Intergalactic Fly-Fishing

Lightsabers at Dawn

Lucy

The Final Countdown piped through the store for the third time and Lucy checked her watch. Lunch break soon. She was on the tills today. She hated working on the tills. Hate was too strong a word. She strongly disliked the tills. It was an unwritten law that they could not stray from the cash register area. Lucy sighed. It was a slow day. There were no customers but, still, she had to stand there. You could only clean the glass cabinet, check the stock on the till ends, and make every item in your immediate vicinity perpendicular, so many times She looked at her watch; five minutes had crept by.

   She sighed and deliberately raised her left hand just above the receipt-issue button. She let her index finger fall, and collected the waxy paper that spilled out. She picked up a pen, looked around, clicked it and pondered.

I cannot stray

From my till

Chained to it,

With a 5-metre

Radius,

By an invisible

Umbilical

Cord.

   She smiled, I'm a genius, and stuck it to her till with blue-tack. She looked around. There was nothing else to do. Some kids walked in. She smiled a greeting. That was one of the rules; smile at the customers on entry, it makes them feel welcome. Sometimes she wondered if it did make them feel welcome, or if it freaked them out. She picked up the rest of the blue-tack and absently rolled it around her palm. She felt it take the shape of a sphere and examined the tiny fingerprint lines running across it. The air-conditioning completed its cycle and clicked off, leaving the store tumbleweed-quiet. The 80's hits felt loud in the sudden quiet. Lucy looked up, hollow eyed and jumped as she saw her manager standing there. She started feeling guilty for not looking busy and abruptly quashed such useless thoughts.

   "Are you alright Lucy?" said Sam.

   "Yes... pondering."

   Samuel Paul Aswegeni raised his eyebrows, "Oh?"

   "I was pondering whether the lack of anything to do, makes you less willing to do anything." Sam smiled and Lucy put the blue-tack down. "Anything you want me to do?" she said?

   "Clean the glass cabinets?" he shrugged.

   "If I clean them any more, there won't be any glass left."

   "I'll find you something when you come back from lunch." He looked around, "Marie not back yet?"

   Lucy glanced at the phone-clock by her till, "She has another ten-minutes."

   He nodded, "When she comes back you can go for yours."

   "Thanks."

   Sam smiled and Lucy noticed a movement over his shoulder. A lad snatched something and stuffed it into his jacket. "Sam, kid-stealing-game behind you." Sam turned. The lad bolted and Sam followed. Two more team-leaders saw Sam go and joined in the chase. The rest of the employees watched as the stream of uniformed staff pursued the thief. Lucy called the police. She drummed out the routine, "manager and two team leaders in pursuit of thief. Heading towards the canal..." In her six-month tenure they had caught and prosecuted a dozen thieves. Lucy almost sounded bored on the phone. Still - there was nothing like a good theft to brighten the day. Samuel Paul Aswegeni always got his man. She looked around the store; everyone was watching the chase. Lucy often thought that if a thief had any sense they would move in now, while no one was paying attention. You could walk out with a laptop and remain un-noticed. Just then she noticed the queue that had formed at her till and bent her head to the job.