Amulet, p.4
Amulet, page 4
Val shifted again, driving toward the exit. Alex was quiet, and he hoped she wasn’t uncomfortable sitting next to him. After their dinner and a pleasant conversation, she couldn’t possibly be worried that he was trying to put the moves on her, could she?
“We’ll have to see about getting you a parking spot in the building. I’ll talk to Judy about it tomorrow.”
Alex looked over at him. “That’s really nice of you, but I can’t afford to park here. It’s more than twice as expensive as the lot I’m in right now, and I can hardly afford that.”
Val knew that contract attorneys made less than in-house counsel or attorneys in big law firms, but he was curious how much less. “What are they paying you at Advance Legal?”
“Thirty dollars an hour.”
He was quiet for a moment. “They’re making a killing on you, you know. I should have hired you directly—you could have made more money, and I could have spent less money. Anyway, don’t worry about the cost. The company will pay for your parking.”
The unexpected offer had her eyes widening in surprise. “I can’t ask you to do that!”
“You’re not. It’s a business decision that I’m making. Look, it’s going to be crazy the next few weeks with this deal. I might need you to come in extra early on some days and stay late on others. And the days are short this time of year. I can’t be worrying about the seven-block walk you have to make to your car in the dark every night.”
Alex pressed her lips into a straight line, and even relying only on peripheral vision, Val could tell she was skeptical. “So, you’re saying I’d be doing you a favor by allowing the company to pay exorbitant amounts of money for me to park in the building.”
He could hear the smile in her voice as she said the words, and he wished he could take his eyes off the road for more than just a moment to see it.
“Yes, that’s exactly right.”
Sighing, Alex relented. “All right, then. I’ll do it. For the company.”
He laughed. “You might just get employee of the month at this rate.”
She chuckled softly in response, and the sound made Val feel lighter somehow.
He drove onto the shoulder at the front entrance of the open-air parking lot she’d indicated and turned on the car’s hazards. “Thanks again for dinner and the ride,” Alex said, pushing open the car door.
“Thank you for staying late and listening to my work woes.”
She smiled widely at him, then stepped out of the car with her large purse slung over her shoulder. He couldn’t help watching as she maneuvered herself up and out of the low sports car, then chastised himself for doing so.
He lowered the window on the passenger side as she pushed the door closed and called out to her. “See you tomorrow, Alex.”
“See you tomorrow, Val,” she replied, leaning down to look through the window. “I hope you feel better soon, and thanks again for everything, really.”
He didn’t feel the cold chill of the air coming through the open window as he watched Alex walk briskly toward her car. She hurriedly put the key into the driver’s side door, unlocked it, then opened it and jumped in. He continued watching as her car came humming to life and slowly backed out of her spot. Alex waved to him as she drove toward the gate to exit the lot, and he took that as his cue to leave. As he drove away, Val realized he had forgotten all about his sore throat.
It was almost nine o’clock in the evening by the time he got home to his spacious, clean condo. After a long day that, admittedly, ended much better than it began, Val was glad to have a little peace and quiet.
Grabbing an empty glass from the cupboard and filling it with water, he popped another lozenge in his mouth before taking a sip. His throat really did feel much better than it had just a few hours ago.
Despite the unfortunate turn of events with Kurt’s announcement that morning, Val felt at peace with the situation. Part of that feeling came from just having spent some time with a very attractive and equally personable young woman, but he knew that wasn’t the whole reason for it.
Deep down, he knew everything was going to be all right. As that realization sunk in, Val found himself moving from the kitchen to the study, his sock-clad feet making no sound against the shiny hardwood floors. He had faced some serious challenges in his life, but he had always come out on top.
The study was dark, but Val left the switch on the wall untouched as he entered. He stepped carefully around the leather couch in the center of the room, his eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness, and took a few more steps to the desk and credenza that were arranged across from each other, at the far end of the room.
Laying a hand on top of the desk to guide himself, he moved around to the other side and lowered himself into the swivel chair. Only then did he reach for the metal cord hanging from the desk lamp to turn it on. The little lamp filled the room with light, causing him to squint until his eyes adjusted again.
Moving to the second desk drawer down on the right, Val grasped the handle and slowly pulled. Then he reached into the open drawer and felt around inside until his fingers landed on what he had been looking for—a rolled-up pair of socks.
They were navy blue dress socks, to be exact, and he had held on to them since high school—not because he cared particularly about the socks, but rather because of what he kept hidden inside them. It was the secret of Val’s success, the reason he led such a perfect life. It was his guarantee that Kurt Donovan’s departure would turn out to be nothing more than a temporary annoyance.
As Val pulled a black velvet bag from within the folds of the rolled-up socks, he thought about his grandmother. Just as the old woman had done eighteen years ago, Val tugged on the silver ribbon that held the bag closed and loosened the cinch. Then, turning the bag upside down, he poured the contents of the sack out into the palm of his hand.
Curling his fingers around the smooth stone of the necklace his grandmother had given him, Val closed his eyes and let out a slow breath. Yes, everything would be fine. His grandmother had made sure of that.
Chapter Five
Eighteen Years Earlier
“Val! Stop dickin’ around and take the third register. Don’t you see there’s a line out there?”
Val cringed at the sound of Mr. Albright’s voice, then set down the mop he was using. Stepping over to the sink, he turned on the faucet and squirted some soap onto his hands.
Keith Albright, the second shift manager at the shitty fast-food restaurant where Val worked most days after school, was short, skinny, and balding, and he was neither married nor dating, as far as Val could tell. According to his grandmother, that was the reason the man despised Val and rarely spoke to him without barking out some command or insult. Maybe she was right and Mr. Albright was jealous of Val’s physical appearance and quiet confidence. Or maybe the old woman just saw Val with her heart rather than her eyes.
Regardless of why Mr. Albright treated him so poorly, Val never talked back or got angry. If he had learned anything from being bullied all his life, it was that the greatest reward you can give a bully is a reaction. Val simply followed orders and kept coming back for more. Besides, he didn’t want to give Mr. Albright an excuse to fire him. He needed that paycheck every two weeks if he was going to have any chance of going to college. And without a car, the fact that Val could walk to work from his house made it the best job he could hope for.
Val dried his hands and walked over to the cash register. He swiped his ID badge and entered a passcode to unlock it, then looked up to summon the next customer in line.
“What can I get for you tonight?” he asked, trying to sound pleasant.
He took the middle-aged woman’s order, helped her use a credit card to pay, then handed over a receipt with a number printed at the top. “We’ll call your number when your order’s ready.”
The woman stepped aside, and the next customer stepped up to order.
It was a busy night. The after-work crowd was out in full force, and Val marveled at the number of familiar faces he saw, sometimes two and three times in the same week.
At around seven, the crowds died down, and Val considered closing his register and going back to cleaning the floors that Mr. Albright had ordered him to clean earlier in the shift. Just then, however, a group of girls entered the place, giggling and bouncing their heads from side to side in animated conversation.
Val recognized the girls from school. They were seniors, like him, and they were in the brainy, but somewhat popular crowd. Three of the four of them were in his English class and his history class.
One of the girls, Terri, was in almost all his classes. In fact, she had been his lab partner for a time in physics, and she had always talked to him in class and said hi when they passed each other in the halls. Val had wondered on more than one occasion if perhaps Terri had a crush on him, which would have been wonderful.
“Hi, Amanda, what can I get for you tonight?”
In addition to knowing how to deal with bullies, Val also knew how to talk to girls. He had watched enough boys in his classes and in the hallways to know what worked and what didn’t. Granted, he hadn’t had much practice applying what he had learned from his hours of observation, but there was no time like the present. Besides, girls were much more likely to talk to him, and even flirt with him, when there weren’t other guys around and there was no one to keep up appearances for.
One by one, Val took their orders and their money, then assembled their trays of food as each order came up. The last girl to order had been Terri, and so she was the last one lingering at the counter, waiting for her food.
“So, how’s it goin’, Val?” she said as he came back to the counter with her drink.
“Oh, not bad. Can’t complain,” he replied, flashing her a quick smile.
“Can you believe prom is next week? It seems like the whole year has just flown by. Only a few weeks and we’ll be done with all of this, graduated and off to make our way in the world. Kind of scary.”
“Yeah,” he replied, setting a box of fries and a sandwich on the tray. “It goes by fast. But I can’t say I’m not happy to be moving on.”
Terri’s order was all there, on the tray, but rather than move the tray toward her, Val stood there, trying to think of something else to say.
Luckily, she spoke first. “Speaking of prom, are you going?”
Val would have bet his minimum wage job that she knew full well he didn’t have a date to the prom, but he went along with it. “Nah, I don’t think so. You?”
Terri smiled shyly. “I was hoping to, but I haven’t asked the guy I had in mind yet.”
Was she asking him to go to prom? Could that actually be happening?
He swallowed. “So, who did you have in mind?”
She looked Val in the eyes, and his heart almost stopped. “You.”
He laughed to cover up his utter amazement and excitement. “You don’t say. So, you’re asking me to go to prom with you?”
“I am. Do you want to go?”
“Sure,” he replied, letting a little of his excitement spill out. “I don’t think I’m working next Saturday night, but let me go check the calendar in the back, just to be sure.”
“Okay,” she said, beaming.
Val walked as fast as he could without running to the wall where Mr. Albright posted the schedule every two weeks and searched for the nights he was working. Sure enough, he was off next Saturday.
Val had a huge grin on his face when he turned to walk back to the front counter and almost ran right into Mr. Albright.
“What are you doing back here? Didn’t I ask you to man the registers?”
“Yes, Mr. Albright. I was, but there’s no one in line right now and I just wanted to check my schedule for next Saturday.”
“Why? You have a hot date or something?” The man looked at Val with utter contempt.
“Maybe,” was all Val said in response. The contempt was easily reciprocated.
“Well, I’m afraid I need you here next Saturday.”
“No, you don’t. I’m not on the schedule.”
The color in Mr. Albright’s cratered face rose, and, nostrils flaring, he took the pen that was behind his ear and marked up the schedule. Then he turned to Val with a self-satisfied smirk. “Now you’re on the schedule. You’ll be here, right?”
Val seethed with anger. How could this little man ruin everything for him, just like that? Just when things were starting to work out. It wasn’t fair—it wasn’t right.
Val could have just quit, right then and there. He could have told Mr. Albright to take the job and shove it up his ass. But he didn’t. Val needed that job. He needed that $4.25 an hour to pay for classes at the community college next semester. He gritted his teeth and turned around. He couldn’t bear to look at Mr. Albright’s pock-marked, big-nosed, sickly pale face anymore. The man was disgusting, inside and out, and at that moment Val hated him.
Val walked sullenly back to the front counter. Terri was still standing there, and half her fries were gone.
“Sorry it took so long,” said Val. “I talked to my boss, but unfortunately I do have to work on Saturday night, and I can’t get out of it. I’m really sorry.”
Terri swallowed the food. “Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s probably going to be lame, anyway. I should go find the girls before they send a search party for me. Anyway, see you on Monday. Bye, Val.”
She turned away before Val could even say “bye” back. Terri had gone out on a limb and asked him out, and he had rejected her. She would never ask him out again. And if he asked her out sometime over the next few weeks leading up to graduation? Would she say yes, or would she give him a taste of his own medicine and reject him in front of everyone?
Half an hour later, at the end of his shift, Val left quietly and walked home.
It was mid-May, and the days were getting longer. The sun had just set, but there would be at least another twenty-five minutes of light in the sky, and it only took ten to get home.
With each step Val took, anger over the events that had transpired that night bubbled within him anew. All he could see was the pock-marked face of his terrible boss; all he could hear was cruel sniggering as that odious man wrote Val’s name onto the schedule for next Saturday night.
The worst part about it all was that there was nothing Val could do to defend himself, nothing he could do to make things turn out the way he wanted them to turn out. Val was helpless, at the beck and call of a sniveling, hateful man. He never wanted to be in that position again. He never wanted to turn away from something he wanted just because he couldn’t pay the price.
The house was dark and quiet when Val slipped inside, and he found his grandmother had fallen asleep in the ratty armchair in her makeshift bedroom. Poor woman. What did she do all day?
It had to be past eight, and Val was hungry. He went to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and sighed. His parents hadn’t been to the store in at least a week, probably more like two. There was a container of cream cheese and a tub of margarine on the top shelf; a jar of apricot jam, a jar of mayonnaise, and an almost empty bag of bread shoved all the way to the back of the second shelf; three cans of beer and a half-empty bag of corn tortillas on the bottom shelf; some wilted lettuce in the crisper; and a pitcher of water, a bottle of ketchup, and a bottle of mustard in the door.
So many condiments, and nothing to put them on.
Val contemplated pouring the cans of beer down the drain so his parents’ trip to the grocery store would be expedited, then decided against it. The beer would likely be gone by morning, anyway. He shook his head and sighed again, pulling out the bag of bread and the jam.
There were two slices of white bread left in the bag, and one of them was an end piece, which didn’t really count as a full slice. Val got a paper plate out of the pantry and put the slices of bread on it, side-by-side, then started spreading the jam on the bread before putting the two pieces of bread back together to make a sandwich.
The selection of canned foods in the pantry was just as depressing, but Val found a can of green beans hiding behind the crushed tomatoes. After heating the green beans in a bowl, he put the food on the kitchen table and sat down. Just as he was picking up the sandwich, however, it occurred to him that his grandmother had likely had very little to eat all day.
So, he reached for a butter knife on the counter and cut his sandwich in half, then got another bowl from the cupboard and spooned half of the green beans into it. He carefully made his way to his grandmother’s room, balancing the plate of sandwiches in one hand and the two bowls of green beans in the other.
His grandmother was awake now and had moved to the folding chair by the door, next to her nightstand, where she sat knitting something that vaguely resembled a blanket.
“Baba?”
The old lady looked up from her knitting and beamed in welcome. “Valentin, come in!”
“Hi, Baba,” he said, walking over to her. He set one of the bowls down on the nightstand, then picked up one of the sandwiches and held it out for her to take. “Sorry, Baba, I couldn’t find anything else for us to eat.”
She looked at him thoughtfully, then took the sandwich.
“What your sister eating?” she said in her comforting version of the English language.
“I don’t know. She’s not home yet.”
His grandmother shook her head. “She at boyfriend house. She gonna end up like other one, with baby. Stupid girls.”
Val didn’t respond. The old woman was probably right. His eldest sister, Gabriela, had followed in their brother Dimitar’s footsteps a few years ago, leaving the house only a week after graduating from high school to live with her boyfriend. Shortly thereafter, Gabriela found out she was pregnant and got a job at a daycare center a couple of hours away. She then dumped her boyfriend, who may or may not have been the father of the child, anyway.
Eva, who was only a year older than Val at nineteen, still lived at home, but only because she had no money and her boyfriend didn’t have his own place. It wasn’t a secret that Eva dreamed of the day she could follow in her older siblings’ footsteps and be out on her own. She rarely spoke to Val or their parents. Sometimes, Val was amazed at how, even in a house as small as theirs, they could all live under the same roof and avoid each other so thoroughly.
