Today was Sam's first day at work. Standing outside the store, Sam took a deep breath and studied the bright words that displayed the shop's name on the front of the building. Mr. Pete's Odd Shop. It carried almost everything one could want or imagine, and even though it was one of the few stores that had not started selling its wares online, it still attracted quite a bit of business. Perhaps people still chose this store simply because it was so odd. One could find shoes, clothes, candies, tools, small appliances, toiletries, and books in there to name only a few items. Sometimes, one could even find antiques for sale in the back.
Inside was dark and cluttered. When he opened the door, Sam heard a little bell jingle, announcing his presence. A musty scent filled Sam's nose. Looking around curiously, he saw on the shelves closest to him a row of bathmats, toilet paper, toilet seats, and other bathroom essentials such as soap and shampoo. On another row of shelves, he saw little snow globes, each with a different landscape inside. One of them had a polar bear dressed in a ballerina tutu and poised as if it was about to twirl. Sam smiled. His sister would have liked that one, he mused, and he stepped farther into the store.
"Ah, you must be the new boy?" a raspy voice startled Sam. An old man with a cane and a bent back approached him from one of the room's dark corners. Sam now saw a counter and register in that corner, where the man, who must be Mr. Pete, had been standing. With his bent back, Mr. Pete stood only as tall as Sam. His face seemed stuck in a perpetual scowl, and the few wispy white hairs clinging to his scalp seemed ready to fall off at the slightest jostle, a condition that made Sam very nervous whenever the man took a hobbling step. Having never spent much time around elders, Sam began to feel quite uncomfortable.
"Come on back. I'll let Rascal show you the ropes," the man grunted, turning and leading Sam behind the counter. The boy followed as the old man hobbled slowly towards a door in the back, which led into a packed storage room. Boxes filled the room, containing an odd assortment of items: lamps, fans, magazines, and a dozen other random household furniture pieces. One of the boxes even seemed to contain broken gadgets. Sam noticed an electric broom, a vacuum, and other cleaning supplies in one corner. "Rascal! Show the new kid what to do! Then I want you out manning the register," Mr. Pete shouted.
From behind a swaying stack of boxes, a tall, lanky young man stepped into the middle of the room. He looked Sam up and down and grinned at Mr. Pete. "Sure thing, Pete," he said.
Mr. Pete withdrew to the front of the store. "Well, fresh meat, you know how to clean floors?" Rascal asked.
Sam nodded. Pointing to the vacuum, Rascal said, "Then get to it, kid! Start in the front and make your way to the back, 'kay? Folks usually start trickling in in 'bout fifteen minutes."
Setting his backpack down in another corner of the storeroom, Sam grabbed the vacuum cleaner and dragged it out. He did not particularly like being called fresh meat or kid, but at least it was better than the flack he received at school. Besides, he had a job.
River decided that today Samus would get new clothes. After calling a taxi, she grabbed her purse and herded an excited Angela and scowling Samus outside to wait for their transportation. It was a sunny day, and Samus squinted in the bright sunlight. She was not happy. Why did they need to get clothes for her? River had already given her more than enough skirts and blouses, more than Samus ever wanted—well, not that she wanted any. More than her dislike of the clothes, however, Samus did not want to go to a bustling city or busy stores. Naturally a secluded person, she always felt rather uneasy around crowds of people. Monsters, she knew how to handle. But people…
Finally, the taxi arrived. River took the front seat, while Samus and Angela piled into the back seat. "Crater Mall, please," River directed the car. Pling! "Destination confirmed. Heading to Crater Mall," the car's automated voice said. Samus raised an eyebrow. Apparently, the car ran automatically, using a GPS system to locate the correct destination. They began speeding away from the house towards the city.
At first, they passed only empty fields and other farmhouses. As they got closer to the city however, more buildings appeared, and they became taller and more modern. A few skyscrapers soared above the other buildings. Cars zipped in and out between buildings, somehow managing to not crash into each other or into the buildings as they turned corners, and people strolled or hurried about on the sidewalks. It was a bewildering mess to Samus' eyes. To make the scene even more confusing, most of the buildings had windows covering their outside walls, which shimmered in the sunlight and could easily make one blind. If Samus had not been too wary to do so, she would have closed her eyes.
The car moved into a more congested area and slowed down. Finally, it pulled into the mall parking lot and stopped before one of the large sliding doors. "We have arrived at Crater Mall. We hope you enjoyed your ride," the car's voice rang out. River, Samus, and Angela climbed out of the car, and it zipped away off to its next customer. Reluctantly, Samus followed River and Angela inside.
As Samus had expected, shopping was a horrible experience. She was towed around from store to store, which contained either clothing too tight or too revealing for River's taste, or clothing too flimsy and useless for Samus; and Angela made matters worse by racing around the stores and playing hide and seek in the clothes racks. At lunchtime, the food court nearly deafened Samus. After wandering all afternoon around the mall, which felt miles long to Samus and more tiring than any mission she had gone on, they arrived at the last clothing store: Mabel's Clothing Menagerie. "Maybe we'll find something in here," River bravely said, leading the way inside. Samus and even Angela, who was too tired now to play around, followed obediently.
Right away, Samus noticed this store was different. Instead of the crazy fashions advertised in the other clothing stores, Franny's Fashion Boutique had an assortment of old sweaters, long and thick skirts, normal t-shirts and jeans, and what looked like costumes of different time periods. Angela at once ran to the costumes. "Mom, look! They have princess dresses!" she cried, fingering a beautiful pink dress.
Samus wandered over to the costume rack and looked curiously at them. There were indeed princess dresses, as well as togas, ninja costumes, sackcloth shirts, and even a suit of armor. One of the dresses caught Samus' eye in particular, however. Its skirt was not wide, like some of the other dresses, yet it did not cling too tightly to the legs. Fingering it, Samus realized that underneath the skirt were pants. Seeing Samus' interest, the cashier came over.
"Interested in that dress, eh? It's got a special trick to it. See? The sash around the middle is actually a belt. You can pull the skirt up and hook it under the belt if you'd rather have pants," the cashier said. She grinned at Samus with a twinkle in her eye. Leaning in close to Samus, she whispered, "Plus, just between you and me, this dress's got a pocket for your gun on the inside of the skirt." The lady winked at Samus.
Samus frowned. Why did the woman suspect she would have guns? The cashier chuckled at Samus' suspicious look. "Oh, I've met all types of people. I can tell when someone's a bounty hunter," she said, withdrawing back to her desk with a knowing gaze.
"I'd like to get this one, River," Samus said, pointing to the dress she had been examining. River looked at it, then nodded, a little relieved. She had been a little worried they would not be able to find anything that both she and Samus could agree on; even if this dress was not exactly her style, it was much better than the clothing they had looked at before. At least it would not be the tight styles she so abhorred. On River's insistence, Samus chose a couple of other outfits, one of them a black tunic and the other a blue skirt with a matching dark blue long-sleeve shirt.
"Can we go home, now, Mom?" Angela whined as they exited the clothing store. With a tired smile, River nodded.
As they started towards the mall exit, Samus noticed a small bookstore sandwiched between Mabel's Clothing Menagerie and a GameStop store. Inside she could see a few shelves of books and many advertisements for e-books and Kindles, but what really caught Samus' attention was the poster in the window. In it, a large white bird sheltered under its wings a small child who appeared to be playing with some flowers. There were no words to indicate if the picture was the cover for a book or an ad for a movie. Looking at the picture, Samus felt, to her surprise, a tinge of sadness in her heart.
The picture reminded her of growing up with the Chozo. They had looked like large birds, though unlike the picture they wore robes and jewelry; and though the young girl in the picture had brown hair instead of Samus' yellow, the child wore a plain brown dress that resembled the clothes Samus had worn as a young child. She had almost forgotten those frocks the Chozo had given her to wear. Because they had no human clothes, Samus had been given the only clothes that fit her, which happened to be the nightgowns that baby Chozo wore. Samus had not minded though. She was happy to have clothes and be accepted by the aliens, and she hadn't even realized she was much different from them at that age. They had been her only family for a long time. And then, just like her first family, they left her alone…
Anger, sorrow, and an overwhelming homesickness, feelings Samus had not allowed herself to indulge in, suddenly rose up in her. Why had all she loved been taken away? First her human family had been killed right in front of her when the space pirates invaded and destroyed the human colony on K-2L, and then the Chozo had been destroyed by the evil Mother Brain and the dangerous Metroid creatures before she could save them. What she would give to see her father Chozo… or her real parents, just one more time.
Don't entertain these thoughts or emotions, she had always told herself, since they will only distract you and make you weak. But now, she could not stop them. Somehow, ever since the Largonak incident and her realization she was vulnerable, no matter how tough she tried to be, she could not stop the feelings that had been smothered for most of her life. Now they came pouring out like a tidal wave. As she followed River and Angela out of the mall and into a taxi, Samus struggled to maintain her composure.
River seemed to sense Samus' inner turmoil. When they got home, she immediately took their purchases, told Angela to start helping with dinner, and gently suggested that Samus rest in her room until suppertime. With sudden weariness, Samus climbed the stairs to the children's room. Closing the door behind her, she collapsed into Sam's bed and let herself do what she had almost never indulged in: cry.
"I'm home!" Sam called, plopping his backpack on the floor and carefully setting a pail of milk on the kitchen counter. He had stopped in the barn on his way back from work.
"Yay, Sam's home! Just in time for dinner!" Angela cried, bouncing over to her brother for a hug.
He smiled, hugging her and tousling her hair. "Good, I'm starving," he said. "What's for dinner?"
"Baked potatoes and chicken, with asparagus on the side. How was work?" River replied, and she set the pan of potatoes on a coaster on the table.
"Good. I think Mr. Pete likes my work," Sam said as he poured the milk into a pitcher. At least, Sam was assuming his work was fine, because Mr. Pete had merely grunted when Sam was leaving and remarked that he would receive his salary twice a month, starting a week from this Friday. If he was getting paid, Sam assumed his work met requirements. It had proven to be a rather boring job of vacuuming floors and wiping shelves, but at least Sam could escape the monotonous rows of goods by imagining he was a character in one of his fantasy books. In that world, he could fight dragons instead of clean stores.
"Go get Samus, will you?" River asked Angela, who immediately thundered up the stairs to find her sister. "We went shopping today, and Samus was a little tired when we got back," River explained to Sam. Eyeing her son, she asked, "Do you think you'll be alright getting all your homework done tonight?"
Sam nodded vigorously. "Yeah, I'll get it all done. Don't worry, Mom," he said.
River sighed, a worried expression on her face. "Well, I was thinking maybe you should ask Samus for help with math. I know you struggle some with that subject, and I think she might be able to help," she said.
Sam scowled. "I can do it myself," he humphed, then looked down in shame at his mother's disapproving look.
"Sam, we talked about this, remember? Samus is part of the family right now. You shouldn't act that way towards her," River said.
Sam nodded. He still didn't want to ask Samus for help, though. Even if she was a math wiz, he didn't want her around and he didn't want to admit he needed her help. At that moment, however, Samus and Angela entered the kitchen and the family sat down for dinner.
Though River noticed that Samus looked somewhat less emotional, she did not press Samus much during the meal. As for the bounty hunter, she kept up a steady silence and picked at most of her food. When River showed concern, Samus responded that she was not hungry. Her mood seemed to affect everyone, even Angela, who only chatted for a third of the meal. After dinner, when the dishes were put away, Sam sat down at the table with his school tablet and scratch paper. Time to tackle math.
It was half an hour later that he finally decided to take his mother's advice. It felt like he had spent an hour on one problem, and he was getting nowhere. Face it, he told himself, you're going to have to ask Samus for help. Otherwise, you'll be stuck on this problem the rest of the night. With a sigh, he wandered upstairs, where Angela sat reading a fairytale to Samus, who didn't really seem to be focusing on the story. Angela looked up as Sam entered the bedroom. "Hi Sam, you wanta join us?" she asked cheerfully.
Sam shook his head. "No, I have homework. I actually came in because, I, uh, wondered if Samus wouldn't mind, um, helping me with math," he said. Samus blinked when he said her name as if she had just started paying attention to what was said.
"Sure," she said slowly. Both feeling awkward, Sam and Samus returned to the kitchen table.
"So, I'm having trouble with this fraction problem: add 2/5 and ¾. What I can't figure out is how to make the bottoms the same," Sam said.
"Multiply the bottom numbers," Samus answered.
"Oh. But, do I have to do something else too?" Sam asked, feeling a bit uncertain.
"What do you think? You changed the bottom, so what does that mean for the top?" Samus said. Sam thought for a minute. Then it clicked.
"Right, I need to multiply the tops too," he remembered.
With Samus' help, the homework went by much faster. At first it seemed awkward, especially since Samus didn't seem to know whether to just give him the answer or to let him figure it out on his own with a little guidance, but eventually they began to fall into a rhythm. Sam would ask a question if he was confused, and then Samus would try to ask a question to get him thinking. By the end, Sam had begun to feel that maybe having Samus around would not be so bad. She didn't act arrogant, as he had been afraid she might, and she was helping him understand his math.
"Thanks," Sam said as he closed the math app on his tablet. Samus nodded. Feeling awkward again, they parted ways, Samus heading upstairs to finish the fairytale with Angela and Sam remaining in the kitchen to tackle the reading assignment for his history class. At least reading was easy. Checking the clock, he saw with satisfaction that he still had an hour before bedtime, just enough time to get this assignment and his grammar homework done. Life was starting to look better.
