A Deal With God

Chapter 15: The Shadowlands

Bob Newby wasn't a risk taker. He actually spent most of his life avoiding risks. He knew what he was good at, he pursued his interests which led to a stable career, and he tried his very best to stay out of the way of people that saw him as an easy target for the sake of their own amusement. That's why for the past few months now, when he woke up every day, he was stunned that things had seemingly worked out in his favour.

When they were in high school, Joyce Monroe was the prettiest girl in town. As far as Bob knew, she wasn't aware that he even existed. He had a massive crush on her back then but he never had the courage to do anything about it. They graduated. He left Hawkins to go to college for engineering. She stayed, married Lonnie Byers, and started a family. After several years away, a Radio Shack opened in town and he applied for the Manager position so that he could be closer to his parents, now retired. In his eyes, Joyce was still the prettiest around. And that crush he'd harboured back in high school? Turns out it never went away.

He spent all of last summer trying to build up the courage to go and talk to her, to ask her out to dinner. And then summer turned into autumn and tragedy befell her: her youngest son went missing. A different boy turned up drowned at the old quarry and the coroner mistook the body for Will's leading to a funeral and everything. Joyce might have gotten her son back alive after a week, but Bob could only imagine the Hell she went through during that time. Before the year was out, it seemed like another tragedy befell the family when she took in the daughter of some distant relatives, the only survivor of a violent car accident. He thought it would be inappropriate given the circumstances to suddenly go up to her and ask her out, so he refrained.

In February, right around Valentine's Day of all times, the tables seemingly turned.

Joyce walked into the Radio Shack accompanied by her niece on a Tuesday afternoon.

"Hi Bob," Joyce greeted with a radiant smile.

"Hi there," Bob managed to stammer out. "What can I do for you, ladies?" He asked, trying to be smooth.

"Bob, this is my niece Quincey," Joyce introduced.

"Nice to meet you," the girl in question said politely, a neutral expression on her face and the piercing eyes he'd heard so much about focused on him.

"The pleasure is all mine," Bob replied, trying to hide his discomfort under her scrutinising gaze. Unlike Joyce, who looked cold albeit being bundled up in a long puffer coat with a knit hat and chunky mittens, the teen looked unfazed by the cold, wearing a short coat with the zip pulled open revealing a knit turtleneck. He heard through the grapevine that she came from the Northeast, clearly accustomed to more severe winters than the ones they got in Hawkins. His eyes fell to the Atari controller in her hands.

"Something wrong with the controller?" Bob asked.

"Yes, it's why we're here actually," Joyce said, pulling the controller out of Quinn's hands and placing it on the counter. "Will, my younger son, and his friends were playing the other day and it just stopped working."

"When did you get the console?" Bob asked, picking up the controller and looking it over.

"Christmas," Joyce replied.

"Oh dear," Bob said, "you see, these things have manufacturing warranties. It's barely been two months since you purchased it so any issues would have been covered, except the seal has been tampered with," he explained, pointing out on the side how the top and bottom halves of the controller had a thin gap between the two.

"Oh no, what does that mean?" Joyce asked.

"Well, if you had brought it to me as it was, I could have sent it back to Atari with a notice and given you a brand new one today. But since the warranty is null and void now, I can try to see what the issue is but I can't guarantee that I'll be able to fix it," Bob replied, picking up the appropriate screwdriver and getting started on pulling the controller apart.