“Blink”
By
Sarang
It's 2040 and society changed, in ways we never imagined. This isn't your Philip K. Dick or Orwell's Science Fiction story. Sure you may
see some similarities but we finally found a secure path, one completely unexpected by me and the world.
My name is...well, it's not what it used to be for a blink of a millisecond. In a world where the NSA seems to snoop on all sorts of electronic communication, hiding behind the argument “Metadata is completely unidentifiable” while NASA or Homeland Security can already plant mini-camera's in fruit flies or a another fly species...they place it in the larva. So with this kind of invasive spying, how can we secure our privacy...I was about to find out.
Out of nowhere he came and delivered me a message, most was cohesive but then he prattled off some nonsense then I noticed the way he was behaving....I figured he was mentally ill but I couldn't quite hash what it was yet. I was so distracted that it took me a second later to notice I was wearing the same set of clothes but I registered a weight on my chest.
Now I figured I was a woman but before I had barely registered it when I felt my body return to being a man.
I did remember one thing he called it...”The Invisible Man's Telegrams”.
This will be part of a larger story and tangential to another Uni that I feel compelled to write.
Anyway this drabble/story is copyright of Sarang, November 21, 2017. Anyone who wishes to post, publish or reprint my story anywhere else must ask for permission from me.
SRU: The Perfect Scalpel
“Fuck! I can't believe it happened again”, Mike said, his eyes beginning to tear up. This was the 5th patient Mike had lost in 8 months. The autopsy had shown no malpractice, no items left in the body but almost all of the time there was always something nagging in the periphery. Most of his colleagues thought he was a great doctor and the problems that showed up in the autopsies were the kind of problems that only the most keen-eyed of doctors would pick up.
Despite what you may think doctors aren't perfect and they make mistakes. Despite how it sounds, Mike wasn't the worst of them either. Mike knew plenty of his colleagues who had become his superiors, failing up. He had even heard rumors that the heads of Oncology and Neurology at his hospital had made mistakes, a Cancer showing a recurrence, an underlying bleed in the brain not truly being solved. Luckily those patients hadn't died but the symptoms had shown up again, the Cancer recurring in a different position.
These donors were called honeypots, as they donated a tremendous amount of money to the hospital and the aforementioned doctors specifically. When it came time to have surgery they made excuses to the patients citing other conditions. Incredibly enough, these patients still asked for these chief surgeons to operate on them. The Chief Surgeons passed this off to their juniors as they truly weren't in the best physical condition to operate on them in the first place and the hospital didn't want to worry about the liability; however, on the sheet the Chief Surgeons were listed as the main surgeons in the OR.
Mike would've been in worse straits if not for his caring nature. He was one of the best doctors out there in consoling grieving families and just giving general great customer service. Despite his reputation around the hospital staff in receiving the nickname “Doctor Death”, patients still requested him to perform their surgeries.
Concluding this last surgery, Mike was truly distraught. To put it plainly, Mike was devastated. He was even sharper than he had ever been and was depressed, in the greatest funk. Mike stayed at home despite being on call and was in a drunken stupor when one of his friends at the hospital had checked on him at home. After this, he was put on Administrative leave but not let go. Most of the hospital employees knew Mike and some were even friends with him. He might have been called “Doctor Death” but they never called him that to his face as they knew he took these situations hard enough.
It was during one of these drunken stupors that Mike found himself at one of the malls around town. He didn't exactly reek of liquor but his suit was slightly crumpled and he looked a bit disheveled. Glancing around, his mind cleared a bit and he tried to remember how he got there. He remembered walking for a while but why he came to the mall who knew. After starting to look at the mall storefronts one immediately stood out: “Spells R Us”. Mike was intrigued as it was a definite contrast visually to most of the other stores. Its layout seemed quite unconventional and he had never saw a store like this in all of his 32 years.
Mike proceeded to head in and upon opening the door he heard the tinkle of a bell. Searching around the door, Mike realized the word “unconventional” was putting it mildly for the store layout. Items ranged from blowup dolls, makeup to Ming Dynasty vases to Koryo Celadon to name a few. The sheer range was staggering. Mike proceeded to take a closer look at the Celadon. “Simply astounding, this is such an extraordinary piece. How could something so old be kept in such pristine condition?!” Mike was flabbergasted.
“Well it so happens magic has its ways to get around the temporal distortion that most things suffer with age,” the Wizard responded. Wondering how the old man in a bathrobe had happened to read his thoughts, Mike saw him point up at a sign saying, “Yes I'm a Wizard”. Inwardly Mike rolled his eyes, thinking that the “wizard” might have simply read his face and surmised things accordingly. “Look Mike, believe what you will. Anyway I saw you peeking at that Koryo Celadon but that's not what you're looking for. I know you deeply care about your patients as a doctor and are beyond frustrated at how many you've lost. I have something that can fix your problems no questions asked.” the Wizard responded. The Wizard proceeded to open a nice lacquered case one might see used to hold a very expensive pen and Mike saw a scalpel. This scalpel appeared like any other scalpel he had worked with except that it had been polished to an immaculate sheen.
Eying the Wizard with suspicion, he proceeded to open his mouth and the Wizard cut him off, “Yes I know, I know you're skeptical so here's the deal. I want $20 for this and if you're not satisfied I will refund you the full amount; however if you're satisfied, feel free to pay me $1000 in additional compensation. Usually I don't say that but I think you'll be tremendously fortunate after using the scalpel, more so than some of my previous customers”.
After hearing this addendum Mike raised his eyebrow, waiting for the catch...”Some extraordinary measures see a sacrifice, not necessary of one's soul either but one that can be similarly profound”, the Wizard responded. Mike thought about all the hours of Medical School he toiled over, promising that he wouldn't lose someone else and what had happened presently. Resigned yet steadfast, he handed over the $20 while the wizard proceeded to place the scalpel back in its case.
“In order for the scalpel to work properly you must use it the next time you have a surgery. Also, don't worry about sterilizing it beforehand or anything like that, nothing will be effected”, the Wizard responded.
One month later
After a hard week sobering up, Mike proceeded to get back on his feet. It took at least 2 weeks to truly feel like he was back on par at the hospital, at least what was par for him. Even then 2 weeks after he firmly stopped drinking, even for social calls, a patient who was a favorite of Mike's asked for him to operate on her. She was in her 60's with a kindness that felt contagious with anyone she met. Mike told her she would have to wait at least 2 weeks and she agreed. Mike wanted to feel completely lucid for her surgery.
He wanted to suggest someone, anyone except those chiefs but he knew she would insist. In fact most of the surgical wing tried to politely suggest another but she would not have anyone else. She was quite stubborn even if she was kind. She was also keen of hearing and easily heard some other surgeons speculating on operating on her, requesting that Mike forge his name on the sheets so that was out.
The day of the surgery he took the scalpel out of the lacquer box, placed it in the “sterilization unit” and let it run. After this he scrubbed up and put the latex gloves on and went into the OR. The unit had run its course and the scalpel was no longer hot. If you were wondering how Mike knew which scalpel to grab when the surgery started, the sheen was still there and unmistakable.
As soon as he grabbed it, he felt an energy run through him. His surgery speed was respectable before but now he seemed almost as swift as lightning. A clarity ran through him at about the end of the surgery as well. Before he closed up like he normally would have he noticed something that most doctors would never pick up but he zoomed in on it like a hawk. He noticed the problem and then closed her up. As he was about to leave the OR, he placed his hand on the upper part of her chest, right below the collar bone then walked outside.
The rush left him, but the clarity remained. He headed to the cafeteria and grabbed 6 or 7 syrup containers along with a glass and headed up to the roof. He dumped the contents of the containers into the glass and almost proceeded to drink it in one shot.
He was so weary from the surgery that only now could he take stock of the situation. Suddenly he noticed that everything he had seen after heading out of the surgery room was in Japanese, even the cafeteria and he never gave it a second thought.
Also it began to set in that he felt differently...looking down he noticed a pair of breasts tenting his shirt along with wearing a skirt. None of these clothes were standard uniform. Already suspicious of what he might find, he made a conscious decision to enter the women's restroom. Looking in the mirror and raising an eyebrow at most , he decided that the moniker “she” would be more appropriate.
Looking at the name tag, she found that her name was Michiko Daimon. Her outfit, while not terribly casual, was not even close to the formal wear expected in hospitals. She glanced at her makeup, high heels and earrings then walked out.
She walked back to the office, feeling some nagging feeling in the back of her mind. While walking back she considered going back to the patient's room but passed on that. This decision really bothered her as she always remembered checking up and chatting with patients after their surgeries or even just generally observing them. She also ran into the Head of Surgery doing his rounds and he asked her to join him. She steadfastly refused, pointedly reminding him that it was not in her contract to do anything but surgery or related to surgery.
After this she was mortified, thinking how this would reflect on her in the future. She might dislike or even have little respect for her superiors, finding that most of them gained their positions through Nepotism or almost blind Favoritism, but she would not slight them for fear of her job. This and the fact that she didn't want to hurt her friend's positions.
She passed them by, walked into the office and proceeded to sit down and start looking for promising surgeries that would also challenge her. These would also coincidentally net her a lot of money. At this time she was still in shock. Mike could accept he was now Michiko but her behavior was still surprising.
The time was currently 4:30 p.m. After about 30 minutes browsing potential surgeries Michiko realized what that nagging/anxious feeling in her head had been...it was how much time she had left before she was to leave. As soon as 5 p.m. hit, she took off her doctor's coat, logged out, got up and left immediately.
She remembered that she was in Japan and noticed she could speak fluent Japanese. She was clueless where she was supposed to go home to now though. Suddenly memories started flooding her head, she already knew her name was Michiko Daimon but she remembered her time studying medicine in Cuba, doing surgeries in war zones et so on. The memories kept coming in and she sat down for a minute to get her mind adjusted to things. She remembered she was the best freelance surgeon in all of Japan and no one could match her.
Now knowing where home was, Michiko headed back. After returning home, she decided to open up a beer and play a rousing game of Mahjong. She knew was about to win this one...then she failed. Suddenly she remembered previous games where she almost always lost, with her boss always managing to pull a “Ron” or another move out at the last minute. After bemoaning this loss, she decided to head out to the club and start dancing to make up for this and enjoy herself.
Quietly cataloging these changes all the while, Michiko now understood what the wizard had meant by profound changes. She was unusually brusque with her superiors which she still kind of minded. She was curt with the patients which she hated as she truly cared for them. When she thought about her attitude with her fellow employees she did mind in some respects: however, some of them were truly dangerous in the OR due to their hubris. While she didn't mind those who brown-nosed if they were competent this was usually not true. Generally the ones who brown-nosed were too focused on this than doing their job.
She found she got used to the dancing, playing Mahjong and the occasional bout of Ping-pong with Jonouchi-san and even shopping. It definitely relived some of the stress she remembered building up when she was Mike.
This pattern of behavior at work and home continued for a number of months. At first she had cautiously began to see that none of her OR patients had come back at 2 months and by now 6 months had passed. She might have missed the old way she interacted with her fellow doctors and the patients but she preferred living patients over dead ones. As for the former, she had at least one colleague she was on good terms. Because of the patients more than anything, she lamented the loss of her old personality less and less and slowly but surely merged with the current personality until there was only Michiko Daimon.
The bosses didn't even bear considering to his old personality as circumstances here were even more repugnant when it came to her superiors.
She returned to “Spells R Us” in a Ginza shopping mall. After she walked into the store, she curtly placed 80,000 Yen onto the counter. “I'll give you the 20,000 Yen after I finish this next surgery as I'm almost broke. I only have 2,000 Yen left after handing you the 80,000”, Michiko said.
“I forgot that you always seem to be broke regardless of how much cash you always make after each surgery. Remember that you aren't perfect, surgeons can fail Michiko” the Wizard said.
“Shinpai shinai no de (I never fail)”, Michiko said with confidence and walked out, never looking back.
Fin
Copyright Sarang as much as it can be.
Character of Michiko Daimon of "Doctor X" owned by TV Asahi.
Thank you to Patricia Marie Allen for her editing. Domo Arigatou.
“Oh jeez, another big American Pop group performing at the mega concert hall around. Please just gag me with a knife or a rusty spoon” Craig muttered, putting down the newspaper he just bought at the gas station. “Why do I even bother to hope, in the Midwest or the dead spot of the U.S. for foreign musical groups? I mean I know Chicago scores sometimes but generally most popular foreign groups may hit the coasts and that's it. Sure there are SOME foreign artists at cultural events but they're generally no name and some, if not most, are traditional music.”
Cracking open the soda he bought, Craig proceeded to head home in his car. Jeez, even one big KPop group would be great, preferably a girl group, he thought. Craig liked some of the boy bands but a lot of them didn't have the same spark that H.O.T., Shinhwa and others had while the girl groups still had quite catchy beats with a nice edge at times too. It didn't hurt they always like quite cute or beautiful as well.
The videos weren't difficult to look at as well, it was crazy how much was on display. The dance moves themselves were quite forward, he almost thought they were worse than what he'd seen from some American female artists. He couldn't believe how the market had gone from “Sung In Suk” by Park JiYoon being quite forward but not provocative to this.
Maybe it was the comparative narrowness of the market for girl's and girl groups or maybe it was the pay. He heard that groups were paid pennies per song, including the writers. Apparently getting a sponsor by way of a product endorsement was the gravy train, or using your fame to try to transition successfully into Drama's. There was the 20 Million Won club. Still, some like Honey Family who founded YG and Park Jin Young founded JYP which was doing quite well.
When he got home he decided to check the streaming sites, seeing if any good video's had come up. He came upon a really bizarre group which was called “The Seven Deadlies” called “Release” whose song was just as captivating as the video. Part of the song had a rap hook in which one of the members started slowly feeling up one of the other member's bodies...said member also did the obligatory pelvic thrust and grind. It looked like...no, he looked closer and it appeared she was almost fingering her partner but it was so subtle most people might have missed it.
A bit of it focused on soft bondage, but there was a bit of harder stuff with tight leather bodysuits on that left nothing to the imagination. A cat o'nine tails was hinted at by a few quick shots done during the video with a pictured gasp at the end. That's not subtle at all is it, Craig thought.
Curious about the group he proceeded to find out more, being referred to the official site. Strangely enough, it was actually a .us site. Seeing various tabs, he looked at the “Auditions” one and clicked.
story copyright of Sarang, all rights reserved. If you wish to post this on another site, you need my permission and need to credit me as well.
It seemed to list an audition site in Houston. Deciding this was too good to be true he decided to make the drive down. Maybe he would be able to see a free performance but if not he still wouldn't mind paying. Airfare plus the cost of tickets would be much more expensive in New York or LA, not to mention the cost of a hotel room or hostel.
He swore when first watching the video there were seven of them, but after watching it again there seemed to only be 5 or 6.
Clicking on the link an audition site listed for Houston popped up. Deciding this was too good to be true he decided to make the drive down. Maybe he would be able to see a free performance but if not he still wouldn't mind paying. Airfare plus the cost of tickets would be much more expensive in New York or LA, not to mention the cost of a hotel room or hostel.
Watching the music video again he couldn't wait to get down in Houston to watch them live. The second time he watched he saw only 5 or 6 members but remembering the first viewing he swore there were 7 on screen. I must be seeing things, he thought after rubbing his eyes.
Getting ready to leave his apartment he first found a couple days worth of clean clothes and threw them into a black duffel bag. After packing up, he grabbed his debit card and booked a hotel room for a couple days on the outskirts of the city. No use paying those exorbitant rates for a city room, he thought.
Checking his Honda Hatchback one last time, finding everything ready along with his apartment locked and the alarm set everything seemed perfect to run off to Houston. "Wait! The keys to the car?! Where are they?!", he thought. He looked all around his car, panicked. Taking a deep breath to calm himself down he slowly glanced around until he found the keys on the passenger seat and nearly face-palmed. He breathed a sigh of relief and then...what about work?! No, no I talked to them a couple of days ago about getting 3 days off. Whew.
Before he could let his panic take him again, he grabbed the keys, placed them into the ignition and started the car. He stopped at a few convenience and grocery stores to get a quick bite here and there as well as a quick fill-up. That last sandwich he would not forget and promised to get himself a bite to eat at a grocery store the next thing as that Chicken Club sandwich was terribly salty. All in all, a fairly unremarkable journey to Houston.
Arriving at the hotel at 7 pm, it looked fairly nice, albeit nondescript. It had the sort of sturdy, unremarkable resemblance you saw in many of the mid-priced hotels. There were little distinguishing touches but it was very run of the mill, like those model homes you saw churned out or as that song goes about "ticky-tacky" and houses looking the same.
Walking up to the front desk, he picked up his room card, red with a white stripe or was it the other way around? Ehhh, who cared. Heading up to his room on the 3rd floor 300, he entered and saw a room refrigerator to his left. Opening the door he felt around. Surprisingly he felt a light touch of cold air, not enough to chill the 6 pack he was about to get over at the liquor store across the street. Inquiring with his eyes as to where the knob might be to control the air, he finally found it on the inside of the door. Noticing it was at 5 and cranked it up to 10, the max.
Before he headed out, he remembered to grab the spare key to get back in the room as this had one of those systems that had an auto-shutoff feature to the room and he didn't want to take a chance with the fridge. So he left the room, took the elevator, exited the hotel crossed the intersection and entered the store. Looking around at the stock they had, he gave the store a general perusal. Hmmm, not a bad selection. Grabbing a six-pack of a Dutch beer he liked that was more than passable, he noticed a $2 beer of what seemed to be near a 200 hops rating and sounded like a local brand. What the hell, I'll give it a shot. Unlike music bands, Craig never hesitated on local beers as even if they failed to match his tastes he appreciated their experimenting. He had found some great local beers in Kansas and Missouri as well as Nebraska that way, much more than the bland, no taste national brews so many places seemed to hock with weekly sale prices.
Heading up to the cash register the clerk proceeded to ring up his purchases and Craig asked about the addresses location. He was careful not to mention it was a girl groups audition. After all, he didn't want to be considered weird...either being thought a peeping Tom to watch in or to audition and receiving a quirked eyebrow from the clerk.
"Why would you want to go there?" the clerk asked.
"What do you mean?" Craig asked.
"Well it's a pretty dingy part of town, the part that you really don't want to be caught alone or even with anyone at night. If I can't dissuade you from going there go during they day...there's a much better chance you won't be stabbed then."
Craig was a bit taken aback...he still wanted to go but he decided to be much more guarded when heading there. He decided his first stop the next morning would be to get a taser....better yet, he would make sure it was one of the ones that shot darts out. Not good for multiple attackers, but at least if one man approached him with a knife he would drastically decrease the chance of getting stabbed.
Seeing his resolute face, Craig explained to him he would be careful and get some protection. Sighing he told Craig how to get there. Sure Craig could use Google maps or some other GPS app. but he always liked to hear about a few landmarks to reassure him he was going the right way.
Arriving back at his hotel room, Craig pulled one of the beers from the 6 pack as it was ice-cold from the store's fridge. Throwing the rest of the beers and the heady lager in the fridge he picked up the remote and turned on the TV. Noticing it landed on a right wing "news" channel he changed it. Ugh, it landed on a left wing "news" channel now. After flipping through the channels he stopped at a Chinese local channel. While there were no English subtitles on the channel he didn't mind as it was airing what looked to be a pretty action packed Martial Arts film. It could've been dubbed and he would've understood it but he couldn't stand them, the goofiness of the lips not matching the audio and they always had the worst voices but especially it was the sync. It just drove him absolutely nuts, seeing the lips off-sync. It's like an editor seeing a published article littered with spelling errors...you just want to sit the author down, proofread and correct the whole thing.
He continued to watch the TV until 10 pm, when he checked the fridge and heard his stomach growling. He remembered an app. he used up north for food delivery and proceeded to plug in the zip code and look for pizza recommendations. He saw 10 pizza places mentioned, 4 or 5 chains and took a glance over the local ones. He even saw one that delivered Growlers of the local drafts around. He picked that one out, not for the Growlers as he didn't want a heavy hangover waking up...no he picked that one as their menu of toppings and crusts looked stellar. Einkorn and Kamut crust...hmmm, he decided to take the leap.
Ordering the pizza with a sauce that had a light touch of basil and a few Heirloom tomatoes(mostly Roma though), some Oyster mushrooms, Cauliflower, some green peppercorn and that was it. He was considering putting some Kaffir limes leaves on but that might conflict with the basil and he wanted to taste the basil . Oh and the crust had a light dusting of Truffle mushroom applied...yum. In his haste to order he almost forgot to add the local Mozzarella. It would be a couple of bucks extra but it was locally made and given the variety of topping listed on the site and their dedication to the crust, both grain and otherwise, he doubted they would do him wrong.
Almost done with the order form, he wondered if he should take a peek at grabbing a beer regardless....maybe not Growler size but something smaller. He opened the door to the refrigerator, fished out the $2 beer, found it nice and cold and peeked at the alcohol content. 8 or 9%, like a Tripel?!, his eyes goggled while he made the order sans beer. After he finished the beer, even with eating the medium pizza to soften it, it would still give him a nice buzz to go to sleep.
Order made, it said it might take 20-30 minutes being located in main downtown. Printing his receipt, he headed out 15 minutes later. He made a quick stop at the ATM for a $20 withdrawal then entered the lobby. Waiting for about 10 minutes more, he saw a Mitsubishi electric pop up with a sign on top that said "Francesca's Pizza". It drove under the lobby awning, a man came in calling his name, he got up, showed his receipt and gave him a $5 tip on the $16 pizza. The man thanked him then ran out in a hurry. He had heard that this pizza spot was a favorite among students and now was the perfect time to sock away a pie while fervently, almost feverishly studying away in a haze.
Craig opened the box just a peek and the steam and smell wafted out, assailing his senses causing him almost to drool like a bell had been rung. He wasn't alone as the man in the lobby on the phone almost dropped it for a split-second. "I'm sorry sir, I'll be back with you in a minute," the man replied semi-contritely after realizing his error.
"Is that one of Francesca's pies?" the man asked.
"Why yes, yes it is" Craig replied smugly.
"Which one is it? Oh what am I saying?! All of her pies are like that."
Craig told him about the pie. "Oh God." Imagine the salivation and drool hitting the floor. "Ummm, do you mind?" Craig took another look at the pie and noticed that it was pretty heady on toppings. "Francesca does NOT skimp on those toppings young man". Craig decided to give the man a piece as even though it was a medium he didn't think he'd be able to finish it tonight. It was not a deep-dish still, mind you, it just looked to have a surprising sturdiness to being hand-tossed. Taking a large bite and pausing to savor the flavor of the crust as well as the collective toppings, the man noted Craig's questioning look..."Don't worry, it might have some of the sturdiness of a deep-dish but you will definitely get that fresh taste you always notice about hand-tossed". Closing his eyes again in euphoria, the man gave him a look of respect..."You chose the local mozzarella didn't you?! Man you made a great choice but they also do a stellar cashew cheese and she has a nice, hearty Marinara if you choose that includes some Shiitake broth in it. Gives it a nice hearty flavor. I've gone on for too long about this food and need to get back to work before my boss chews my ass out. Anyway, thanks for the slice and if you'd like I'll give you some of the staff breakfast next morning in thanks. Each of us takes turns cooking it. None of us are spectacular but it beats the cereal and milk you'll get otherwise of the waffles.".
After his conversation with the employee in the lobby he headed back into his room ready to dig into the pizza. Turning the television back on, he noticed the Chinese channel was no longer airing the news. Instead the channel was airing what looked like a Chinese action movie or series, he wasn't really sure. It seemed fairly exciting and well put together so he continued to watch.
Even when he opened the box this time around it didn't diminish the smell and a bit of steaming was wafting out. Pulling out a slice of pie he took a taste...man was it heavenly and the crust tasted quite fresh, even if it was studier than the average hand-tossed. Wow that Mozzarella was worth it as well! Taking a chance after finishing the slice, he picked up the next one, finished it to the heel and waited. Craig waited to let his mouth clear then took a bite of the crust. Oh wow, that Truffle dusting was excellent. It was so hard to describe, the taste of Truffles always had a nice, distinctive taste but had a bit of funkiness you expect from mushrooms. Only those who had tasted stronger mushrooms could understand what he meant as he had had Shiitake's before though those were more hardy than anything.
Next, he cracked open the beer and proceeded to drink it with the rest of the pizza. Correction, a little over half of the pizza. The employee wasn't kidding, he was stuffed. That was some great pizza. The beer wasn't bad as well, having a strong hops taste that wasn't off putting.
About 30 minutes after this, he started to feel a buzz and continued to watch the show. Fifty minutes later, he started to feel drowsy and decided to turn the TV off. Seeing a quick flash on the blank screen, he thought it was a woman but it was so fast. It must've just been his imagination. The beer was starting to hit him after he laid his head down on the bed and it was off to dreamland.
When he woke up the next morning, with the sun showing through the blinds, he felt a bit groggy but no headache. Deciding to head down to the lobby after seeing what the employee breakfast was about, he headed down there after finishing a slice of the pizza to temporarily assuage his hunger.
After he reached the employee, he was directed very quickly to where the employees were eating. The employee noticed Craig's grogginess and asked what he preferred...Coffee or tea? “I'll take the tea”. “Good choice, it's Green tea and organic. Deciding it was cheaper to just buy loose leaf than packets we all noticed Organic wasn't that much more expensive either”. Pouring him a mug of tea from the glass teapot, Craig decided to let it cool down for a minute or two as there was steam rising. “So we made a couple of things, breakfast burritos, rice, peppers, black beans, pintos and there's some leftover bbq”. “The burrito sounds good”. “Great, here ya go and here's a big cup of sofrito to go along with it”. Craig looked at him questioningly. “Sofrito is basically a Latin sauce where you cook down a bunch of green peppers, onions, garlic with a bunch of spices and Olive oil. Trust me it's fantastic and it's put on many dishes”. Craig took a bite into the burrito with onions, green peppers, a hint of tomatillos, pintos, brown rice and a few other things. After spreading the Sofrito on it he noticed it had a nice fresh taste and the garlic was there but not overwhelming. Definitely a welcome edition and he could see why it might be slathered on quite a bit. The tea was also nice, not too strong at all.
He finished the tea and left some of the burrito and asking if he might be able to get something to carry it out. Passing him a plastic container, Craig thanked him and left. Also, he stopped by the breakfast area to get a couple plates to carry the leftover pizza. First he headed out to his car and put the plastic container in the passenger seat. Next he hurried up to his room, took a quick shower, changed his clothes and checked the clock. It was 9 am and it had been 8 am when he was chatting with the employees at breakfast. Grabbing the pizza and putting it between the two plates he headed off to his car.
After realizing the amount of pizza would be a problem, he opened up the plastic container and threw a few of the slices in there. Running back to the lobby and breakfast nook quick he picked up some napkins and silverware in case the burrito and pizza got soggy with the Sofrito. Taking a quick glance at the clock, he realized it was already 9:20 am and decided to head out. After following his GPS's directions onto the interstate, he definitely wished he had gotten out faster as he slammed right into a traffic jam as this was rush hour. Even worse, there was an accident so it took at least two hours to reach his destination.
After getting there, the directions helped as some streets were clarified that abruptly ended unexpectedly, the same street on which his destination was located. When he reached the area it was definitely run down he noticed some businesses had bars on their windows. He was definitely glad he had gone here during the day. Since it was near lunchtime, he quickly finished his pizza, utensils et al.
Heading around a little bit after he parked his car in a businesses parking lot he found his destination, a fairly nondescript large building compared to the rest of the block that appeared to have seen better days. It looked like people would be better off not robbing it, like it had been stripped clean already. That being said, some of the furnishings like a door looked fairly new. He noticed a business entrance and a VIP entrance. The business one is the type of entrance you'd typically see on a warehouse while the VIP one was fairly normal and unassuming.
Still wondering if this was the right place he looked around and found a couple of sheets posted next to the business entrance with photo's of the group, their name and casting for auditions. He figured that must be the audition which was not his goal. Noticing there were also windows further up near the roof he could do that but figured it would be excessively pervy, never-mind the fact he actually wanted a good vantage point to watch the band perform. He decided to try the VIP entrance instead, hoping he might convince the band to consider putting on a show in Houston or somewhere else.
Opening the VIP entrance was to no avail, he tried hitting and pushing it a bit but it didn't budge. Deciding to try the Business entrance and explain later, he had no problem opening it. When he entered it was nothing like he expected...no group, no equipment, no mics, no one, just nothing. It was a complete blank open space for the whole warehouse. He looked further back and saw where the VIP entrance was most likely.
Suddenly, a large television at the back of the warehouse turned on. It took up the entire length of the back of the warehouse, almost like a professional sound stage in a TV studio. The television started playing the m/v of “Release” then switched to the members performing dances and such. Craig started to feel sick and was about to throw up before he passed out.
As always, this story is copyright of Sarang and any requests to reproduce it anywhere else go through me and credit must be given.