20 Weeks – Chapter 3 (Part 2)

20 Weeks – Chapter 3 (Part 2)
 

​     “Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?”  Garth Nix
 

“Oh, don’t look so pleased with yourself,” James told the smirking waitress, as he pretended to busy himself with nothing in particular.
 
Deedra, though, only looked thoughtful, for once.
 
“Tell me this James, how many times have you had to suck his dick in order to keep your job?”
 
James, his back already half-turned to the forty-something-year-old with the home dye-job and the one lazy eye, shook his head, as his only answer.
 
“That’s okay, I get it… you’re not his type.  But perhaps you should be asking yourself… how long before he replaces you with someone who is… and will?”
 
And with that, the vicious woman turned on a rubber heel and stormed away, obviously feeling victorious.
 
But James just felt like he suddenly needed a shower.
 
“You can’t keep denying it,” a bodiless head was saying from over Bijuu’s shoulder, just as she was asking the only folks seated in her section what they wanted to drink.
 
“The reason you’re so fucking horny all of the time.  The reason your pants no longer fit,” the punk-rock girl with the giant gunshot wound to the head said, louder this time, droning out the couple’s drink order, forcing Bijuu to ask them to repeat it.
 
“You are not being helpful,” she told her ghost in a harsh whisper, just as soon as she was able to without anyone else hearing, or seeing.
 
“I’m just trying to help you.  You know you need this job.  And you know why…” her ghost, now appearing with her full body, and minus the gaping head wound, said, as she hovered a few inches in front of the young woman.
 
“The reason your tits are getting so fucking massive,” the twenty-something murder victim continued, as she tweaked one of Bijuu’s nipples.
 
“Hey!” Bijuu said in a harsh whisper, hoping no one was listening.
 
“Bijuu… you’re pregnant, and you know it,” Nyx, the unhelpful ghost finally said, in plain English… when nothing else seemed to be getting through.
 
“So?” Bijuu replied, with a shake to her head.
 
“So I should go and suck that old geezers dick?  Is that what you’re trying to tell me?  Is that the best advice you’ve really got, given this entire situation?”  Bijuu asked of the woman, not caring anymore who could hear.
 
Nyx, though, for her part… just sort of hovered there.
 
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” she sniped, just before turning back to her one and only table.
 
Later, at closing time, James had to shoo off the only customer in the past 3 hours, who happened to be facedown in a pile of peanut shells.
 
“Look Bob, it’s time to go.  Go home to your family, for fuck’s sake,” he said, as he jabbed at the somewhat-smelly man with a dirty bar rag.
 
For his part, the befuddled man just looked up, a few peanut shells still stuck to his face, grunted… and then sauntered towards the door, without so much as a “Gracias”.
 
“Or better yet, go lay in the street,” James told the man’s backside, just as he was slipping through the side door.
 
“That’s cruel,” Bijuu told the man that was ten-years her senior, but only looked about five.
 
“If you ask me, they’re pretty fucking pointless,” Deedra said from somewhere behind them.
 
At that, both James and Bijuu turned and gave Deedra an odd look, neither of them understanding just what she was suddenly on about.
 
“Fathers…” she informed them both, shaking her head.  “Never really saw the point of them, myself.  My three kids have three different dads and not one of them stuck around to see them grow up.  And personally, I never needed them, and never will.”
 
And with that, she took off her apron, grabbed her purse from behind the bar, and then walked silently out the door.
 
“I mean, can you blame them?” James asked of Bijuu the second the door had closed behind her.
 
“I bet she wasn’t always like this,” Bijuu replied carefully.  “I bet something happened to make her this way.”
 
And then suddenly all she could feel was a giant lump forming in the back of her throat.
 
“Well I can’t argue with you there,” the handsome bartender told her, as one of his hands came up to take hold of her arm.  “Hey, will you finish stocking the cooler for me?” he asked.
 
“I’ve got a date.  I promise I’ll do all of your prep work tomorrow.”
 
Bijuu looked towards the closed office door, but none of the words she wanted to say would come out. 
 
Cuz they had all gotten lodged in that lump in her throat… the one that was slowly suffocating her.
 
And so she just nodded.
 
James, of course, smiled immediately, but some part of him also flinched without understanding exactly why.  And so he just ignored it, and her puppy-dog eyes that always seemed to be imploring ‘rescue’.
 
“Take care,” he told her.  “And listen…”
 
There was a pregnant pause where neither of them knew what he was gonna say next.
 
“Good luck,” he finally finished, lamely, just like a Captain America rescue.
 
Of course his smile was genuine, as well as the wish for luck, but… so was the pity.  And that cut through Bijuu worse than anything her horrible boss had done.
 
And then he was gone, and a moment later, as if on que, her nasty boss slithered from his office.
 
“Everyone gone home for the night?” he asked the young woman who was stocking the front beer cooler.
 
Bijuu though, could only nod.
 
“Good,” he said, as he slipped in behind her.
 
 
 
 
© Raena Exe 2020
ISBN   978-1-7332979-8-1
 
*All characters, places, and events are completely fictional.
*All rights reserved.