3rd Day - Just a Game

Reading time: 4 min

Photo by Caleb Woods on Unsplash

It was supposed to go wrong; only not for me.

I open the fridge and realise today was the worst possible day to lose my job. Well, ok, it’s not a real job; otherwise, I would have gotten a redundancy package and I would have been able to feed Clarissa something more appealing than this dried up half lemon. Also, if it was a real job, I wouldn’t have worried about retaliation.

Clarissa’s playing with her doll and, closing the sadly empty fridge, I realise she’s too close to the window. A sniper could easily get her.

I pick her up, close the curtains and put her on the sofa. I turn on the tv hoping to distract her for the next couple of hours.

Not everything is lost though.

A good aspect of having mobsters as your supervisors is that they don’t understand the science behind your work. They don’t know if what’s in your bag will compromise the project.

As long as I have my car, there’s hope. I can get to the Tarantelli family just out of town and sell to them every secret design I’d been stupid enough to bring with me this morning, so that Clarissa won’t starve.

It is at that moment that my car blows up.

“Daddy, what was that?” Clarissa doesn’t seem worried, just curious, God bless her, while I know we have approximately thirty seconds to live.

I look her in the eyes and smile with fatigue. It’s a clue, I say. It’s the beginning of a game.

“What game?” she asks, excited.

I tell her it’s like hide and seek, but to win we have to get to the train. She grabs her doll and rushes down the stairs with me, giggling.

I hear steps, whispers, so we hide in the bin store. Clarissa makes a face while I hold my nose, roll my eyes; she laughs, and the whispers stop outside the store.

My employer opens the door and looks at us.

“Hello guys, why don’t you join us out here? The smell is much better, I promise.”

We get out, he grabs Clarissa by the hand while two of his men show me the guns.

“You’re mister Clown-Nose!” Clarissa recognises him.

“Am I?”

“Yes. Daddy says you’re a wizard.”

“Does he?”

“Yes. He says you’ve got all you want just inside your hat.”

He looks at me. “Did he tell you that I can also make things disappear?”

“No. Can you? Please?”

“Maybe I won’t have to.” He stares at me. He knows I’ve got it, what choice do I have?

I hand over the bag, sweating, and the guns of the two men fall deeper inside their jacket.

“Mr Clown-Nose?”

“Yes, sweetheart?”

“Can you get some cake from your hat? I’m hungry.”

“Are you?” he says, then picks her up, holding her on one arm. “That’s not good. Come with me, we’ll get some breakfast.”

“You’ve got the bag,” I say. “You can let her go.”

“But she’s hungry,” he mocks me. “And she needs to learn that there are consequences for your actions.”

“Do I?”

He kisses her on her cheek. “Yes, you do, sweetheart. Let’s eat something, shall we?”

“And daddy?”

“Daddy stole a toy from me. You shouldn’t steal, you know that, right? So, now, I must punish him. Come on, let’s go.”

“You don’t even know what’s in the bag. I might be lying.”

“Stealing and lying? Cracco, open the bag.”

A good aspect of having mobsters as your supervisors is that they don’t understand the science behind your work. They don’t know if what’s in your bag will compromise the project. Or their lives.

I grin at Clarissa in that playful way she likes so much. I cover my eyes and she does the same. I hear the zip of the bag, I hear Cracco going through my stuff, and then, lastly, I hear the click of the mechanism being activated.

Everyone who has their eyes open in a one-mile radius will be blinded in the next two seconds. I don’t need a job, I don’t need a car, I don’t care if they found me. I hear the swift sound of the energy being released and I know I’m going to walk out of there with Clarissa.