"That'll be forty-five fifty-two," the woman's voice declared.
After a few more quick moments, I turned back to see Katie already taking a large plastic bag from the lady.
"Receipts in the bag; have a nice day," she concluded.
"Thank you," Katie said, now stepping aside to make her way to the door.
I followed after her and glanced down to read the words on the side of the bag, which seemed to read something like 'AS Shoes'.
"Okay, now," she spoke while she threw the door in front of us and stepped outside. "Food? Lunch?"
We both turned right and walked down the sidewalk beside the stores ahead.
"Yeah," I replied.
"Okay," Katie went on, now stepping to the left to enter a large area where two wide walkways crossed over each other. I followed after her and stared at the humongous coin fountain that sat in the very center of everything, one that seemed to have a broken top. "There's a nice little Chinese place over this way."
I glanced up at the moderate number of people that were either gathering around the water fountain or passing by like we currently were. I noted that there were many middle-aged women dressed in high-end clothing, a few men traveling alone in the same age group, and an endless count of young, full families.
I also witnessed a young man who did not seem to fit into any of the mentioned categories abruptly bump into an older woman from the opposite side of the fountain that was now near my side.
"Sorry, ma'm!" he yelled out while, at the same time, covering the receiver of the cell phone that he, apparently, was currently using.
The woman was forced to tumble backward a bit and dropped two of her shopping bags onto the ground below.
What a jerk.
The woman proceeded to bend down and retrieve her dropped items. The man also leaned down to, I guess, help her and placed his free hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, wanna throw in a coin?" Katie asked, suddenly stopping in front of me and turning around to show her usual subtle smile.
I threw my attention back over to her.
"Sure, yeah," I responded, forcing a tiny smile back at her.
She proceeded to pull her purse from her shoulder and rummage through it. At the same time as her diligent search, I stepped closer to the fountain and gazed back over at the scene of the man and middle-aged woman.
"No, it's fine," the woman said, a tad sourly, as she stood herself back up.
The young man stood up beside her and it was then that I realized he was slowly slipping his one hand out of her shoulder bag, something small clutched in it in the process.
I stared as the woman stormed off, away from the fountain, and while the man slipped the little something into his front jean pocket.
"Okay, I know I have change in here somewhere," Katie mumbled by my side. She then stepped forward and dropped her purse onto the concrete edge of the fountain in front of me to look more thoroughly through it.
I stepped back slightly, since she had kind of just obstructed my view of the suspicious man, and returned my eyes back onto him. I watched him closely as he put the phone back up to his ear, although he didn't speak another word into it, and turned around to walk more toward our side of the fountain.
Then, again, as he passed by another man who was occupied with holding a young child by the fountain's edge, he bumped into his side and removed his phone from the side of his face.
"Oh, sorry, sir," he apologized and, at the same moment the words left his mouth, his free hand quickly reached into the other man's back shorts pocket.
He whipped out a small brown wallet, twirled it around in his fingers, and then slid the money holder into his own back pocket.
"Oh, no, you're fine," the other man, completely oblivious, replied from over his shoulder.
"Oh, here's some dimes," Katie piped up, although I ignored my urge to respond to her.
Instead, I kept my focus on the young man that was returning his cell phone to his cheek and pacing this way.
"H-H..." I began to mumble, far too inaudibly to really do anything with.
Then, I saw the man turn slightly to his left and start to walk the opposite direction of the fountain.
"H... H..." I went on bumbling. I took a deep breath after a second, though, and then yelled out in his direction. "Hey!"
"Mae, what's wrong?" I could hear Katie inquire.
"H-Hang on," I muttered to her without taking my eyes away from the man. I then began to step into his direction, hurriedly. "Hey, you!"
When he didn't stop or turn around, I stepped a little more quickly,
"Hey!" I continued. "Hey, you, man, guy!"
Suddenly, he threw the phone down by his side and took off in a sprint down the sidewalk ahead.
Immediately, I fell into a run not too far behind him.
"Hey, stop!" I shouted, now chasing his footsteps. "Stop!"
He hurried along in a straight line, past a few stores, and then abruptly turned and flew around a corner of one of the buildings on the left side of the wide path.
I followed directly behind him, about ten feet away.
Once around the side of the store, I saw him run to the very end of the thin alleyway that I was now inside of. He turned to the right and disappeared once more, so I proceeded to do the same.
After that, I found myself on the backside of a long row of shops with nothing but a large, partially full parking lot on my left side. I sprinted on with as much strength as I had, which was actually a lot more than I had anticipated. After a few more short moments, I saw him turn right, again, around another corner. Once I reached that point, though, I paused to see him turn left at the end of another tiny alley, and then an idea managed to strike me.
I turned forward once again and took off, continuing to run along the backside of the buildings as fast as I possibly could. Then, once another alleyway reached my right side, I turned into it and rushed to the opposite end.
After that, I halted and twisted to the right, where the man was a mere few feet away from ramming into my side.
"Stop!" I reiterated, now turning toward him.
He caught sight of me, skidded to a stop, and then turned around to take off back the other way.
I lunged toward him and screeched out, again, this time letting my voice reach an unusually high pitch.
"Stop!"
Before he could even take three full steps away from me, though, I had reached his backside and made the decision to...
Well, I jumped onto him.
"Ugh!" I screamed out as I threw my arms over his shoulders and latched myself onto his back.
"Get off me!" he shouted out, whipping himself back and forth in an attempt to throw me off.
However, I wasn't planning on going anywhere.
"No! You..." my voice trailed as I thought of the real reason I was in this situation. "Y-You give back the stuff!"
"Get off!" he repeated, completely ignoring my requests.
My hands started to slip from the collarbone underneath his thin red tee shirt, so I threw both of my feet over his legs and pulled myself up to an almost piggy-back-like style of hold on him.
"Not... until..." I shakily yelled. "You... give back the money and... the stuff!"
I threw my head up as he twirled his body around once more and noticed that a crowd of people were running toward the two of us, a man in a security uniform at the front of it.
"Ugh!" he continued to shout out, now stepping backward and ramming his backside, a.k.a. me, into the brick wall of a building nearby.
"Ah!" I screamed, pulling myself further up on him at the same time rather than letting go.
He then grabbed at my hands and tried to pry them off of his shoulders.
Like I said, though, I wasn't planning on getting off of him just quite yet.
"Freeze!" a different male voice shouted out from close by.
However, neither I nor the man I was currently latched onto froze.
"Officer, help, she's attacking me!" he yelled.
Oh, please.
"He has stuff!" I shot out, currently unable to move my head into a position where I could see anything but the brown, shaggy hair on the back of the guy's head, since I was kind of slipping downward again.
"I said freeze!" the deep voice repeated, now much nearer than before.
And then, suddenly, the uniformed man appeared from around the, well, other man's side and looked directly at me.
"Miss, get down, please," he commanded, now grabbing at the man's upper arm.
I slowly slid myself down to the ground below.
"H-He has stuff!" I said to the security guard. "He stole people's stuff!"
"Is this true, sir?" the guard asked, turning to the man he held onto.
"No, I don't have any idea what she's talking about," he calmly stated.
"Check his pockets!" I ordered.
"She was attacking me, officer!" the man proclaimed, his words almost overlapping with mine.
The officer looked him over for one short second.
"She really was, I swear!" the man went on.
"Yeah, right," the security guard concluded.
"But you saw her, officer!"
While he spoke, I snuck one hand into his back pocket and slipped the brown wallet he had taken out of hiding.
"Here, he stole this," I claimed, now holding the holder out to the officer beside me. He looked over at me after I had spoken, and then took it from my hand.
He flipped it open with one hand and studied a few of its contents.
"Are you Bret Robinson?" he asked. "And six foot two with dark brown skin?"
He glanced up at the light-skinned man with a short stature that stood in front of him.
The man fell quiet for a second, and then piped up.
"Y-Yeah, I am."
I looked over at the officer as he rolled his eyes.
"Come on," he said, now stepped around his backside to retrieve both of his hands.
I walked around to his front and stepped a bit away from him. I glanced up at his face a moment and he looked back momentarily, although he swiped his eyes away quickly after.
"Thank you, miss," the guard spoke to me as he pushed the man over to his side. "You... You've got quite a lot of courage for... such a little lady."
He then turned around and guided the man down the sidewalk.
I twisted around as well and came face-to-face with a large, dismembering herd of people along with a glowing Katie.
"Good Lord, Mae," she commented to me as she stepped up to my side. "That was awesome, though, really."
She started to pace slowly down the sidewalk by the stores on the left and I followed quietly beside her.
"You know what else, though?" she continued to question. "Right when I saw you take off running after that guy, I threw my little dime into the fountain and thought to myself, 'I hope Mae isn't about to get herself killed or anything', and... I guess I must've got my wish!"
I let out a little giggle alongside her and came up with a reply but decided not to say it out loud.
Because I wished Ace could have been there to see me do that.
___
I took a deep breath as I bent over and tucked the top blanket neatly under the mattress by my waistline. I then stepped back a bit, snatched Moo-riah Carey from the ground by my feet, and placed her nicely on top of the covered pillow.
After that, I turned around, made my way past the organized desktop of the nearby dresser, across the clear floorboards, and over to the closed door of my bedroom. Once there, I drew it open, stepped into the hallway, turned right, and paced toward the propped open doorway at the very end of it.
"Good morning," I cheered as I stepped into the familiar kitchen area.
"Morning, Mae," Mel, more dryly, responded from the table on the right. I glanced over at her as she spoke and saw that both of her elbows were propped onto the tabletop, each one of her palms cradling her chin above them, and her eyes were glued to a thick stack of printed papers underneath herself.
"Pancake?" I could hear Katie question from my side. I looked over to her, then, to see her offering a Styrofoam plate with a round, flat brown cake the size of a baseball on it into my direction.
"Sure," I said, now taking the plate from her hands.
After that, she turned back around and continued some type of work at the counter beside herself. I decided to spin back toward Mel and step up to a chair across from her side.
"W