Hadrian's Wall (14 page)

I slammed the door behind me and breathed
deeply several times. Facing me, reflected in a large mirror
decorated with tiny lights like a cabaret dressing room, was a
ridiculous figure looking back at me with wide eyes. It was hard to
admit that I was looking at myself. I felt like the unluckiest girl
of the earth. Of all places, I had to find Cridder there!

Calm down, girl. Think
positive! Be careful or your UFO will be back to attack you
again
.

Wow! I hadn’t noticed it before, but a lot
of time had passed since I’d had any weird dreams or
hallucinations. The fatigue of my new job helped me sleep the sleep
of the dead. In other words, no more nightmares!

I moved slowly to the sink, thinking about
this for a moment. I looked at my reflection in the mirror and then
splashed water on my face to calm myself down, but all I managed to
achieve was smearing the makeup that Carmen had forced me to
use.

“What am I doing here?” I mumbled to
myself.

“Ah, there you are!” Carmen said, making her
way unsteadily into the bathroom. “Do you feel better?”

I felt that she was upset, probably because
she’d had to leave her boyfriend in the car.

“Yes,” I said.

“So, let’s go.” She quickly pulled me out
the door.

The music was so loud that it shook the
walls. I don’t know why the light bulbs didn’t burst like when the
opera tenor or soprano reached the fateful note. My ears were
unaccustomed to such noise. The pain was horrible. It was
incomprehensible that anyone would think this was entertainment,
but people were cramming themselves onto the dance floor as if they
were loving it. I was astonished at the way as their bodies
suggestively entwined. Colored lights nervously flashed on them and
throughout the club. I looked around, distracted by the noise and
the lighting. My eyes finally came to rest and I could clearly see
someone staring at me from across the room—Simon Cridder.

* * *

On Monday, I received my work schedule for
the entire week. I was dismayed because I would have to work the
night shift. Carmen gave me some recommendations about working the
night shift. She said that two employees were assigned for this
schedule. I felt relieved to know I would not be alone.

My shift began at 10 p.m. after the store
closed. The staff access door was always locked. The key card was
my responsibility even though had to work with another employee.
There would be two guards at the guardhouse, watching everything on
monitors which received images captured by cameras inside.

“It won’t be so bad,” Carmen said. “After
you restock the shelves and clean the floor, the rest of the night
will be easy. You’ll be able to snooze in the employee’s lounge or
watch TV, if you’d prefer to do that.”

“Cool!” I tried to sound enthusiastic, but
the truth was that I felt unaccountably nervous—not because of the
work, but because the store would be virtually deserted at
night.

Earlier, I’d met Stan at the diner near the
store. He was the only colleague that I met outside of work other
than Carmen. Too bad he was so shy. If he’d invited me to leave
with him, I would have had an excuse not to go to that damn rave
party with Carmen and I would have avoided the unpleasant incident
at the nightclub. Fortunately, my curiosity about the virtual world
brought us together. Stan had proven to be a great teacher and in
his spare time, he helped me a lot with my interests.

He gave the waitress his sandwich order and
then handed me a small object that he called a USB flashdrive.

I’d mentioned to him that I wanted to
download some interesting files from the Internet and he suggested
a USB flash drive as an alternative. Now I was face to face with
that strange little device. Stan quickly explained its purpose, how
to use it, and its storage capacity. I didn’t expect him to give it
to me as a gift when he said, “You’ll be surprised. I found
everything that you asked for in your wish list—even the prints and
photos. Enjoy!”

“How did you fit everything on here?” I
expected him to burn a CD or DVD.

“Mel...eight gigabytes is space that never
ends. Look, I almost filled your new flash drive. I took liberty of
adding some songs for you pass to your MP3 or iPod in the
future.

Of course I liked music, but my preference
would seem pretty weird to others. (I wanted TV series openings and
closing credits of films, but Stan didn’t need to know about my
oddities.

“Yes, because you’ll need an iPod soon. It’s
time to correct your ‘digital illiteracy’.”

I laughed. So I’m a digital illiterate! It’s
true, I knew so little of these matters. MP3, MP4, MP7 were just
letters and numbers to me.

“Oh, you must have had to work hard to find
all this. How much do I owe you?”

“Nah! No way!” He laughed. “You owe me
nothing! I love to surf the Net. I even learned a few new,
interesting ways to look up your things.”

“Thanks!” I said, laughing with him.

“Did you know there are communities that
discuss the themes that fascinate you so much?”

I stared at him. “Really? I heard that
social networking members only chat with folks like
themselves.”

“That’s a myth. You can find anything on the
Net if you know how to search. You know, Mel, people say that the
Internet teaches young people nonsense, but in my opinion, it’s not
good or bad. The use you make of it is what changes everything.
It’s just a tool, like any other. The person must have a good head
to use it. They must think critically and not believe everything
they find. Have you ever participated in any community?”

I shook my head ‘no.’

“In fact, the orphanage’s computer was so
old that I had no ability to access most websites. Others were
blocked. The only place where I had a little more freedom to
navigate was at school.”

“If you want, Mel, I can teach you how to
use some cool tools. You can post your stuff, you can come up with
a blog, set up a panel to create mailing lists, even publish your
drawings! Anyway, the network provides several features. You could
make money from it and extra income is always welcome. This is what
I do on my own once in a while.”

He smiled and gently pushed a lock of my
hair behind my ear. “I’ll let you use one of the department store’s
computers some time, but you have to do it outside of business
hours. My boss can’t know about it,” he said. “Deal?”

“Deal!”

I was very excited just imagining the
possibilities he’d mentioned. It was nice of him to teach me to
explore them. I didn’t know what he intended to gain in return.
Again, my suspicions assailed me.

Shut up, girl! Stan is a nice guy.

I really wanted to believe it.

4

HORROR MOVIE

It was about quarter to ten when I walked
past the security guard shack in the parking lot on my way to the
“Employees Only” entrance. The mall cops greeted me and I nodded. I
didn’t want to talk with Cridder’s subordinates. I held my access
card tightly in my hand to avoid any incident during the short walk
between the entrance door and the service elevator.

The corridor was dimly lit. The overhead
light fixture was buzzing, indicating that the bulb needed to be
replaced. I thought I’d forgotten to lock the door behind me, so I
backtracked a few steps to test the knob. I had locked it, so I
could breathe easier while I making my way to the elevator. The
doors opened quietly and I stepped inside, looking around for the
control panel. I pressed the button for the third floor and waited
for the elevator doors to close.

The soft background music distracted me. I
tried to guess the name of the vocalist, but couldn’t. The doors
opened. I stepped out into a hallway that overlooked the
merchandise storage area. Some lights were on and the same
background music was blaring from the intercom speakers at a louder
volume. This meant that some sectors were still operating while
staff members were gradually closing things down for the night. It
wasn’t long before only the small central core of the shop remained
lighted.

The store was like a
mausoleum at night—very different than working the day shift. I was
so distracted by the difference in the environment that I was
startled when one of saleswomen crossed my path as she headed to
the elevator. Of course, I was just another cleaning girl, but it
seemed like she didn’t even notice me!

Cleaning girl?
Suddenly I remembered that I’d forgotten my
cleaning supplies and needed to go back downstairs to get them. I
retraced my steps to lower floor, trying not to scold myself for
making the mistake.

When I returned armed with mop, brush, soap,
bucket, and plastic garbage bag, I noticed that the background
music had ceased. The silence of the enormous area was eerie. I
shuddered, but then got right to work.

Even though I had checked
to make sure that Simon Cridder was not working the night shift,
something told me that he always had eyes and ears
h
ere even when he wasn’t on the premises.
Paranoia, I know, but there were surveillance cameras installed at
strategic locations throughout the store which he could use to spy
on me. I just wanted to finish my work quickly and then hide.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t do that
as there
was at lot of merchandise in disarray. I found pillows that
belonged in the bed-and-bath section abandoned on the shelf
designated for pet products. I gathered up several toys that
belonged in the ground floor toy department and set them near the
main elevator and then returned to inspect the aisles. After
removing anything that would hinder my progress, I began mopping
the floor.

Twenty minutes past
midnight. I was almost finished. All that remained was the men’s
room.
Yuck!

I heard a noise, something sliding down,
followed by a sharp clink. I craned my neck to peek around the tall
merchandise shelves. I saw no one, but then I noticed that the
elevator’s up/down indicator arrow was flashing. It felt like my
heart leapt out of my chest when a harsh, metallic roar sliced
through the stillness. Chills ran down my spine. I forced myself to
walk to the panoramic window overlooking the main floor, letting my
eyes scour the dark landscape. The sound seemed to come from the
woods beyond the parking lot.

The roar was not repeated, so I convinced
myself that it was just my imagination running wild. When I turned
around, there he was, standing in the hallway, completely immobile.
His arms were folded across his enormous chest in a relaxed, yet
threatening posture. Simon Cridder. The face of a predator.

I didn’t move, but I
subconsciously clutched the handle of the mop so hard that felt
pain in my fingertips. I didn’t ask the classic stupid questions
that the girl in the horror movie always asked just before being
attacked or mutilated and chopped into pieces.
What do you want? What are you going to do to me?

Instinctively, I knew what he wanted. What I
needed now was time.

“So...do you work the nightshift too?” I
said, trying to seem natural.

He smiled. I thought he wouldn’t respond,
but he surprised me when he replied. “Pays better...time and a
half. I replaced Harrison today.”

“Oh...”
Now what? “
Hey! Did you heard the
roar out there?” I asked, stupidly pointing to the window behind
me, without take my eyes off him.

Cridder laughed and scratched his chin. “Uh
huh... nice try. In fact, you’re very good with distractions.
You’re not sick this time, are you?”

“Well, now that you mention...”

“There’s no escape...nobody to stop us,
honey.”

I swallowed, but something came to my mind.
My voice sounded more confident than I felt. “Actually, there
is...” I said, pointing to the security cameras.

He laughed. “Who? Peter and Jackson? They
even made a bet...”

“Bet?” I squeezed the mop handle, preparing
for the worst. I startled myself when I backed into the
shelves.

“Yeah...about the color of
your panties,” he replied with an evil
smile, like the character i
n “Tales
From the Crypt
.
”

I don’t know if fear gave
me strength, but that’s what it must have been. I’d heard about
weaklings who in time of need had moved an object ten times heavier
than their own body weight. Later, I gave myself the benefit of the
doubt, thinking about how I’d accomplished such a feat. All I could
think of was how to give myself an edge—one extra minute to get
away. With all my strength, I pulled on the upper merchandise
shelves. At first, the mobile display leaned toward us and I
thought it wasn’t going to budge, but suddenly everything fell
directly onto Cridder’s head and knocked him to the floor. The
crashing sound echoed throughout the store.

I didn’t stop to check the
damage. I ran toward
the main elevator
which was still open with the down arrow flashing. My brain was
working furiously, thinking about escape routes...
windows...doors...car? I’d read on the Internet that it had to do
with adrenaline discharge.
Shit twice, I
don’t drive!

I pressed the button for
the ground floor and instinctively looked up at the security camera
before the doors closed. I was sure they were both watching me. If
they caught me, would they put the videos on the Internet to make
it look like I’d consented to this barbarity? Or worse...maybe
they’ll save the images to blackmail me so I won’t go to the
police.
What should I do?