Having Red Eye
Please read it if you have good patience and a strong heart. Thank you.I am really sorry to the person who had to go through this.
6:45. Crap. What the heck? My mind was still fuzzy from sleep, so I jumped out of bed and stumbled as fast as I could to the bathroom. Sometimes I was really good at remembering to set my alarm, but the night before I was so tired that I forgot. The CEO would be coming down to check out the office that day, of course. I knew he was very strict about being on time if there was one thing I knew about him. As the HR person, it was my job to be the first person to meet with him. Good job.
It almost shocked me how quickly I could get my morning tasks done when I set my mind to them. There were a few places where I forgot to shave my legs, and my makeup wasn't quite perfect, but at least I looked decent. I quickly looked for my heels and purse and ran out the door, half-running across the dark parking lot of my apartment park.
I was almost to my car when I saw the stain running down the driver's side window for the first time. Under the light from the street lamp above, there were streaks of thin, lumpy stuff that looked red. It was easy for me to let my mind run wild in the dark and quiet morning. For a split second, I was sure I was looking at blood.
When there was a loud plop, a new streak showed up next to the old one. Over my head, I could hear a happy coo coming from somewhere in the trees.
"Oh, geez." I moaned.
But bird poop was still a much better choice than blood.
As I hopped in, I was careful to avoid any droppings that had made their way to the handle. I drove a little faster than usual to the office.
Mr Cooper Canet The III, Sr., the CEO, was already waiting in the hallway when I walked in five minutes past the hour. He was dressed so well that he could have been mistaken for a goat. While he stood up straight, I couldn't help but think, "Good to see the stick's still firmly in place, sir."
"Ms. Hainomi." He said, making it clear that he didn't agree.
"Hello, Mr. Canet, I'm so sorry It took so long! It was just one of those mornings..."
It became clear that he didn't care what kind of morning it had been, so I stopped talking. I faked a smile and asked him to come with me to my office, where I had to talk about how policies were being put into place and how they were affecting our branch for an hour. While he listened, he scowled deeply and harrumphed and snorted a few times. At least he didn't talk during the presentation too much.
"Fine." When I was done, that was all he said. "Where's the next girl, then?"
"That's Rose from accounting." I'll go check on her in a minute if you don't mind.
"Just tell me where her office is; she's had plenty of time to prepare."
I led him down the hall to Rose's office because I was glad to be rid of him. When he left, I sank in my chair. I'd been fired from jobs that made me feel better than that. I sighed and put away the papers for the talk. I then used the time to check my phone. When I opened my phone that day and saw a message from my fiance, it made me smile for the first time.
I hope your meeting with the big boss goes well xxx
I quickly wrote back, "Enough with that!" Rose has to deal with him now.
Rose is so sad. CheeseFactory's for dinner? This is my treat.
Pick me up at 6 o'clock.
So hard to meet.
Like many times when I talked to Kai, I laughed and put my phone away. Now that Mr. Canet was out of my life, I could get ready for the very exciting Safety in the Workplace talk I was giving that afternoon. I would just have to pray that the old goat wasn't around to watch me train.
The day went by slowly enough, but people stopping by to tell our Dear Leader about their own war stories made it harder for me to get things done. Hearing about what some of my coworkers had to go through made me a little more grateful for how easy things seemed to have been for me. When lunchtime came around, there was a stack of pizza boxes waiting for us in the kitchen. Someone higher up must have heard about how hard he was being on us. Even though there was no real regret, we liked what it meant.
"Why do we need to meet with him every three months again?" Does he do anything besides whine?" When I walked in, Angela was upset.
"You should know that Wick Jr. is already pretty much in charge." He must be having a hard time giving up the business he built. While Daniel tried to be more understanding, the rest of us just rolled our eyes.
"Yeah, well, he doesn't have to take it out on us." I told them, and they agreed.
I got a pizza slice and sat down to better understand what was being said. While it wasn't appropriate for work and definitely wasn't polite, it felt good to poke fun at Mr. Canet another few times.
"That was fun." The same time next quarter?" Daniel made a joke as he got up.
No one, not even Daniel, saw Bella walk up to the table and push his chair out into her. The plate she was holding flew forward when she tripped. She took a small jar of tomato sauce for her pizza. It seemed to move slowly as it flew through the air and landed on the table in front of me. Thick, red sauce drops covered half of my shirt and face.
Bella said, "I'm so sorry!"
"I didn't even see you!" Daniel got a bunch of napkins and gave them to me.
I just laughed and shook my head after a moment of shocked quiet. What could I do besides this?
Going to the bathroom sinks was enough to clean my face, but my shirt was a different story. It was my favourite; a pale yellow silk dress with a frilly neck that looked great on everyone. I didn't trust Kai's view too much because he also thought buttoned t-shirts were fancy dress. He always said I looked like a lemon tart. I pouted at myself in the mirror and tried to cover up the red dot on my front, but it didn't work. I had to admit that it was probably too late.
I was eager to leave the office and change for my dinner date with Kai. I had spent the day smelling like sauce and picking at spots. I had touched up my makeup, done my hair again, and put on a cute pink dress by the time he pulled up. When he saw me, he smiled and made a low whistle with his eyebrows.
"Hey there, pretty lady, what brings you out at this time of night?"
"Free food!" I told him while taking his hand. "I'm starving!"
CheeseFactory's wasn't a fancy spot, but it wasn't a pub either. It would be "comfortable" for Kai to say it. Kai was a waiter and I was a broke college student when we met there for the first time. That's also where he proposed. It made us feel good. When we got there, our regular seat was already free, so we slid in and quickly looked at the menu, even though we knew what we were going to order.
I looked up from the printed sheet to smile at Kai across the table. I was surprised to see that half of his face was a deep red colour.
"Something wrong?" He asked when he saw how I looked.
"No," I said, taking a deep breath, "I just didn't know they got a new neon sign." Its light made you look weird.
"Want me to ask them to close the blinds?"
"Yeah, actually; it's a bit distracting."
I felt a little uneasy about the red because of the way it twisted with the shadows and blocked Kai's smile. When the blinds were pulled back, he looked like himself again, which made me feel better.
The lunch we had was nice and not rushed, just what I needed after a long day. We stayed for a few drinks and dessert and talked about our plans for the wedding. There were still a lot of little things to work out, even though it was only three months away. A lot of the big things were taken care of.
"Why can't I just wear trainers again?" When we finally decided it was time to leave, Kai asked us as we were walking to the car.
"Because I said so."
"And I'm just supposed to accept that answer?"
"For the rest of your life." I told him, and he pulled me close to him and gave me a jokey shake.
As we drove down a quiet back road on our way back to my place, we saw a car pulled over to the side. It had flashing danger lights on, and a young woman standing next to it looked upset. She waved at us frantically and told us to stop. Kai slowed down and rolled down my window.
He asked, "Are you okay?"
She waved her hand to the car and shook her head. "It's over. Please help me get home to my kids. Could you give me a jump?"
Kai just shrugged when I frowned at him. "She needs help."
"We can call a tow truck." I spoke softly.
The woman stood next to the car and paced, her face tight with tears that she was barely holding back. Kai put us in park.
"It'll only take a minute."
I went with Kai to the back of the car to get the wires. When we came back around the car, the woman was waiting for us, but she wasn't by herself. A skinny, tense man with a gun was standing next to her. He had to have been hiding on the other side of the woman's car. The woman stopped crying and just stared at us with hunger in her eyes. I could hear myself thinking that this kind of thing didn't happen to us or five minutes from my flat.
"Whoa!" Kai pushed me behind him and put his arm out in front of me. I grabbed the back of his shirt and peered over his shoulder in fear.
"Get around to the front." The man told us and waved his gun at us.
The man yelled at him to drop the wires as we stooped to the driver's side of Kai's car. Kai did as he was told right away.
"I don't care if you take the car or my pocket, man. We are not going to fight. Please put down the gun, all right?"
Kai did a great job of staying calm when I was getting scared. The man was licking his lips and looking back and forth between us, the gun, the car, and the woman, who gave him a positive nod.
"Wallet, phone, now!"
"Ok, ok, just have to reach into the car for it."
Kai got his things from the centre desk, closed the door because he always does that, and then turned to give them to the woman.
"And her ring!" What the woman said.
The diamond engagement ring Kai gave me was the only one I wore.
"Please, it was my grandmother's, it isn't even worth much!" Kai begged.
"The ring!"
Kai tried again, even though I was already having a hard time with it. "Man, come on, I gave you everything I had." She should keep the ri-"
Movie gun shots are not as loud as real gun shots. Hearing three of them so quickly was almost unbearable.
When Kai stumbled back against the car, I almost thought he was just scared at first. It could only be that; we were getting married in three months! We were about to start living together!
The man and woman ran away as Kai sat on the ground with his back against the car. They seemed shocked and shaken by what they had done. He made a sound like he was being choked, and I fell to my knees next to him.
His face was red on half of it. A lot of dark, torn holes let blood flow all over the place. He kept making that awful noise and his eyes were rolling all over the place. While yelling for help and for him to stay with me, I grabbed his hands. That's what I should have done. My phone was still in my bag on the floor of the passenger side. I should have tried to get him in the car and taken him somewhere.
But all I could do was grab him and shake him to wake him up. He didn't, though. He stopped moving and became quiet. His eyes closed half way. He was calm in my arms, and his head sagged forward. His blood dripped heavily onto my shirt, leaving big, red drops on it.
I thought to myself, "Like marinara."
Pulling myself up, I scratched at the side of the car. I had to get my phone and call for help. They had to save him, they could!
Kai's driver's side window got hit by the spray, and now there were red lines running down the glass. What kind of dark lumps were already setting in place, I didn't want to know. It was past it that I saw my image. My face and shirt were covered in red spots.
This time, though, there would be no bird. There would be no comfort or making jokes about it. Kai would not exist.
I slid back down to the ground and held Kai against me as the truth of what had just happened hit me. On that dark road, we stood there for a long time.
Oh, and there was a lot of red.
