One Day We're All Going to Die by Elise Esther Hearst

Author:Elise Esther Hearst
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HQ Fiction
Published: 2023-08-08T00:00:00+00:00

Parasites

I got the job at Linen Palace, which was situated in a high-end shopping strip in South Yarra, surrounded by overpriced bakeries and Pilates studios. I called Melanie to thank her but she didn’t answer her phone, so I sent a text: Thanks so much for helping with the job. Come by and I’ll sort you out with a discount and two days later she replied with a thumbs-up emoji. I showed it to Dad over dinner and we laughed about it. And then Mum wanted to know what we were laughing about so I showed the exchange to her and she said something along the lines of ‘it’s the thought that counts’, which made Dad and I laugh even harder.

My manager was new to the role and often flustered. I surmised that that’s how I might feel if the job meant anything to me. I kind of relished falling into a semi-catatonic state while I was there. Initially, I said I’d only wanted to work part time, but they were forever understaffed so quickly enough it became more of a full-time job. My main duties consisted of folding towels and, when there was no one in the store, taking the towels down from the shelves and refolding them. I spent a lot of time on the towels, but even so they never looked as neat as when the manager did them. The face washers were the worst. They were so small I could never figure out how to make them look good.

I had to wear an apron, and during my initial training session I was told that phones were to be kept in the storeroom, but as soon as I saw another staff member conceal their phone in the apron’s big front pocket I followed suit. Josh had begun messaging me on a regular basis, asking when my break was. Sometimes he would come and meet me, and we would walk around the corner to a little playground where there was a park bench. If there was no one around, occasionally we would kiss and he would snake his hand up my skirt, or down my back, or encourage my hand to his hard cock.

After one such day, I was taking a walk around Caulfield Park with my mother and she asked me – point blank – whether I’d met someone. When I told her I hadn’t, she asked me whether I was seeing Josh again, and I said no to that too.

‘Well, you just seem better,’ Mum said.

‘I am.’

‘Good. Your father and I are doing something right then,’ Mum said, triumphantly. I’d only just noticed that, having borrowed her leggings, she was wearing another pair exactly the same so we looked like we were matching.

‘Uh huh.’

‘Why don’t you just call the museum?’

‘No,’ I said. She was walking fast and I struggled to maintain the pace.

‘Why?’

‘It’s been three months. I’m sure they’ve found someone by now.’

‘I saw an ad in the Jewish News just last week!’ She swung her arms back and forth.

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