What Brought You In Today?

What Brought You In Today?

by Hunter Red

As her brother dropped her off for her first day, the building Rinae was going to be working in looked cute to her.  A large gray block adorned with green diamonds in the middle of an exclusively industrial area might not look cute, but the eternal optimist in Rinae always shines through.  Well, nearly always.

Before he left, with the cool spring breeze flowing through his hair, Rinae's brother asked if Rinae needed a ride home.

"No, there's a bus I can catch that'll take me home."

Rinae was right, there was a bus, she had checked that morning.  Rinae's ride left and Rinae went into the cute building to work.  There was some time before her shift started, so Rinae figured she'd check her route home again just to make sure.  She pulled her phone out and started to find the route online.  This took a while to accomplish due to the transit authority's website being old and antiquated, and the cell reception in Rinae's workplace going in and out, more out than in.  Eventually Rinae did confirm that there would be a bus waiting to pick her up and take her home when she got off of work.  All she'd have to do is walk to get to the bus stop.  "A mile and a half isn't that far to walk, right?"  This is what Rinae said to herself as she tapped her toes, clad in the cute shoes she had bought herself the previous day.

Rinae's first day at work wasn't all that eventful.  In fact, it was uneventful.  All Rinae did at work was work and work related activities.  Sure there was dinner, but Rinae didn't bring anything to eat and the selection to be had in the various vending machines wasn't particularly appetizing to her.  Nothing much happened in the world inside where Rinae worked but the world outside where Rinae worked was a different story.  The cool spring breeze that had blown through Rinae's brother's hair had turned into a wind more reminiscent of autumn.  Now the breeze had the kind of chill in it that goes through your skin, runs down your back, and flows through every artery in your body.  Also, there was rain.  Not much, just the kind of spitting rain that chills and annoys more than drenches.  This was the environment Rinae met when she left work, but she faced it with her chin held high and her eyes looking to the setting sun.

At least she would have been facing the setting sun were it actually there.  With the late hour and the height of the mountains, the sun had long since left view.  Now the sky was dark, a darkness that enveloped the landscape that sat underneath it.  The building Rinae works in, once cute and charming, now looked ominous set against the poorly developed industrial area that it sat in.  It is in this environment that Rinae started her walk to the bus stop, the kind of environment parents warn their daughters about.

Rinae started her walk on a long stretch of sidewalk that lined one of the roads near her work.  The moment they hit the pavement, Rinae's shoes and the sidewalk became a walking example of contrasts.   The sidewalk was dirty, broken in parts, had long weeds growing through it, but still functioned well as a walking surface.  Rinae's shoes were stylish, elegant, had a hint of visual flair, but were not in any context comfortable to walk in.  With every step she took on the inelegant sidewalk, Rinae’s elegant shoes were causing her feet to take up a bigger spot in the pain center of her mind.  Rinae didn't like having to walk upon the sidewalk, but liked even less the increasing amount of pain her shoes were causing her.  However, Rinae pressed on, because she knew where her goal was, and her goal laid at the end of that very inelegant sidewalk.

The sidewalk sat between two things that were hostile to pedestrians.  On the one side was the road, a road that cars drove much faster on than the posted speed limit and had no places to stop for a rest, or for anything.  Every car that passed Rinae caused the wind to whip past her, wind that seemingly lowered Rinae’s body temperature half a degree with every chilling blast.  On the other side of the sidewalk was a mix of underdeveloped nothing.  There were large warehouses with equally large parking lots, both of which were mostly emptied long before Rinae’s workday had ended.  These spaces weren’t completely empty, and Rinae didn't like the look of the few vehicles that were left.  There were also open fields filled with weeds, trees, bushes, and other forms of vegetation that had not seen trimming in decades.  All of this vegetation gave potential cover for any number and kind of deviant.  Rinae didn’t know for certain if any of those deviants existed in this area.  Actually she didn’t know the area at all.  The chasm of knowledge, both of the occupants of the cars and of the occupants of the vegetation, that existed in Rinae’s mind was quickly filled with what she thought was possible, and, given the darkness of the area, the warning from her parents, and recent news reports that she had heard, the thoughts that filled the chasm were very dark and very very painful.  Every time the wind blew she thought she heard something, thought she saw something, and feared the possibility of both.  The possibility of the unknown caused Rinae to hobble as quickly as her uncomfortable shoes would allow her to.

Finally, Rinae reached the end of her journey and saw the bus stop, a bus stop adorned with two signs.  One sign told of the routes that served this stop, a sign that looked very similar to all the other ones in this mass transit system.  The other sign told of the routes that were currently being detoured, as well as the reasons why.  One of the routes being detoured, and due to that detour not servicing this particular bus stop, was the bus Rinae was hoping to catch.

“What!  Why didn’t the website tell me of this detour!”

As she continued to curse out the transit system that had fed her wrong information without using actual swear words, Rinae was left with two choices.  One: Wait for another bus, one which may or may not be coming any time soon.  Two: Call her brother to pick her up.  Rinae looked around for information about the other busses, but, much like on the transit authority’s website, good information was non-existent.  Exhausted, Rinae decided to pull out her cell phone and call her brother, hoping that she would be getting cell phone service out in this part of town.  As it turn out, Rinae could not get service on her cell phone.  This was not due to cell reception going in and out, much like it was in the cute building Rinae just started working in.  This was due to it being rather impossible for a cell phone to get service when it lacks the power necessary to do so.  Rinae was stuck, again.  The way she saw it she had two choices, again.  Either wait for a bus that might not be coming, or put herself through torture again, going back the way she came to work and use one of the phones that surely existed therein.  Rinae did not like either of her choices, and the breeze was beginning to whip itself in a way that chilled Rinae from the top of her head to her elegantly aching toes.  Rinae had to make a choice, and the passage of time was not being particularly kind to her.

“So, I summed up all my courage, and walked back the way I came, through the area I feared walking through before, got back to work, charged my phone up a little so I could get my brother’s number, called him, ripped him out of bed, got him down to where I work, and started going home.  As my brother pulled onto the freeway, I made a vow to myself: I was going to go to that car dealership down the road that I always walk past.  I was going to buy a car.”

Sitting across the desk from Rinae was a middle aged woman in a nice business suit.  She didn’t know how exactly to react to the bulk of the story that was just laid upon her, but the saleswoman did know how to react to the last part.

“Miss, that’s all you had to say.”

“What?”

“You want to buy a car today.  That’s all you had to say.”

“Oh.  I’m sorry.”

“Please, don’t be.  You want to buy a car today, and I want to sell you a car today. Now, let’s go out to the lot and see if there’s anything you like.  Once you pick something out, we can go about getting you financing.”

Rinae felt relieved, and was able to enjoy herself for the moment, laughing at having told a stranger her story.  Rinae felt relief right up until the salewoman said the word financing.