Part 3 The waitress - Glimpse V

She woke up all stiff, mouth dry, in the same position she lay in bed in and it felt like no time passed whatsoever, even though her clock said four hours had passed.

Her alarm didn’t wake her up, which was new, usually her vibrating wrist watch always woke her up. “Maybe I should change things up, maybe I’m getting used to it and ignoring because of the fatigue”.

A nice warm tea, some instant ramen, simple things made her happy and comfy and outside dawn was breaking, along with spring. Though it was still a long way away before the cherry trees would bloom, the weather had been steadily getting better and so was her mood.

Cookie had translated the note, she was to meet the messenger on street Man Muchin at 13:00, though what day was still a mystery. In consequence she had decided to go on her day off there, which was tomorrow. Today she still had work to do, but she was feeling more rested than in other days, plus the whole mystery intrigued her.

As she was going to work she kept going over the information in her head, and what Cookie had told her was quite bizarre. The street was named after the cat liberator they collectively called “All mother” and the street was in the old cat town or district where they lived before they moved to Australia to avoid persecution.

In this situation she thought maybe her ignorance showed, she always assumed cats were well of since ancient times, but it seems like they needed a savior and a country of their own after the cogito outbreak. Maybe a real lion was who she was about to meet, she assumed it was an avatar, but maybe it was his actual face.

She liked to change into a fox wherever it was possible, if not that then a human or alien, but never her real appearance, lest the wrong people track her down and end her like they did with the others. “Nothing like the threat of death to put you off suicide.” She jested to herself, but the El Dorado map seekers’ guild did give her a renewed purpose in life, she wanted now to know what was the dream world so many were entering. Some called it Asgard, some the Golden City, though she preferred the name she gave it: The Art Deco City.

Only Cookie, the guild leader, knew she was able to enter it, but not much else and she gave him some info from time to time. The ladybug girl had told her to tell no one she helped her, for fear the enemy may mark her for elimination because she associated with an undesirable like her. And so she told no one about the ladybug girl, searched for doors and never stayed long in the dream city, wherever she could she would turn into a fox because she loved those and generally she wore yellow because RainGoddess666 had told her yellow is a color that appeases the King of dream city.

Though why a city would have a king instead of a mayor was beyond her and she had no time or courage to search for all these bits and pieces. She had decided to best do what friends tell her rather than nothing and be as low profile as possible. She didn’t know who she was dealing with and if this was some other new weird mind experiment from the chinese government or some other wealthy organization, that would be a mess she would do good to stay away from, far away.

She was going to her desk when she saw everybody rush to the supervisor’s office. All were huddled around the screen as the news unfolded.

- Yeah I’m ok, it wasn’t in my grandmother's city. The supervisor replied to one of the colleagues.

- What a tragedy! Another gasped as she watched the replay footage of the building’s collapse.

- What happened? She asked entering the office.

- The biggest bombing yet, in Kolkata. The supervisor answered in a sad exhausted tone, his big black eyebrows were all twisted in a frown.

He always seemed more African to her than Indian, but maybe he had relatives from there, not just living there. Either way he seemed very affected. He continued to ad in a irritated tone:

- First the Tindalos hound attacks in Shanghai, now this! Those Belters have no shame, killing so many Terrans. What they do up there with the martians is their business, why are they bringing this mess to us? Cowards! And he closed the screen and shooed everybody to work, slamming the door behind them all.

One of the colleagues spoke to ease everybody.

- He’s very upset today, let’s leave him be for now, we have a restaurant to open and tomorrow Miss Mameha is coming to check on us.

One colleague jumped with joy at hearing the owneress was coming to visit, while another asked the first who spoke:

- Should I bring him some tea? I know he likes tea and those fenne cakes.

- Maybe later, let’s let him settle down. Come on ladies, back to work.