I don't own Home Alone
Enjoy!
Over the weekend, Amy was glad that she had those days off. There were days when she would work her normal shift without any days off and other weekends where she would go in to work for half the day. Even though it was difficult work, she appreciated the fact that she was able to go in there, do her job, and receive her paycheck along with a generous number of tips. She wished that she could afford a couple of days off, but the rent was not going to pay itself. On Friday night, after her shift, she had spoken to her boss about Marv starting as the new busboy. Her boss had glanced over to the other man before coming to his conclusion. The diner needed some help, and to take care of the extra work that the waitresses had to do. In the end, her boss agreed that he ought to come in for an interview on Monday of next week.
"I told you had nothing to worry about." Amy had said to him as they were heading home for the night, and she could see that he felt relieved through that introduction.
On Saturday, they had spent most of the day on Amy trying to show him how he should act, sit, and talk during the interview. Oh man, was he a work in progress! There were moments when she could feel her nerve wearing thin, but she tried to keep as much of her patience as she could. Whenever she felt that nerve, she reminded herself that he was a novice in this situation.
"You think I'll be able to teach me how to act in the next two days?" Marv had asked her. From the sound of his voice, she could tell that he was growing frustrated with what he considered to be nonsense. It may have been nonsense but making a good first impression was what also helped in landing a job among other things. "This is hopeless."
He may not have believed in himself, but she believed in him. All he needed was that gentle push. "Oh, come on," she had said good-naturedly, "if anyone can do it, you can too." It sounded like such a clichéd thing to say. She didn't like to compare others, but this was only for a positive reinforcement.
Marv had sighed and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "We've been at this for…" he had looked at the clock before looking back at Amy. "Four hours!"
"And look how far you've gotten," Amy had said to him, "you're standing up straight, you look neat, you're not fidgeting with your hands, and you're looking straight at me. We still have more to go but we'll take care of that on Sunday."
Then there was Sunday. Amy had run down what they had practiced yesterday. "Now time for a little roleplay," she said as she looked over at Marv. "Pretend that I am the one interviewing you."
Marv rose an eyebrow at that before smirking. "You're gonna be the boss?"
"For once, yes," she answered him. "Now let's see that you've learned." She stood a short distance from him, taking that authoritative role to the best of her ability. She wasn't that great of an actress, since she tried to keep down her smile from taking over her role.
Marv couldn't help but chuckle at her expression. "Come on," he said to her, "we need to take this seriously!"
"Okay, okay," Amy said as she shook her head to clear her thoughts, "from the top. Go."
"Hi," Marv began as he walked towards her with an extended hand. He took her hand in his and gave it a shake. "My name is Marv Merchants. I am applying for the role of the busboy."
"How did you hear about this position?" Amy asked him.
There was a change of tone in her voice. There was not even that note of warmth in her voice when she took on this role. Was this how all bosses were? From what he recalled on Friday, Amy had spoken to her boss as if they had known each other for a long time. "Well," Marv began as he unconsciously slipped into his normal behavior, "one of your waitresses told me about the position."
"Sit up straight," Amy said to him, "you're trying to be professional not interrogate the man."
Upon her command, Marv leaned back in the chair and sat straight. "What makes you qualified for the position?"
What qualifications? The one thing that he was qualified in was being a robber. Now if those skills were able to be used in a job setting, then that would be a surprise to him. What would he be good in? Swiping away loose tips? Then again, that didn't sound like a bad idea. "You think he's gonna ask something like that?"
"He asked me when I was hired," Amy said.
Having the position of a waitress was a bit different than a busboy. For a waitress, time management was important and knowing the table numbers to where the customers sat. She did have a waitressing job at Chicago many years ago, before she was laid off. The beginning of it had been difficult before she was able to gain that experience. For a busboy, from what Amy remembered back in Chicago, they learned on the job, and many didn't have prior experience. They were all young high school students having a job on the side.
"Or maybe he won't. I believe it all depends on the years of experience you have," she said.
"Which I don't have any," Marv said to her, "look I appreciate you going beyond this for me. Maybe we can take a small break. I mean, I figured that the only thing I need to do is just mind my own business and keep out of everyone's way."
Amy sat up at that conclusion. "I don't think—"
"Come on, Amy," Marv said to her, "sooner or later they're gonna find out that I'm a convicted felon. Who's gonna wanna talk with me after that?" He got up from the chair and headed over to the window, looking outside. It was a shame that they had to spend such a beautiful day inside the apartment, rehearsing of what he was going to say at his interview.
Amy sighed as she placed the tips of her fingers on her forehead. He had been right on some things. Two days was not enough to change another person's personality. Maybe she was going overboard with her commitment, but she didn't want to let him down. She could see potential in him, only that it was clouded his silliness…which she had to admit had made her laugh the past couple of times.
"Why don't we head down to Central Park?" Marv suggested to her.
She looked up at him and nodded. "I think we can both use some fresh air."
"And forget about this," Marv said to her as he held a finger in the air. "It's making me nervous."
The air wasn't as cold as Marv thought when they headed over to Central Park. It was nice to be in this area of New York when it was daytime. The last time he remembered being here, it was with Harry when they were chasing after those two kids. He remembered that he ran after the kid's sister and they had grabbed her, only for her to escape from them much later.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Amy asked as she looked at his pensive expression.
Marv broke away from his thoughts and looked down at her. "Not really. Just how long it's been since I've last been here."
As for Amy, it was during the night. She had helped those two children escape, only for her to slip on some ice and get cornered by Harry and Marv. She may have shown bravery on the outside, but inside she was fearing for her life. Harry had taken her deeper into the park and threatened her with his gun so she could tell him where those children were. Things would have ended differently its Marv hadn't stopped Harry along with the police coming afterwards. She reached into a bag of sunflower seeds that she had bought from a food vendor at the park and sat down on one of the vacant benches. "You know," she said when Marv sat down next to her, "I've always wondered why you stopped Harry from shooting me. I thought you were loyal to him."
It was a question that Marv wished she had forgotten about but there was something deeper into it than what she may have thought. He let out a light sigh. "After spending nine months in jail, I guess he was at a point where he was losing his mind. The fact that we were beaten up by two kids, thrown in jail, and then what you had to go through he just wanted to find a way to get outta there. When I saw what he was about to do to you, that's when I thought that he had completely lost his mind. I didn't want you involved in what we were doing."
If she was to think about it, she had been involved with them ever since she had found the truth of their real intentions. "It didn't matter. I would have been dead anyway," she said to him as she took a handful of sunflower seeds from the bag.
"It wasn't your fault," Marv said to her. Just like those two kids he thought as his mind bought back that memory. They were just trying to protect their house.
Maybe not, but I was miserable Amy thought but chose not to voice her emotions about it. How would any other woman react if they found out their husband was a bandit and had a complex history of being involved with people that she didn't know about. "I'm glad he's in jail," she finally said. And she hoped that he wouldn't even try to escape.
As for Marv, he didn't know what to think about Harry being in jail. It had been his choice to cut ties with Harry and go his own way. All those years that they had worked together had meant something to Marv, but now it was all for naught. Before he could reply to her response, he heard a fluttering of wings as he looked over at Amy. "Looks like you got a visitor."
Amy turned her head to the left and smiled when she saw a white pigeon perched on the arm of the bench. "Hello little guy," she greeted the pigeon, "want some seeds?" She poured some seeds into the palm of her hand and held it towards the bird that happily began to peck at the food. Suddenly, another pigeon joined and then another until there was a small flock formed around her hand.
"Since when are you a bird whisperer?" Marv asked her.
"One of my many hidden talents," Amy said as she poured out more sunflower seeds in her hand.
There was another fluttering noise and Marv looked up at a tree to see more pigeons perched on the branches. There were…he had no idea if he was able to count them all but more than forty perched on those branches. "Uhh Amy," Marv said as his eyes remained glued at the tree, "I think we should leave."
"No, I'm enjoying this," Amy said as she cooed over to one of the pigeons, "aren't they cute?"
Yeah, sure. Cute enough to swarm around you Marv thought. "Let's get out of here," he said as he motioned over towards her arm. Instead of taking a hold of her arm, he swiped over the bag of sunflower seeds, and it fell out of her hand and onto the ground.
The moment the seeds hit the ground, Amy didn't have enough time to react for all the pigeons perched on the tree flocked towards her and Marv. She felt feathered wings hitting her face and claws grabbing onto the fabric of her clothes.
Marv felt their talons landing on the top of his head as he tried to shoo them away by flailing his arms in the air. "Get away, get away!" he yelled at the birds as he tried to get up from his seat.
"Stay still!" Amy called over the fluttering noise coming from the wings. "Let them settle and we'll get up."
Giving into her suggestion, Marv waited as the pigeons slowly began to calm down and land onto the ground to consume the rest of the seeds. "Let's get outta here," he said as he took Amy's hand and pulled her away from the birds.
Amy felt herself getting up from the bench and stumbling over to Marv, trying to keep up with his pace. "That was an experience that I will never forget," she chuckled as she wiped off a feather that was settled on her shoulder.
"And an experience that I never want to do again," Marv added as the two of them headed out of Central Park and to a place that was avian free for the remainder of the day.