Cursed, Charmed, and Uninsured

Do Androids Have Electric Fairy Godmothers?

Kay was a terrible liar. Jess and her family both called her out on this on many occasions. The twins got away with murder while she couldn't sneak a cookie without looking guilty. It was why she dreaded an evening alone with her family to begin with; there was no way she could vaguely hint at her work without talking herself into a conversational corner. Why she thought she could pass off a mysterious malfunctioning elevator, she must have had a momentary lapse of sanity. That is what the Deluxe Gold Diva did to her, shoved all reason completely out of her skull.

If it was Shaffer who found her, Kay knew she'd be out on her ass in two shakes, or worse. But by some twist of good fortune, Stanley was so distracted he failed to notice her abysmal fibbing. She was on her second cup of hot cocoa, casually dumping it into the wilted potted plant Stanley kept by his desk. She almost felt sorry for the sugar saturated vegetation as her superior paced in front of her. He was so distracted she forgot all about asking for his advice in fibbing to her family.

"And that's how I ended up in the basement," said Kay, faking another sip. Why did her mug smell like copper?

"Yes, that's unfortunate. I'm glad your safe," Stanley mumbled as he made another pass around the office, his mind on anything but her safety. It was such a short space she wondered how he hadn't worn a path into the concrete floor.

Kay set down her mug. "Stanley, what's wrong? Aside from the obvious," she said. According to her fellow caretaker, the gnomes had been particularly difficult to route out this time. Clusters kept evading capture and knocking down temporary barriers to let the horde flood back in. The elves had to be relocated to keep their population from being decimated, currently bunking with the nymphs which presented a whole new headache of paperwork and issues as wood nymphs bred like bunnies. Kay thought the elves wouldn't necessarily mind shacking up with lusty nymphs but Stanley said more than a couple had dropped from exhaustion.

He stopped pacing and rubbed his jaw. "Uh, hmmm, I-how do I put this?"

"If you say it's above my pay-grade, I'll kick you in the shins," said Kay.

A small smile upturned the corner of his mouth. "No, it's not like that. It's what you said about the elevator. It's not the first...malfunction I've seen the last couple days. I have an idea as to the source, but I rather hope I'm wrong."

Kay frowned. At the time, aside from the general shrieking and plummeting, she thought the whole elevator setup felt like more than a malfunction. It was a set trap, though after her conversation with Goldie, she knew it wasn't necessarily a trap for her. A bad feeling inflated in her stomach, she was grateful she hadn't actually drank any of the awful hot cocoa since it would probably come flying up if she had.

"Maybe you should take the day off," said Kay.

"Unfortunately, I can't do that," said Stanley, his voice soft. He absently shuffled the scattered paperwork on his desk. "I need to file a report about this. Let me escort you out."

Kay opened her mouth to protest and found herself hovering at the edge of a conversational corner. She wanted to ask Stanley if he suspected Serena, but that would reveal more than a few violated rules and she couldn't count on his current distracted demeanor. She gnawed on her the inside of her lip as Stanley led her up the hidden stairs into the empty lobby.

Kay caught the back of his coveralls as he turned to go. "Stanley," she said, worry warring with her sense of self preservation. Stanley wasn't a bad guy, but she also didn't need the proverbial ax dangling over her head. "Be careful," she finished. The bad feeling congealed into a cold mass of shame, heavy as lead.

"Of course. I'll call you as soon as I get the green light to bring you back in," he said.

Well, that just made her guilt worse. She nearly changed her mind when her cell phone rumbled in her pocket. Kay winced and hustled for the door. She didn't dare answer it around so many security cameras, though she wondered why the damn thing kept going off. She wasn't that popular. Her mind started imagining all sorts of extremes concerning the few people that mattered in her life when she finally pulled her cell out of her pocket once she had cleared the still empty security booth.