As jobs went, it wasn’t horrible. She’d had worse. She’d had better. She wasn’t planning on making a career out of it, but it paid the bills for the time being. The only bad thing about it was that it could be dull and, when she was in the wrong frame of mind, a single shift could last thirty or forty hours.
Today felt like it would be one of those days.
After being trapped for four days and change in her apartment, she wasn’t ready to be trapped in a bigger room. She also didn’t feel like calling in sick because that would inevitably lead to questions. Where had she been? Why hadn’t she called in? And so on.
It would almost be easier to go in to work and pretend she hadn’t even missed. Except that even if she was willing to pretend, no one else would be. The same questions would still be waiting. Why is there a hairy green monster following you?
Oh, just something I picked up at the nexus of realities, she would reply. Can I help you with a coat?
She supposed she could have just skipped today and not called, but that wasn’t the way she was hardwired. It was against her character to miss work four days in a row without letting someone know.
A glance at the clock confirmed she had two minutes before having to get up and get ready. She lay in bed and wished there were a way to miss and not call in and avoid the various hassles awaiting her on each and every path before her.
The phone rang in the other room. She was slow to answer it because she had to move the dresser blocking her door. The door didn’t have a lock, and she didn’t trust Vom to stay in control of his appetites while she slept. By the time she moved the dresser out of the way he had already answered the phone.
“Hello. Yes, yes. Oh really?” He listened, making generic I’m listening sounds to confirm this to both her and the person on the other end of the phone. “Okay. I’ll tell her. No problem.”
He hung up.
“There was a fire at the store,” he said.
“Oh my… was anyone hurt?”
Vom shrugged. “Didn’t say. Just said you don’t have to bother coming in today.”
She leaned against the wall and absorbed the news. On the bright side, her work problem was solved.
“Wait. I just moved in, and I haven’t talked to anyone yet. How did they get this number? Even I don’t know it yet.”
Vom shrugged again, but she could tell he was holding out on her. Even though he didn’t have any eyes, his mouths pursed suspiciously. She could feel he was lying to her. Probably part of that psychic bond they shared.
He withered beneath her glare.
“You’d probably call it magic. Or sorcery. Or wizardry. Or majik with a j and a k. Though I’ve always found that pretentious and unnecessary.”
“Okay, so now you’re telling me I have magical powers.”
“It’s just a side effect of straddling multiple floors of reality. Any intelligent being can do it, provided they have the will and desire. Also, you need a conduit to gather the appropriate metaphysical charge and—”
“Stop.”
“What? Too technical again?”
“I’m sure you have a great metaphorical explanation you could give me, but it’ll just be more mumbo jumbo that I really don’t understand.”
“You wished not to go to work. Magic took care of that for you.”
“I didn’t wish for a fire.”
“You didn’t not wish for a fire.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Unguided reality manipulation will always take the path of least resistance. Since you didn’t specify the details, you can hardly be upset by the results.”
She hastily threw on some clothes, not bothering to shower.
“Where are you going?” asked Vom.
“To the store,” she said.
“I thought you didn’t want to go to the store.”
“I didn’t, but if I started a magic fire that killed somebody, I need to know.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why do you need to know?” asked Vom.
“Because it’s important.”
“It’s important to know if you killed someone?”
“Yes.”
“And why is that?”
“Because I couldn’t live with myself if I did.”
Vom nodded. “Then why would you want to know?”
Diana said, “You don’t understand.”
“Oh, I understand. You may have killed someone by accident and now you think it’ll make things better to torture yourself about it. Just because I don’t agree with it doesn’t mean I can’t understand it.”
“We can’t all be amoral monsters with a complete indifference to human life.”
“I’m not indifferent to human life as a whole,” he said. “Just individual ones.”
“My mistake. I’m going. You stay here.”
Vom snarled. “I’m a cosmic entity. Not a puppy.”
“Just do me a favor,” she said. “Try not to chew on the furniture.”
He grinned. “I promise nothing.”
Diana rushed to the store, stopping only for a coffee and a bagel. When she was almost there she realized that seeing the fire wouldn’t answer any questions. By then she was less concerned with the possible body count and just determined to see what the results of her careless wish might be. She envisioned the entire department store burned to the ground. Then, worrying that perhaps imagining something like that would make it happen, she did her best to wipe the image from her mind. But it was like asking herself not to think about a pink dinosaur. Once the idea was introduced it uldn’t be removed.
She should’ve taken the time to listen to Vom’s explanation. If she did have magical powers now, it was probably smart to understand them.
The department store had not been destroyed. closed for repairs read a sign on the door. She peered through the windows and, while the coat section wasn’t visible from outside, she could see that most of the visible smoke damage was in that general area. The store was still standing, and it didn’t look as if the fire department had had to soak the place down to stop the fire from spreading.
“Pretty bad, huh?” asked Wendall from behind her.
She turned toward him. He worked in housewares. Wendall was short, a little chubby, with curly hair and a perpetual smile. Always cheerful. Sometimes too much so. They hadn’t talked much, but she liked him in a pleasant, casualacquaintance way.
“Had to come and see for yourself, huh?” He joined her at the window. “Me too.”
“Do they know how it happened?” she asked.
“They think it was an electrical short. You know how old the wiring is in this place. Thank God, nobody was hurt.”
She breathed an inner sigh of relief.
“They say it’ll probably take a week or two to fix the damage,” he said. “Say, you want to go get a cup of coffee or something?”
“Actually, I just had some coffee,” she replied.
“There’s a great little bagel place just around the corner,” he said.
“Uh, I just…”
“My treat.”
Wendall grinned at her. He had a crush on her. Possibly. It wasn’t easy to tell because he was always so friendly, but he was that special brand of nice guy who was so used to being overlooked that any woman who acknowledged his existence became attractive by default. Or maybe she was just flattering herself. Maybe he was just being friendly again.
“Yeah, sure.”
She figured it couldn’t hurt to spend some time with a regular, non-world-devouring person, and Wendall was as ordinary as reality could get.