Chapter 3: Do Work
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After I gave myself a little pep talk Cyanna and I went into work. I followed her around, and she talked to our boss about what we needed to do.
Our job was to make sure that books on the shelves were in the right place, put on the shelf correctly, and make sure that displays were organized. It seemed easy enough, and it didn’t involve talking to customers, so I was happy.
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Cyanna spent a lot of her extra time at work reading. I was afraid to do the same, because I though somebody else would see us and get mad, and I wanted to avoid confrontation. Cyanna told me I was welcome to leave her and do work more, but I didn’t want to be on my own.
Work was slow the first day. Not a lot of people came in, and even fewer of them messed up the books.
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There was a little cafe in the back corner of the bookstore. We went there to eat. Cyanna had packed us both salads for lunch, but we also bought cookies with our employee discounts.
Our lunch break wasn’t really a lunch break, we just took advantage of it to eat. We couldn’t wait until work was over at 2:00.
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We rushed through lunch because technically it wasn’t lunch break. We weren’t supposed to take food out of the coffee shop, so we had to basically stuff our food in our faces. We ended up laughing more than eating.
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When work was over we didn’t really feel like going home. It was early in the afternoon, so there was plenty of time to do something.
I thought about our conversation about places that didn’t cost money to go, so I suggested that we go to the beach. It was warm again, but not warm enough to go swimming, so we just walked up and down the sandy shore together, talking.
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The sand had absorbed the heat from the sun, and Cyanna and I slipped off our shoes.
“I love the ocean.” She told me, “I guess you knew that already, didn’t you?”
“I did, but it’s okay. There’s no way to always say things we’ve never told each other before, we’ve known each other too long for that.”
She smiled, and brushed the hair out of her face. It was a wasted effort, though, because the wind happily blew it right back.
“Maybe I should have brought a hair tie.” She sighed, giving up.
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We walked up to the board walk, to get out of the wind, and laid on the two lounge chairs that were always set up there.
We put our heads back, fell half way asleep, and just talked for hours.
After a while Cyanna did fall asleep, and then I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t have a watch, and she was the only one who carried her phone with her, so I didn’t know what time it was. I wasn’t sure I wanted to wake her up, but I didn’t think I could just wait there by myself.
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Finally I decided I couldn’t just sit alone, I was getting stir crazy.
I walked back down on the beach, leaving her sleeping happily in the chair.
The waves peacefully crashed on the shore, and it made me a little tired, but I wasn’t comfortable falling asleep in a public place.
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Suddenly I heard a voice behind me.
“Cardinal?” It was Cyanna.
I turned to face her, “Yeah, Cyanna?” I asked.
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t know where you went.”
I walked back up to her.
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“You were asleep... I think...” I said.
“Sorry.” She apologized again, it was a bad habit of hers.
“No, you don’t need to apologize.” I told her.
“Sorry... oops...” She blushed a little, and then laughed. “Do you want to walk home, or stay in town?”
I thought for a minute. The sun was going to set soon, so I figured it would be better for us to get home. “Home.”
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We walked up the boardwalk and back towards the street.
Suddenly Cyanna stopped. I tried to ask her what was wrong and she just shushed me. I didn’t hear anything, but she seemed very sure of herself. She looked over at the bushes, and I followed her gaze. I didn’t see anything.
“Cyanna?” I whispered, but she put her finger to her lips.
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She tip-toed over to the bushes, and I followed her as silently as I could.
Then I heard it. It was a rustling of the bushes. I didn’t know why Cyanna was so interested in it, because it could easily has just been a raccoon, but she was intent of finding the source of the noise. She kept telling me to be quieter, but I didn’t know how I could.
“Cardinal. Keep it down.” She whispered.
“Keep what down?”
“Your footsteps. You’ll scare whatever it is away.”
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She was expecting to find some sort of wild animal, rustling around, or maybe a stray that she could take home. It was neither of those things. It was not an animal of any kind.
It was the last thing we expected to see, the last thing we wanted to see. I didn’t even know what to do with the information that was put into my brain.
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