The Crab Man Chapter 3
“I’m making the call. I’m making the call it’s my job I don’t care what you say!” Hissed Kim.
“Why?” Asked Rob. A newbie employee to the sporting goods store.
The assistant manager pointed to the red sign just below the cash register.
“You don’t see that sign? It says if you see anything suspicious to call that number!”
Dumb Dumb Rob defended me. “He didn’t buy any guns. All he bought was thermoses.”
Kim rolled her eyes in disbelief. If was as if she just didn’t want to deal with someone so stupid today.
She whipped her strawberry blonde hair aside as she always did right before she wanted to make a point.
“Yeah like ten of them. Top of the line Stanley. Vacuum sealed. And YOU sold them to him and I watched him pay cash.”
Rob didn’t want to admit to making a mistake. “Ah I’ve seen Bob in here before he’s no threat to nobody. Just a reclusive weirdo with some really strange nervous ticks.”
“How do you even know his real name is Bob did you check his ID?”
Rob stopped her right there. “Ok….first of all…I may not know as much as you but I’m 100% positive an ID isn’t needed to buy thermoses.”
“So how do you know his name?”
Acne faced Rob chuckled. “Cuz he had a red hello my name is Bob sticker right on his shirt!”
Kim let out a long sigh. “Yeah and if you didn’t notice it was like he knew he was being watched. You didn’t find it odd that he scrutinized the entire store but purposely avoided the gun section?”
Rob shrugged his shoulders. “So?”
“What did he say he needed that many vacuum sealed thermoses for?”
Rob chuckled. “Oh he had a story alright.”
Kim placed her hands on her hips to speed things up. “Go on.”
“He said he needed them to protect himself from the Crab Man.”
Kim couldn’t hold back any longer. She started to dial the number on the sign.
Rob tried to stop her. “What are you doing Kim?”
She had time to reply to him as it dialed.
“Really Rob? A boat load of vacuum sealed thermoses, cash, and now a bull shit story about a Crab Man comic book villain that nobody ever heard of?”
Rob fished for answers. “First of all how do you know that the Crab Man is a villain and not a hero? I think I may have once heard about the Crab Man.”
Kim wouldn’t give up. “Oh really? Then what does the Crab Man look like?”
The glimmer in his eyes suggested he was lying and giving her a fish story just to get a rise out of her. He even went as far to use his hands and making strong pinching motions.
Rob teased her. “Oh you know…EVERYBODY that studies their comic books know about the Crab Man and his vice grip pincher claws.”
Rob inched closer towards her to scare her as he described the Crab Man while making pinching motions at her. “He black with them dread locks and built like an NFL wide receiver. Get stuck in his pincher claws and look out!”
Rob grabbed her arm and gave a good crab squeeze but not enough to cause serious pain.
Kim broke her arm free and hissed while the phone dropped to the floor.
“Rob that’s not funny you scared me!”
As the phone lay on the floor the other end evidently finally answered the phone. They both stared at the phone as a female voice emanated from the phone’s speaker.
“Hello? Is everything in there okay? Are you guys getting robbed”
Rob grabbed the phone up from the floor and defended me for the very last time.
“No, no robbery here mam everything is okay. I’m a new employee here and just accidentally dialed the wrong number.”
Rob hung up the phone and looked at Kim as she regained her composure.
“I could have you fired. You’re only defending him because he has the same name as you.”
Rob wasn’t intimidated at the thought of losing a job that only paid $9 an hour. He always showed up to work on time and knew that they desperately needed him.
He pinched his claws at her one last time just to get one more rise out of her.
“C-r-r-r-r-a-a-b-b Man!”