Anita's day had gotten steadily worse from the time she woke
up, as soon as she woke up the baby started kicking and hadn't stopped since.
The fact that she had been woken up by Nathaniel, Mel, Cherry, Zane, Caleb, and
most surprising of all Merle, singing the Sailor Moon theme song. Micah had
already opened the curtains when he woke up so she couldn't just close her eyes
and go back to sleep. To make matters worse, when she had finally dragged
herself out of bed, she couldn't have any coffee because of the baby. Not a
good way to start the day in the least. In fact in Anita's mind the only thing
that could make her morning worse would be if the arduer reared its ugly head.
It hadn't shown up in months, but she didn't say that out loud, just to be sure
she didn't jinx herself. She had to suffer through the stupidest clients all
day and then when everyone else in the office got to go to their respective
raisings and homes in the evening, she had to stay in her office while Mel,
padded and dyed to imitate Anita, tried to lure Olaf out with a flat tire. As
the day from hell dictated this didn't work either. About the time Mel kicked
the right front tire for the tenth time, Larry showed up because he forgot his
equipment and had to be put in a headlock and lead up the stairs after he
realized the woman he was trying to help wasn't Anita. Though Anita had to
admit the sight of a 5'3" woman pretending to be pregnant putting Larry in
a headlock would be funny any other time. Just not now, with the baby kicking,
and Bert being a cheap ass the A.C.
Since the plan had all been blown to hell, Anita decided to
go to the Circus to see how moving herself, the pard, and the preparations for
the new baby were going there. Anita wished that she moved herself and the pard
there earlier, but there was nothing she could do about it now. Sitting in the
passenger side seat, she watched Mel as she drove to the Circus. Mel had
insisted on changing before she met the Master of the City. She had washed the
dye out of her hair, and now looked like a '30s mob moll. Her hair was pulled
back in a bun with a side part over one eye. She had on a Black pin-striped
skirt suit, black rear seam stockings and black heels completed the outfit.
Anita had demanded to know exactly what she was carrying. In each of her
garters there was a silver knife, small enough to hide under her skirt, but
just barely long enough to reach the heart in choice locations. There was a
Sig. Sauer 229 in a shoulder holster under her suit jacket, and a Glock .30 compact
with holes drilled in the barrel in the small of her back. Mel explained that
the holes cut down on sound expansion to silence the shot. It made the bullet
slower, but as Mel said "That doesn't amount to shit when its pressed
against some guy's skull." She had also explained that if you drilled the
hole wrong the gun would blow up in your hand, which immediately halted any
ideas that Anita had of doing that to any of her guns. Mel's mouth twisted
slightly as if she tasted something slightly unpleasant, Anita observed.
"What's the matter?"
"I fucking hate SUV's. Fucking soccer mom's, who never
plan to drive it anywhere other than the supermarket or PTA meetings, but think
that it would be too 'UN-cool' to drive a mini-van, condemning their kids to
the same fucking shit as adults, cookie cutter houses, boys commuting to the
cities to their meaningless cubical jobs, girls shopping for ready to cook
meals and watching women's television day after day. Leading the same
unfufilling lives as their suburban middle-class parents before them, and their
suburban middle-class children to come after them. What a fucking waste."
"Oh, that's good, I was worried that you were upset
that Olaf is probably going to kill me because your plan was shit. But you just
go on criticizing the majority of America."
"Gee Anita, you need to stop freaking out about the
small stuff so much. It's not good for you."
"Small stuff. A sociopath is out for my blood, and me
being unable to defend my self because I'm in my eighth month of pregnancy, is
small stuff to you. May I just ask, what exactly is big stuff to you,
huh?"
" That's just it Anita. You need to realize that it is
all small stuff. Nothing that you have any control over is going to keep the
sun from rising tomorrow. In the big scheme of things you really don't
matter."
Mel had been fiddling with the radio stations this entire
time. She finally stopped on some psychedelic funk song. " Oh, this is
Parliament. They are fucking to cool to be cool. I love them."
She started to sing along. Anita just stared at her in
shock. She had never been so bluntly told before that she didn't amount to
shit. She really didn't like that thought. Mel glanced over and smiled.
"If it makes you feel any better, I promise that I'll ace Olaf before the
week is over."
It didn't comfort her any.