​     THE JOY OF EGGS. Niki got a look through the window at the restaurant inside. Nice, clean place. Niki watched a family of four eating eggs around a large, round table. A couple held hands and gazed lovingly into each other's eyes at another, smaller table.

​     She patted the phone in her pocket. Time to call work. She'd been putting it off.

​     It took Orlando forever to answer the phone. Then,

     "Grateful Nation. We're here for you. And how can I help you this morning?"

​     "Orlando, this is Niki. I'm sorry, but I don't think I'll be making it in today."

​     Silence on the other end of the line. It was like Niki had just told Orlando he had cancer. She worked taking in donations for a national charity, clothes and books and trinkets mainly. Niki's job was to help sort through all the unusable garbage the general public considered to be donatable items to find the stuff they could actually sell in their discount stores. Toxic job. Minimum wage job. Chronically understaffed.

​     Which was why Orlando reacted the way he did. His crew had a daily quota of salable items that they had to come up with. There was no way his team could make that quota if Niki didn't show up for work.

     "What's your problem? You sick?"

     "There's something I need to look into, take care of. It's really important."

     "More important than your job?"

     "Uh, I'm not coming into work, Orlando. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

     She ended the call. No way would she get fired. She was their best worker.

     She went inside the café. No one looked up. The waitress noticed her, though. She was a plump, older woman, rosy cheeks, hair in a net, apron around her waist.  

​     "Morning darling," she chirped. "Grab a chair. I'll be right with you, honey."

​     Hmm. A little thick with the "honey" and "darling" crap, but, okay. Niki took a seat at a small, empty table. She ordered coffee. She hoped it wouldn't cost more than five bucks. That was all the money she had on her until payday.

​     She got a look around. There were, maybe, a dozen people in the place, a sailor, some students, that one couple, that family of four. Pretty good for a Thorsday morning. The food had to be great. Niki inhaled deeply so that she could at least smell how good the food was.​

​     And that turned out to be kind of disappointing, which puzzled Niki. A small, crowded, humid place. The smells should have been rich and pungent, but they just weren't. She smelled coffee, but it sure didn't smell like strong coffee. She smelled bacon, but, again, it didn't smell like real bacon, so what in the hell was...

     A young man walked up to Niki's table and sat across from her. Niki herself was only eighteen-years old. She'd been on her own since she was sixteen. The guy looked maybe a year younger than her. Still, he was balding. He wore a sky blue hoody. He had tinted goggles strapped to his face like he planned to dive underwater. Big guy. He'd been working out. Big ears. He used only his lips to flash her a tight smile, like he'd been trained to smile at a time like that but didn't quite know how to.

​     "This is no place for the likes of us," were his first words to her. "What do you say we get the hell out of here?"

​                                                  CONTINUE

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