“Josie and Dhanesh, help me unpack these things,” Steve hollered from the back room.
The two walked over. “We were just leaving,” Josie said. “The registers are closed. The store is clean. The garbage is in the dump. Can it wait until tomorrow?”
Steve stared at her and cast an impatient sneer. “If it could wait until tomorrow, I wouldn’t have asked you now.”
Josie and Dhanesh looked at each other with knowing glances. They hated the night manager. Hated him with a passion. “Sure, Steve,” she finally replied. “No sweat.”
Steve set the three boxes in the center of the floor. “Open ‘em up and stock the front cases with them. Whatever doesn’t fit, put ‘em on the tie-in shelf.”
“A new tie-in?” Dhanesh asked. “Ooh, what’s it this time?” Dhanesh loved the tie-ins. He hoarded them and sold the harder to find ones on eBay. Working at McDonald’s had its rewards, however few they were.
Josie opened her box first. “Ouija boards? Are we trying to bring Colonel Sanders back to worm the secret recipe out of him?”
Dhanesh snickered. Steve didn’t even crack a grin. Typical. “No,” he muttered. “It’s a tie-in for Steven Spielberg’s new “Ouija” movie.”
“Strange tie-in,” Josie said as she unpacked. “Kind of occultist, isn’t it? What if someone tries to reach one of Satan’s minions?”
Steve had already been trained to answer just such a question. He held up one of the boards and pointed to the small print at the bottom. “See,” he said. “This toy is for recreational use only.”
“Ah, I stand corrected,” Josie replied. “Guess calling up the evil dead isn’t considered recreational.”
Again Dhanesh snickered. Steve merely sighed and rolled his eyes. They unpacked the boxes in silence after this.
That is, until…
“Hey Dhanesh,” Josie said as she stocked the last board. “Isn’t this store supposed to be haunted?”
“So they say. I dunno. Whenever something gets bumped, broken, or burned, the management blames it on a ghost. Personally, I think they’re covering up for the rat problem.”
|
