Chapter Two: Bad Day

Sage glanced at the clock on the dash as she pulled into her parking spot at the local dollar store where she was a cashier. She was ten minutes late. Slinging her purse over her shoulder, she said a silent prayer that her boss would let it slide. The pay was crap and most days her boss was a complete ass, but she couldn’t afford to lose this job. There’s no telling when or if she’d be able to find another one. Businesses along Main Street were closing left and right. Those that managed to keep their doors open were often laying off employees. She kicked herself for not going to college after high school like her parents had wanted, though she had her doubts lately if that would make much of a difference in this economy.

Sage breathed a sigh of relief as she pulled the door open and peeked by the register. She didn’t see her boss in the area and hoped that meant he hadn’t noticed she was late yet. She half walked, half jogged down the far left aisle on her way to the backroom to clock in. Just as she was about to reach the door way her boss stepped out with his arms crossed over his chest. The look he gave her reminded her of the cartoons she watched as a kid where a character would get so mad smoke would come out of their ears. He was not happy with her one bit.

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Fritz, I-“

Mr. Fritz cut her off before she could finish explaining, “Save it Sage. I don’t want to hear your flimsy excuses. I warned you last time you were late that if it happened again you were gone. I’m not your friend, I’m here to make money and I can’t do that when I don’t have a cashier.”

“But I was only a few minutes late.”

“Don’t be stupid girl, haven’t you heard the expression ‘time is money’? Just before you walked through the door a couple of grannies walked out when they saw no one was at the counter. For all you know they could have been big spenders!” Mr. Fritz sneered at her.

Not likely, Sage thought, how much could two little old ladies possibly spend in a dollar store? Besides, she hadn’t seen anyone near the store as she was pulling in. He was probably lying to her just because he could. She didn’t think it would help but decided to try pleading with him, she just couldn’t lose her job. “Please Mr. Fitz, I promise it won’t happen again. I really need this job.”

“What do I look like to you, a charity? Just how many chances am I suppose to give you? You obviously have better things to do than come to work. And I’m sure there are plenty of others out there who ‘need’ this job too. Ones who will be glad to have it and show up on time.”

“Fine,” Sage replied. With that she turned and started walking towards the exit.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Mr. Fitz asked as he grabbed her arm.

“Umm…you just fired me, remember?” Sage said through gritted teeth as she removed his hand from her arm.

“Yeah but I need you to finish the shift. How was I suppose to know I’d have to fire you today? Now hurry up and get over to the register.”

Sage couldn’t believe her ears. He wanted her to finish working the day, after the insults? What the hell was this guy thinking? You don’t fire someone and then expect them to finish out the day.

“Screw you, Mr. Fitz. Work the register your damned self!” Sage had been wanting to tell him that for months but couldn’t risk it until now. With that she turned and walked out the door leaving Mr. Fitz’s jaw dropped as he stared after her.

The high Sage got from telling Mr. Fritz off didn’t last long. As she got into her car she began to wonder what the hell she was going to do now. For months she had been keeping an eye out for other job openings in the hopes she could quit but hadn’t seen anything in paper that didn’t resemble illegal or unsavory activity. Sure there were a few listings for “dancers wanted” at the local clubs but that really wasn’t something she could ever see herself doing.

She decided to call her friend Lila and see if she could meet up for coffee or lunch later. Sage hoped Lila could look at the paperwork in the packet she received and tell her if it was some sick prank or not. When she reached Lila’s voicemail she left a message and decided to head home until she heard back from her. She knew the responsible thing to do would be to check the job listings one more time just in case something had been posted in the last couple days. Perhaps after that she might even go for an extra run today to blow off some steam.

As she headed home, Sage drove on auto-pilot. Her mind was occupied with thoughts of the mysterious packet, her possible twin sister, and the loss of her job. A car horn behind her jarred her from her thoughts and she realized the light had changed to green. Thank goodness the roads were pretty empty, otherwise she might have wrecked. She just couldn’t concentrate and she had a pretty good feeling she wouldn’t be able to until the mystery was solved.

She decided to just stop by Lila’s work, at least she could drop the legal stuff off for her to look through whenever she got a chance. They could always meet up after she got off work. It would probably be quicker that way, and Lila should have some idea about the papers by the time they met up. With that thought she did a U-turn at the next intersection and headed towards the attorney’s office where Lila worked.

When Sage got to the law office, Lila still hadn’t finished her meeting so she just left the paperwork with the secretary and a message for Lila to call her as soon as she could. She really hoped that Lila would be able to make sense of it all. The more Sage thought about it, the less it felt like a birthday prank planned by her friends. It just went a bit too far for it to by them. They weren’t usually the pranking type. It had definitely been an odd day so far.

As she left the law office, Sage decided to hang around town for a bit in case Lila got done soon. Otherwise she’d have to head right back into town. With prices the way they were and her new unemployed status, she really couldn’t afford to waste the gas. She remembered there was a book store down the street and decided to see if she could find a book to keep her company for a bit. Sage loved to read as a teen but hadn’t really had the time for it since her parents died. It was definitely something she missed. Well I should have time to read a few books now that I don’t have a job, she thought to herself bitterly.

As Sage walked into the bookstore, she smelled the all too familiar scent of old books. E-readers might be one of the newest gadgets around, but there was nothing like the feel and smell of a book that had weathered time. She just couldn’t see herself giving that up. Though she had to admit being able to carry hundreds, even thousands of books in something that weighed less than a paperback did have some appeal.

A woman’s head poked around one of the shelves and asked, “Welcome to The Story House. Looking for anything in particular?”

“Not really, just kinda browsing. Haven’t had much chance to read lately.”

The head disappeared for a moment before the clerk walked out from where she had been restocking the shelf. “I might be able to help you find a few books you’ll like. You have a favorite genre or author?”

Sage thought for a moment before replying, “Well I like fantasy novels. That and books with vampires, witches, and things like that.”

The clerk, Emma according to her name tag, swept a lock of gray hair out of her face. She motioned for Sage to follow her towards the back of the store. “Well then, you are in luck. We have quite a collection of both. We even have some that are older and out of print.”

Emma led Sage through several aisles of book filled shelves until they reached a little cubby in the back of the store. There was a coffee table as well as several over-sized chairs covered in various fabrics, none of which matched the others. Next to a couple of the chairs were end tables with a lamp and two drink coasters each.

“Feel free to bring a few books over here. Sit and browse through them I’m sure something will tickle your fancy.” Emma nodded towards the chairs before making a grand sweeping gesture, not unlike the one models on the TV game show The Price is Right make. “And here we have quite a few paranormal books I think you’d enjoy.”

Sage glanced at the shelves Emma indicated. Most of the books were fairly new with flashy covers, but the bottom row housed several older books. The covers were simple, yet elegant, with gold or silver designs over a solid color. No pictures to distract the eye, just the title and author’s name. These were the books that held Sage’s attention, almost as though they were a treasure she’d discovered. She knelt down to get a better look at them.

“I’ll leave you to it then. Let me know if there’s anything else you need.”

Before Sage could turn around to thank her, Emma had already disappeared behind the next row of bookshelves. Sage turned her attention back to the books on the bottom shelf. She ran her fingers across the spines before grabbing an armful to take back to the reading cubby.

She settled into a black and red plaid covered chair and opened the first book from the stack. It was mostly about ghosts and how to get rid of them. She skimmed through the pages but it didn’t hold her interest for long and she quickly moved on to the next book in the stack.

Sage repeated this several times until she was on the next to last book, titled Witches and Those Who Hunt Them: A Brief Journey Through the Years. It started with the more well known witch hunts such as the Salem Witch Trials and Sage quickly became engrossed in the book. She had always been fascinated by the idea of witches and magic. Obviously such things weren’t real but that didn’t stop her from thinking that it would be wonderful if they were.