On your left

 

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On your left

 

 

    “Nope. Nu-uh. No more chances, Grum.”

    I didn’t offer opposition. Just shrugged, my one good wing crumpling in tatters down my back.

    “How long have you been up to this and how many times have you actually done anything even remotely---!” Dolto gripped a veiny fist in my face. My sunken eyes blinked heavily in return. I had seen this coming for some time now. He released on the girth of a sigh, “Malefacere, Inc. no longer has need of your services. Finish out your day. And then it’s over, hun.” He clutched my shoulder with his talon, but I barely felt it. “I’m sorry.” With the next blare of a speeding taxi cab’s horn, he was gone.

I stared hollowly across the cluttered street.

    Maksim was sitting down to his morning brew at the neat little bistro that just opened up. Its existence was the lifelong dream of his lifelong friend come to fruition. I tried spoiling it for him by strewing invading vermin and planting unfortunately faulty door knobs. Well, they persevered. More than persevered. They now steeped in a closeness that only being trapped inside a to-be coffee shop for twelve hours can brew. I can see it in his eyes, now. Today’s the day---he’s gonna ask his friend to accompany him for a more seriously-noted cup of coffee. He’s in love. What a strange state of being…

    A brash bicyclist crossed the street alongside me and somehow managed to turn my attempt to dash her against the asphalt into a theatrical stunt that a bystander happened to capture on film. She’d become Youtube famous within days. I could read it through the airwaves.

    I shambled slovenly between the dirty vehicles and their even dirtier operators, on my way to rain one last bit of hell on my Maks.

    “Oh, you again,” he muttered, frowning up at the air vaguely as I perched on the vacant seat before him. He’s intelligent enough to recognize me by essence, but not by true form. Monster. Shadow. Demon. Takes a keen spirit to really see the likes of me. “Here to blot out the sun for a while?”

    “Mmph…” I noted the sky stalemated gray in the broody break of dawn. “I think Mother Nature’s got that under control.”

    “What, then---gonna lace up my shoes to each other? Swap the low-sodium soy sauce for regular? These poor jokes could kill me. Keep at it. Maybe I’ll croak in twenty years.”

    “Wish I could, buddy, but I just got the boot.”

    “What, you mean, you’re leaving? Wh-who’re you reassigned to?”

    “No, not reassigned. Fired. You don’t know how these spirit realms work, do you?”

    “Obviously not. I’m mortal.”

    “Here and there, sure.” I let my one good claw hover anxiously above his hand draped across the table. Even if I held it, he’d never know. I recanted. “Goodbye, Skim Milk. It’s been...well...surely something.”

    “Take care,” Maksim said wistfully. Already missing my silhouette as it vanished before his eyes.

 

 

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