CHAPTER 10
There were a few retired couples sucking up the free wifi but other than that Alice felt mostly alone in her Wonderland at the mall. Although she could not see him, Alice could feel Dirty Bird's spoor wafting and dancing throughout the air. It was as though his uncanny energy that he often exuded was heavy enough to tickle her nose and make her sneeze. When she finally arrived at the wishing fountain she paid no attention to the shiny pennies inside but rather sat at the golden bench in front of it to unlace her shoes just in case.
As soon as she bent over to reach for her right shoe her cellphone vibrated once again. She half heartily tugged on a knot before she answered for she did not recognize the out of state number showing on her screen.She left the shoelace alone and answered it on the third ring.
"Hello Alice....were you hoping for a robotic voice?"
Alice immediately recognized Bob Miller's voice. "Bob?"
"Yes Alice how are we doing today?" Spoke Dirty Bird softly into the phone.
Alice got straight to the point."You're not seriously gonna blow this mall up are you? I like to do a lot of my shopping here."
The accusation totally caught Bob off of his rocker. "Huh?
Where did that idea come from?"
Alice held the phone a little closer to her mouth so he could hear. "The GPS coordinates your so called messenger sent me...it leads to this mall."
"Yeah and so?"
"I dunno...you always seemed to have a short fuse and you seem like the type that gets ripped off a lot so I was just putting two and two together."
Dirty Bird chuckled into the phone. "Oh my girl you crack me up....listen I'm really pushed for time and I have a ton of work to do back at the Island."
Alice cut him off. "Island? What Island?"
"You haven't seen the latest issue of Forbes magazine?"
Alice shook her head no as if she was still convinced Dirty Bird was secretly watching her somehow. If he wasn't in this mall then maybe he was spying on her via an internet drone of some sort. "You know I don't read those kind of magazines....what's this all about?"
"Miller Island...next to the Cayman Islands....I own it...I'd like you to come work at the Swendy's on my Island."
Alice was confused. "Swendy's? Don't you mean Wendy's?"
Dirty Bird cleared his throat. "Copyright laws luv...my fast food restaurant is very much quasi of the restaurant you already work...hey I really am pushed for time and it would take at least an hour to explain everything to you."
"So you're not going to blow up the mall?"
Bob couldn't help but giggle. "No of course not where would I shop? the goodwill? Listen luv before you leave I think you might want to rub your cute little Wendy's paw underneath the golden bench and look for a quiet seat prize...call me tomorrow at this number luv." Dirty Bird hung up the phone.
It didn't take long for Alice to add the strange out of state number to her contact list. Out of sheer humor rather than list him as his current government name "Bob Miller" she plugged him into her contact list under the D section for "Dirty Bird".
When she finished she couldn't believe that she had momentarily forgotten his mentioning of a...did he say...quiet seat prize?
Alice slid her cute lil chubby hand underneath the bench and grossed herself out when she felt it rub up against a piece of hairy chewing gum. She groped around a little more down there until she felt something that felt papery. An envelope?
She gave it a lil tug and sure enough she was holding onto a small Manila envelope that had been taped underneath the bench. This scene reminded her of her tweenie Bop years as a kid digging under the car seat for some lose quarters with hopes there would be enough for a pop.
The envelope even had her name "Alice" scrawled onto the front of it with the "i" ostensibly representing the "devils teardrop" probably cuz Dirty Bird wanted to be a show off from all the mystery books he had read over the years and be a smart ass thinking she'd be impressed by his penmanship. Her jaw dropped when she released the contents of the envelope onto her lap. 5 one hundred dollar bills, a plane ticket to Florida, and a brochure for Miller Island?
Alice was completely enthralled. The crisp Benjamins in her hands solidified the FaceBook rumors about Dirty Bird sitting on a winning powerball ticket for all those years. Such a strange fellow he was. Not much of a materialistic kind of guy but loved his local library. She had always heard the saying "Speak softly and carry a big stick" but when it came to Dirty Bird he had a mantra all of his own...."Pack lightly and carry a big checkbook" was pretty much the way he always lived. Rumors had it that for nearly all of the years of his life all of his personal belongings could all fit into a bed sheet if he really wanted to.
The brochure advertising Miller Island was made from high grade paper like you see at fancy weddings. Alice was completely captivated by everything she saw in the brochure. It made Las Vegas look like just another Ronald McDonald playground short of some balls in the play pen. As she leafed through the brochure she stopped at a picture showing a water slide going right over the blackjack tables at Miller Island Casino.
By the time Alice finished looking over the brochure promising her free 68 degree lodging year round for the employees she only had one question left unanswered....When can she sign up?