Invisible People

Invisible People: Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Heath scratched absently at his neck as his eyes blurred out of focus.  Wednesdays...the most boring day of the week.  He filled his lungs with air and let it out.  Exciting.  His coffee had gone cold hours ago, and he was too lethargic to make more.  The newspaper he brought in with him that morning was spread out on his desk on the same page for the past forty minutes.  And if he played one more card game on the computer, he was going to pull his hair out.  Why in the world did he draw the short stick this week?  Usually, his partner, Margaret, worked the Wednesday morning slot, but she had something at her daughter’s school today, so he was here, filling in.

Note to self: don’t do this again.  They’d save money by not being open on Wednesdays at all.

With another half-hearted sigh, he stood up and walked out to the pedestrian deck on the third level of the mall.  All around him, people bustled...some with bags in their hands, some pushing strollers, some just milling around watching everyone else.  This was where life brought him.  Standing alone in the middle of a fish tank of sale signs and overhead elevator music while the world passed him buy.  

Five years ago, he would have been making plans to ski in the Rockies or digging his mountain bike out of the storage unit for some tune-ups in hopes of an early spring...or coming back from Hawaii with a tan and a surfing injury.  But this was what he wanted to do with his life...be a doctor.  Why an optometrist?  He could never remember, just that at some point, calling himself a doctor seemed to impress the ladies.

Fortunately, he’d grown up a little since then, and lately he decided that this life wouldn’t be so bad if he could find a decent woman to share it with, but like the parking spaces out on the parking deck...all the good ones were already taken.  He leaned over the railing to look down at the lower levels and saw Paula on the second story, sitting at her perfume and cosmetic kiosk.  A blond-haired, big-chested tigress in red.  Heath sighed again.  And not in a good way.  If she offered one more “let’s grab a coffee together sometime”, he was going to have to come up with more intricate excuses.  He wasn’t an idiot.  That woman down there would chew him up and spit out the pieces when she was done.  He liked his females soft and sweet.  And Paula wasn’t.

Crap.  She saw me.

Politely returning her wave, he backed away and thought about closing up the clinic for an hour so he could drift through some of the shops and make the time fly a little bit faster.  He didn’t have any appointments until after three when schools let out and parents brought their kids for adjustments or replacements.  Margaret would never know.  Margaret was busy videoing her beautiful, precious daughter at a school recital or something, in hopes of bragging about her perfect child later on to anyone who would listen...or stand still long enough to have a picture shoved under his--

Crashhhhhh!

Heath whipped his head toward the sound in time to see polished rocks of every color scatter across the wood floors in Soul of the Earth, the store across the deck from his.  He didn’t know Ruby or Amy all that well, but many days he stared into their shop, wondering what kind of life they lived to work in a place like that.  The interior was dim with a golden, sensual glow from the mood-enhancing lights.  Wooden statues, boxes, figurines, shelves -- you name it -- shone warmly everywhere he looked.  There were displays of beaded jewelry and silver bracelets, swirling patterns of exotic-looking clothing, tendrils of blue smoke drifting up from glowing incenses and the flickering of carefully placed candles.  It was almost a whole other dimension from his cool, glass-walled eye clinic with it’s bright lights and faded colors.  Just looking across into their shop on a daily basis gave him feelings of warmth and imagination...things he’d never had in abundance.