"Thankyou, see you next week!"
The customer smiled at her generosity before collecting the assortment of bags in a number of tentacles. With a crinkle of plastic and squelching of flesh, Vivienne watched him leave through the furthest doors. As soon as the customers were out of her view, she dropped the act: the fake smile, bittersweet tone and somewhat condescending 'can I help you questions'.
The clock smirked, mockingly glaring down at her from the wall. The second hand baited her, ticking at an increasingly slower pace the more she watched it. Her legs ached from the strain of the day and her back even more so. All she wished was for the shift to end, for her to return to her abode and hide away from the world until tomorrow. Tomorrow when it would all begin again. She sighed at the monotony.
"Vi!" A stout yet short dark green monster called, propping up on four spindle like tentacles. "Call for you."
"Okay Gerry." She left the counter and paced towards the back office. Leaving it unattended for a few minutes certainly couldn't hurt. Spotting the receiver from the phone on its side on the desk, she rushed to pick it up. If it was the monster she thought it was, she hoped this call would not take up a huge proportion of her time.
"Hey" the low voice on the other end of the line. A simple word, yet soothing to her ears.
"Hey you". Vivienne let herself smile genuinely for the first time in the day. "How are you?"
"The usual. Better now I'm hearing your voice again." He gave a small laugh, the phone crackling in its wake. "I didn't think I would so soon but… I miss you. When can we go out for dinner sometime?"
Vivienne's back fronds and eyelids drooped in frustration.
"Ugh, its complicated right now… you know with my brother being back and all." She sighed heavily. That and another issue was making her feel awkward. "Also, I well… I haven't really told him about us or… about my job. My real job."
Then she panicked some. "But I was going to! Just… not yet."
"He'll find out sooner or later Vi. I know you said he was going through a tough time but it'll be even tougher if this goes on long enough and he finds out his sister has been lying to him."
"Not telling him about you was not a lie!" Although even at that Vivienne found her defense to be full of holes. "I was just… avoiding the situation."
"Well don't." He replied back, reassuring her. "Get your boss to get him into your work. You know, kill two birds with one stone."
"If Gerry allows it…" Vivienne muttered. The thought of such a scenario was discomforting to say the least. It made her stomach churn, stirring the flutter of butterflies. "Okay. I'll do it."
She wondered how much time had passed. Too much probably.
"I have to get back to work. Over and out."
"Over and out beautiful."
She replaced the hand receiver, sighed again and began her return to the counter. It felt like her burden would snap her spine in two with its weight. Or maybe she was over-reacting about it. Maybe he would not take it too badly. She did not have enough time to ponder further before bumping into Gerry on her way out of the office.
"Less personal calls please darling." Gerry shook his head at her and tutted. "We've talked about this…"
"Right, okay, sorry." Vivienne replied, not really fully listening. When he was behind her, she curled her lip.
Could a monster get anymore monstrous than him?
It was another couple of days before Vivienne could approach Randall on the topic of the phone conversation. She had been busy and he had been somewhat out of sight. However, as they sat at the table with their favourite drink, he appeared more approachable and she decided it better to raise it once more.
"So when do you plan on seeing them?" Vivienne asked over her Saturday morning coffee.
"I'm not sure…" Sitting across from her on the sofa, Randall ran a hand through his fronds, scattering them across his crest. "Sometime soon… I guess." He gave a shrug and embarrassingly looked away from his sister's gaze. He was beginning to get annoyed at how every time the subject was brought up, he would repeat this reaction. She raised her eyebrow and it grew suddenly quiet.
"What are you doing in this morning Vivienne? Don't you uh- have work?"
Randall had actually been surprised when he got up that morning to find his sister still in the apartment. He had barely seen her over the past two weeks as each time he had awakened she had already left the flat. Now here they were casually drinking coffee. Intuition led him to understanding that that had been due to her work hours. Before he went to university, he had heard through the grapevine and his parents that she had secured a rather comfy management position. Where or when he was not aware of, but perhaps this gave him some new lead of conversation, rather than the repetitive talk over his own situation.
"No, not today. I booked today off a while ago." Randall noticed her stiffen slightly when he mentioned it, her tail suddenly flicking slightly. Confusion overtook him at this, but for the moment, he decided to ignore it.
"Oh, okay…" Hoping to continue the course of the conversation, he decided to press further. "Um, what is it exactly you do Vivienne?"
"Oh, you know… the general manager stuff. Overviewing paperwork, managing people." She smiled wryly. "Well, you can't expect a manager to not manage right?"
Randall smirked. He drank the coffee in front of him with greed. "Depends on the quality of the manager."
"Enough of the provoking you!" She smirked back, laughing slightly. He laughed along.
"That's why I'm your brother!"
'This is something new from him…' she thought internally. He had never really made a sarcastic remark at her when she was younger. But heck, he was older, wiser and perhaps building some of the confidence he once had back. She welcomed this newly released aptitude. However, her thoughts returned to her parents
"They thought it was me didn't they." She suddenly said in seriousness. Randall stopped and nodded. He rolled his eyes.
"Guess I should have seen that one coming." His gaze hardened. "But you should not have to take my falls for it. My decision has and always will be my own."
If Vivienne had eyebrows, one would be arched.
"Still though, like I said, I'm just not ready to see them yet…"
She understood his emotional turbulence more than she let him know at that point. The whole experience transported her back two years prior, an unsettling time warp. She felt the relief of following her own path yet the icy guilt of falling short in her parent's expectations. Fear had taken over her, beginning to poison every decision. She felt like a tightrope walker with not net to catch her if she fell, venturing singularly across trying to balance new priorities and new problems. Overall, she had been rather lucky in the following months, adapting to her new environment.
Despite her own gratitude for her self-accomplishments, analyzing the details with her brother in front of her was making her feel sick. She had not been completely truthful to her family. She could live with not being truthful to her parents, but it felt overwhelmingly wrong to do this to her brother. Her exemplary efforts over the past few weeks caused her to coil her tail even further in a shadow of shame. It would happen soon, the tidbits of information had to come out at some point. Maybe all she needed to do is point the situation in the right direction.
"Will you be searching for a job then?"
He looked at her again with that hint of anxiety.
"Probably… well, I don't really even know where to start."
"Well…. maybe in the meantime… perhaps… you can come and help out round the store?"
"Your store?"
"Well… of course!" She rolled her eyes. Was this telling lies now?
"Sure." He nodded once, then returned to his coffee. Vivienne decided to say no more about it. Expression neutral, he decided to focus more on the drink slipping down his throat than his sister's proposal. Not that he was anxious at all to be in another monsters company besides his sisters.
'Oh grow up' he told himself. It calmed his mind some, yet he still felt the remnants of butterflies.
"Let's go out for a walk." Vivienne said, finally getting to her feet and stretching her back. "I could do with the fresh air." When Randall initially made no attempt to move, she looked down at him and repeated her eye roll.
"And so do you!"
Randall barely had time to finish his coffee before he was grasped by his upper wrist and pulled out the door.
AUTHORS NOTE = the scene with Vivienne in the store felt right. I decided to write that after I had completed the following passage. I'm trying to go easy with the pace; I guess its part of evolving as a writer but I'm wondering what exactly to include and not to include over this ten year period before Monsters Inc. I don't want this story to be too slow for you guys in that it gets tedious and a chore to read, but then I feel a certain bit of mundane is needed. That's how life goes, it gets more interesting at points, then it becomes a routine until something else happens to peak interest.
Feel free to write my criticism. I'd prefer if it was constructive as then I understand what is liked in addition to what is not liked. However, whilst I may still receive criticism, I must state that after having a writers block for so long, I'm enjoying being back in the saddle again and don't intend to stop anytime soon.