CHAPTER 9
Alice could feel her heart beat rapidly against her chest. She was trying to keep it together to prevent any unwanted perspiration that would subsequently give Dirty Bird the ability to creep up on her. Although she admired him she already had him pegged as one of those Hanibal Lecter type basking in the smell of human scent looking for some interesting scrumptious spoor trail to follow. Heebie Jeebies is how the other girls described the vibes they felt being in Dirty Bird's presence. It was as if nobody ever fully understood his handicap because in reality it was far far far from ostensible.
It was midday afternoon at the mall and not many shoppers milling around. Alice was not surprised to see the regular weekday afternoon crowd. Retired old people that were still too much of a miser to utilize heating and air conditioning in their own homes.....and yes....the typical gothic teenagers playing hookie from school because we lived in times now where both parents worked making it all the more easier for the rebellious teenagers.
As Alice passed a small book store in the mall she caught a glimpse of a tall thin man in a long black suit wearing an expensive looking hat that looked like it had been stolen from Sherlock Holmes. Bob Miller? Was she glancing at the back side of Dirty Bird? It was so hard to keep up with him because over the past ten years he kept changing his shape as if he had the gift to dictate his bodily figure at all times. She preferred Dirty Bird harmless and fat. So did the other girls for that matter. It always seemed like Dirty Bird turned into a short tempered loose cannon when he would get too crazy with his weight loss kicks. How did that Seether band song go? Isolate and Medicate? Words well spoken.
Her cellphone buzzed giving her quite a startle but when she saw Matty's number show up on her caller ID it put her mind at ease.
"Yes Matty I'm here."
"Oh hey Alice....I'm getting faster at this. Only took me thirty minutes but I'm pretty sure I have it narrowed down."
Alice could hear the excitement in his voice as if solving the Rubik's cube for the first time.
"Ok...what store am I looking for?"
"I'm not convinced that it is a store."
"Huh?" Alice was confused.
"The GPS coordinates I came up with put you smack down in the middle of three stores."
"Huh?"
"The Boscovs, Dollar Deals, and Shoes For Less. Isn't the wishing fountain smack dab in the middle of all those stores?" Panic ensued for Alice. "Oh shit! Don't tell me this is gonna turn into some lame ass Prison Break wanna be tv show where I'm supposed to be dipping into a kiddie pool to drown out any listening devices."
She could hear Matty giggling over the phone. He couldn't help himself but tease her just a bit. "Hey Alice....Bug Big Time!"
As Alice made her way to the Boscovs wing she ended up cupping her mouth at Matty's comment. "Oh my gosh who told you about Bug- Big-Time? That's an old school saying from the nineties. You're not old enough for that!"
Matty continued giggling this way until his Dockers shirt tail popped out. "Hey Alice I gotta go"...he giggled some more...."good luck with your mystery"...he didn't know anything about Dirty Bird or what he was up to but he had to rub it in one last time...."Bug Big Time"...."Alice"... He articulated..."B-U-G B-I-G Time!" And he hung up the phone.