Soul Mates

Waitress

Andrews and I were called to division 5 again we knew this would be the briefing we had been waiting for. It was over quickly then I was handed a waitress uniform. I walked over to the locker room to get changed, a short skirt and a white blose and braces.

A few other peacekeepers from the division were glancing over at me, they were wondering who I was and why I was there in their division.

I hoped no one recognized me or that my dad would bump into me again. I was dressed in my uniform feeling nervous, I looked into the mirror to put some makeup on and comb my hair. I didn't recognize my reflection staring at me.

As I looked at myself, I suddenly felt very sick to my stomach, my nerves were wrecking havoc. I ran to the bathroom and just made it to the toilets to be sick. I wiped the vomit from my mouth and flushed it away watching the water swirl down.

What was I thinking? What rookie would jump into an undercover job when they hadn't even finished their training yet? I'm going to get myself killed.

I walked over to the sink and washed my mouth and hands. I looked straight in the mirror again and tried to focus.

"You can do this Alex! You are ready, you need this," I said out loud to myself. Another peacekeeper was washing her hands she was pretty with dark hair and very neatly dressed, I could see her watching me.

"Is this your first undercover job?"

"Yes, is that easy to tell?"

"The vomiting sound in the toilet gave it away sweetie, come here" The lady straightened my braces and smiled at me.

"You will be fine, remember all your training and just smile and relax" She winked at me.

"Thank you" I smiled as the kind lady left the toilets.

It's not like I would be on my own anyway, the division was able to listen to my conversations on my C-Band wristwatch instead of wearing a wire. It was an amazing piece of tech. I was dropped outside the club they said Andrews would start a day later so as not to raise suspicion.

As I nervously walked into the club, it was dark and it wasn't what I thought it would be it was an old jazz bar. It was like walking back in time places like this didn't exist anymore, or were very rare. All other clubs and bars where all high tech and modern beats for music, this place was special. I hated the modern music.

I could tell from that moment I walked in I would fall in love with this place.

You could smell the alcohol stained carpets which stuck to my feet as I walked up to the bar. It was dark but I could see old guitars and trumpets on the walls with signatures of all the old artists. The bar even had old pumps for beer, these died out years ago.

"Hello, you must be Lucy" A short overweight man stared at me, waiting for an answer"

"Yes, Lucy that's me, nice to meet you,"

"Okay great, Im Jimmy, I will show where everything is, we open in an hour. It should be a busy night tonight, as you can see we have these old pumps, I will show you how to use them as not many people have used them before,"

Thankfully I was a quick learner and got the swing of this quickly. I could pour a decent pint after a few attempts. The Band came just after me to warm up they were amazing, their music was a mix of jazz and soul, there was a lady singer she could really sing like the 'good old days' as my Dad would say. I grew up listening to every kind of music. My grandma had taught me piano and guitar from a young age and she was the best singer I had ever heard. She was famous back in her day. This young singer kind of reminded me of her. Gran would always watch musicals with me and do sing-alongs with me growing up.

As the club opened, I started to take orders, I enjoyed it, and it was something different.

It was easy work and uncomplicated not like training. As I walked up and down in my high heels which were killing my feet as I had been used to wearing peacekeeper boots and a manly uniform. Secretly I liked feeling like a woman for once, I was sick of the Peacekeeper uniforms. The only downer was the old grumpy men, but Jimmy would keep an eye on us and bar anyone who overstepped. Payment was easy we just scanned their wrist, and it was taken from their account, everything was linked to your I.D chip.

As I was serving an older gentleman, the song changed. I couldn't believe it was a song from old movie Dreamgirls. As I listened, it transported me back to being a young child sat with my Gran on the piano as she played to me. I felt goosebumps as she sang her heart out and my fond memories soared through my mind. Maybe this undercover job wasn't going to be as bad as I thought. As the night ended the club was nearly empty, the lead singer came over to me at the bar.

"Hey there, my name is Alisha I could see you singing along to all our songs? I'm surprised a youngster like you knows them? You're new here right?"

"Hi Alisha my name is Lucy, yes I know them all, I grew up on this kind of music, my Gran loved it, you guys are really good,"

I held some information back as I remembered I was undercover I couldn't tell her my Gran's name in case she had heard of her before.

"Wow I'm impressed Lucy, nice to meet you, you want to join me on the piano?"

I went all shy and looked down the short overweight owner was called Jimmy he shouted over

"Go on Lucy let's see what you got?"

I felt pressured into going over, but Lucy would be different to Alex she would be confident. As I sat next to Alisha, all the memories of piano lessons flooded back to me. I ran my fingers over the piano. I hadn't played since my Gran had passed. Alisha could sense I was nervous and emotional.

"You don't have to if you're not feeling it?"

I started slowly pressing my fingers against the keys as I thought of a song to play it was as though my fingers were in auto pilot they felt the energy the soul, they played by themselves like riding a bike it all came flooding back to me. I couldn't believe I could play so well after so long. I played an old blues tune my Gran had taught me, Alisha was very impressed they all recognized it and the band started to play along, I felt the music took over and the nerves flew away.

Alisha and I started singing the song from the tune, belting it out together our voices just melting into one.

For those few minutes I forgot who I was, I wasn't a peacekeeper, I wasn't Alex, I wasn't undercover, I was just a girl enjoying a song in a club. I had totally forgotten that the division 5 peacekeepers had been listening to me all night.

The shift ended and Jimmy showed me all my cleaning jobs for open and closing each night, I quickly thanked him then left out of the back door. As I came out the club it was pitch black, it gave me the creeps to know this was so close to the man who had been murdered.

A van was parked a bit further down the road where two officers had been listening to everything.

As I walked past slowly the back door opened.

"Anderson, what a voice and wow you can really play, I can't wait to hear what you have for us tomorrow?" my cheeks felt like they were on fire and I smiled as I walked down to division 5 which was a few blocks away for a lift back.

I was looking forward to tomorrow night. As I returned to training school I was allowed to sleep later than the rest of the rookies which attracted some attention but I needed the sleep as I wasn't getting to bed until 3 am sometimes.