I Found Her

Before going to work, William decided to start his day with a meditation session. Sitting upright on a yoga mat, hands on his knees, and eyes closed, he let his focus drift away from the world around him, entering into a deep state of concentration.

"Remain centered..." he said to himself, quietly but firmly, "...breathe... focus..."

He channeled his chi, using it to tap into a... special ability, which he happened to have.

"...As the stars have taught me..."

After a little while of meditating, a ringing sounded, making him jump. He sighed, standing and walking over to the source of the noise.

"Should've unplugged the phone..." he muttered, picking up the landline receiver, “...hello? William Schaeffer speaking.”

“Ah, sounds like we’re up and at ‘em bright and early today?” Came a man’s voice over the phone.

William perked up upon hearing it. “Dad!”

“Heh heh...” his father laughed briefly, “...how you been doing, William?”

“Well, if you were anyone else, I’d call you out for interrupting my meditation,” William said.

His father chuckled again. “Still dabbling in the family witchcraft, are we?”

William's father, Jonathan Schaeffer, was a sailor in the US Navy. He was a Lieutenant, and had been stationed aboard the Adams-class destroyer, USS Goldsborough. The relationship between him and his now ex-wife, Marlene Silva, however, deteriorated due to his constant absence, to the point where she filed for divorce. She wanted a truly intimate relationship with her partner always by her side.

“So, what’s going on?” William asked.

“I’m on a short leave for the time being,” Jonathan said. “And I just wanted to call and see how things were going with you.”

“Oh,” William said, “things are going... decent. I’m still working at the bookstore... even though I’ve tried applying at other places. In fact, I’m going to be leaving in a short while from now.”

“Alright,” Jonathan responded. “If you gotta go soon, I won’t keep you.”

“But, if you’re on leave, does that mean you’ll come to visit?” William asked.

“Ah...” Jonathan uttered, “...unfortunately, I can’t. I’m currently in California. And in a little while from now, I’ll be taking a helicopter back to the ship to resume my service.”

William’s eyes fell to the floor. He figured it would happen. In all honesty, though... he was used to it. His father was only able to come home for fairly small stretches every now and then. It wasn’t uncommon for his father to be stationed on the Western Seaboard.

He continued the brief chat with his father for several minutes, before it was finally time for him to get going. He set an alarm on a clock to, what was intended, let him know to end his meditation session. From there, he bid his father farewell for now, threw on his work uniform, gathered his work belongings, got in his car, and drove to the bookstore. It wasn’t very far from where he lived; it was within two miles.

But man, oh man, did he absolutely detest the job he had...

The bookstore William worked at was a very dull place. It was monochrome, bland, and very old-looking. Given that it was a local business, rather than a larger chain, like Barnes & Noble, they didn’t necessarily have the budget to upgrade their physical location. How this was, though, was beyond William, since they received quite a high customer traffic on a daily basis.

Today, William had the responsibility of setting up some new advertisements around the store. One in particular caught his eyes. It happened to be a poster for a new line of My Little Pony children’s books and VHS cassettes. William knew it to be a franchise that really captivated female children, with its own TV show and toys.

William sighed as he looked at the ad. "Why do little girls watch these kinds of shows?"

He begrudgingly put up multiple versions of these posters in the children’s section, disgusted by the overall tone they presented.

"I mean, what's next?" William asked himself. "Will there be some future reboot of the series that will attract a large adult fanbase?"

He pondered for a moment, thinking, before he shrugged the thought off.

"Nah, that'll never happen," William said.

He kept at the dull task, having to deal with a customer with a stupid question every so often, such as looking for a particular section, when they were literally ten feet away from it, or trying to find the restrooms, when there was a sign visible across the entire store indicating where it was.

Eventually, though, William made it through the first two hours of his shift, and got to his first break. During his short downtime, he met up with an acquainted coworker, Matt.

“Hey, Will,” he said, taking a seat at the same table as William. “How ya doing, man?”

William pursed his lips. “Alright, I guess...”

“Well, ya sure don’t sound alright!” Matt responded.

“Thing is...” William began, “...I’ve just been really tense, lately, trying to make ends meet, and having to put up with customers not treating me like a human being, but as some kind of machine that’s designed to not make mistakes.”

“Hey, learn to lighten up, Shakespeare!” Matt said.

William sighed. Many of his peers had taken to calling him by a surname that, coincidentally, sounded similar to his actual surname. The most common was “Shakespeare,” but sometimes there was the occasional “Shatner,” or other names people could come up with.

“Don’t let it get to you!” Matt said. “You know that what people say about you is just their opinion, and usually isn’t true.”

If only it were that simple for someone like me... William thought.

The two just went back and forth with trivial small-talk, before eventually, the two returned to their jobs at the end of their break. The rest of William’s shift was fairly bland, but there were some moments to break the monotony... but not in a good way. It involved customers berating him for just about every little thing that was beyond his control:

“What’s the deal?! Last week, it was five dollars less!”

“Why is this backorder taking so long?! I want answers!”

“You shouldn’t even be working here if you can’t figure shit out!”

William often got the urge to just break down whenever a large number of people ganged up on him like this, but he always did his best to sober up, just for the sake of preserving his dignity. Eventually, he was approached by Eric, his manager.

“Will...” he spoke up, grabbing the young man’s attention, “...why have I received a large number of complaints from customers regarding you?”

William sighed. “They were nitpicking a bunch of things that were out of my control, like sales ending or backorder delays. I tried, politely, to explain to them the situation, but they didn’t want to hear any of it. I can’t just lower prices or speed up delivery trucks.”

Eric folded his arms, drumming his fingers. “I can see where you’re coming from in that regard, but the matter still stands; the customer is always right.”

Bullshit, William thought, facing back forward, in the direction of the queue line dividers across from the counter.

"However, your job is about to get a bit easier real soon, and maybe boost the overall morale around here,” Eric said. “It just so happens, I've got a surprise for you, Will.”

William turned back to face his manager, his eyes light with anticipation. "You're giving me a robot death-dragon?"

Eric narrowed his eyes, tipping his head slightly. “No... it’s our new computer system, which you will be taught how to use for the express purpose of processing customer requests and inventory inquiries much faster.”

This didn’t excite William all that much; even though computers were kind of “new” to the general public, he had fair knowledge of how to operate them, and didn’t feel like he would need training. Still, if it could get him away from the snotty customers... it was something he’d we willing to go through.

With that, Eric left his subordinate to checkout customer orders. With pure muscle memory, William operated the register, inputting the prices of books and cassette tapes, and ringing up the total. This continued for a good, long while, a lunch break and another standard break coming up at two-hour intervals of his shift, before he was finally able to clock out.

Even though work was over for the day, and it was Friday, he could not call it a day quite yet...

William was practically forced by his family and neighbors to help Mrs. Edith Milton, a mad old widow who lived alone in what was basically an organized, indoor junkyard. He only did so because his stepfather would forbid him from visiting or contacting his own mother if he refused to aid the old woman, as she was a longtime affiliate of Jack.

As for Mrs. Milton herself... she solidly qualified as a hoarder and a Neo-Luddite, refusing to use any new technology, since she thought it was complicated and unreliable. She was blunt, arrogant, and rude, and William utterly despised her. But... he also did not want everyone to call him selfish and spoiled for refusing to help out an old woman who could not lift anything greater than ten pounds.

She always had him move a bunch of random things, but without rhyme or reason most of the time. It just seemed like she changed her mind about how she wanted the layout of her belongings to be just about every week. And there were things she wanted pulled out for a temporary time, and put away a different time. Today, she had him prep her house for visitors.

"And go pull up my card table and the four cushioned chairs!" Mrs. Milton ordered. "Me and the girls are gonna be playing bridge on Sunday after church!"

“Yes, ma’am...” William said, passively.

Mrs. Milton rasped after taking a sip of her prune juice. “I swear, you kids today... you damn Gen-X-ers... so spoiled and brainless... using all this new ‘technology’ stuff, and not living how we were intended! Your stepdad’s got the right idea about you, since you got it too easy!”

William strongly restrained himself from exploding on her, and telling her she was wrong at every turn of what she just said.

"You best learn how to make up for your mistakes," Mrs. Milton said. "A wise person like me always put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to help me through the day, unlike you spoiled kids who just focus on material possession!"

Look who's talking... William said, looking around at all the clutter.

"And the Lord told me He's angry with you!" Mrs. Milton stated. "So, when you have a bunch of time to yourself, you best get down on your knees and pray to Him to save you!"

William pursed his lips as he begrudgingly continued the task. He was not religious by any means; he would do all he could to make use of physical effort instead of just desperately hoping for things to get better. Plus, he wanted to figure out how to fix the many flaws in this world, and not be so devoted to what may come after, be it an afterlife, reincarnation, or some other "life after death."

Given that he had a "go-big-or-go-home" mentality, his ambitions were often far beyond his capacity, though. He knew this world would never be perfect, but wanted to find ways to mitigate the harm regardless, so others would not have to go through what he's been through. Plus, he was one who wanted to genuinely enjoy life, as he could no longer find satisfaction with the little things anymore.

But, no matter what he thought, or how lost he felt, he unfortunately still had tasks to attend to, all for the sake of preserving his reputation.

"What are ya?" Mrs. Milton asked as he worked.

William narrowed his eyes. "What, like... how old am I?"

"No," Mrs. Milton responded, "what are ya? Polack? Swed? Apache?"

William sighed. "...I totally don't know."

"Uh-huh..." Mrs. Milton muttered, "...a mutt. Well, whatever ya are, stay away from my medicine cabinet! I got important prescriptions I don't need no one messing with!"

"It's a little after seven o'clock," William said, checking his watch. "I should probably get going soon; I need to fix myself some dinner."

Mrs. Milton rasped again. "Well, I didn't realize that I stopped being old and weak at seven! What am I supposed to have for supper?!"

"Can't you just order takeout?" William asked.

"I'm not giving those damn Mexicans my money!" Mrs. Milton responded. "They're almost as bad as that Lithuanian who fixed my screen door..."

As she rambled on and on, sidetracking relentlessly on trivial things, William let himself tune it out as his inner monologue spoke louder to him.

Jeez, I can't believe how horrible she is! He thought, looking at the old woman. Just look at all those wrinkles... what is holding this woman together?

His eyes happened to fall to her mouth that never stopped...

What the...? William thought, narrowing his eyes as he spotted something leafy stuck in her teeth. How long has that been there?

"...I suppose you're Dutch," Mrs. Milton continued to ramble, though William didn’t pay attention. "Ya got eyes like a Dutchman... little penny... ya got them penny Dutch eyes..."

WIlliam kept at the task for a little while longer, until Mrs. Milton finally (and reluctantly) let him go back to his home.

He eventually got back to his small home, where he went straight to his bedroom and collapsed on his bed.

“Hahhh...” he sighed, “...another long day done.Time for the weekend, to recuperate...”

However, he could not do so for very long right at the moment, since his phone began to ring. Groaning in impatience, he stood from his bed, and trudged into his office, where the closest phone was.

He picked up the receiver, holding it to his ear. “Hello? William Schaeffer speaking.”

“I don’t believe I need to introduce myself,” came a familiar voice over the phone.

William frowned, his eyes growing narrow. “Oh, Jack...”

“Hey!” Jack snapped. “You remember that you’re supposed to be respectful, and address me as you would your father!”

William bunched his lips together in disgust. Jack Poole happened to be the man his mother remarried to. While he was very fond of, and respectful for, his wife... the same could not be said for his stepson. It puzzled William to this day, since he doesn’t even know the reason why Jack disapproves of him. But, he assumed it was because he was living proof that Marlene had been in a relationship with another man... something Jack probably didn’t like.

Of course, William tried to voice his concerns about Jack’s temperament with his mother, but despite her saying “I’ll talk to him about it,” nothing ever came of it. Also, he refused to address Jack as “dad” or “father,” because he only reserved that title for his realfather... the only man in his immediate family who he had any respect for.

“Did you go over and help Edith today?” Jack asked. “You remember what will happen if you don’t follow through with your obligations!”

“I did,” William said. “Do you think I’m not diligent or something?”

There was a brief silence on the line.

“Hello...?” William asked.

“...Don’t be a smartass with me, young man!” Jack growled.

William bit his tongue. “I apologize...”

“You should know that apologies don’t fix the problem!” Jack responded. “Anyway, I’m gonna need you to come over and do a bit of yardwork for me. A good way to make yourself useful and stay busy.”

“But I already have plans for the weekend!” William lied.

“Then you’re gonna have to reschedule,” Jack said. “Tomorrow, ten-o'clock. I expect you to be here right on time.”

“And if I refuse...?” William asked.

Jack remained silent for a moment again. “...Let me tell you something, I am getting REALLY fed up with your defiance! And if you keep this up, and don’t come over, you know I’ll bar you from our house! And you won’t get to talk to your mother anymore!”

You son of a bitch! William’s inner monologue screamed.

His spoken voice, however, was more superficial: “...Alright, I’ll be there.”

“Good...” Jack said, “...you best learn to unfuck yourself, William. Your current attitude will NEVER get you far in life! Learn to appreciate all you’ve been given!”

“Right...” William said, nonchalant.

Without saying much more, the call eventually came to an end, William hanging the receiver back up. From there, he walked over to his futon sofa, laying himself down and staring up at the ceiling.

“Why do these things have to happen to me?” William asked. “There is no solace... no mercy... nobody willing to let me live the life I want.”

For a while, he had considered moving, but... he didn’t want to leave the only place he knew as home. He lived in Atlanta for his entire life. Also, because his mother still seemed to care for him, he wasn’t about ready to leave one of the only people left in his life he could still trust. He was also uncertain about what could happen regarding potentially new neighbors in a new place of living, whether he could bring himself to introduce himself, let alone begin visiting them regularly.

Regardless, all he could do was keep moving forward, in the hope that something good would come out of his current effort, and seek out any opportunity to turn his life around.