Ole Time Curios
Chapter 2: A New Job
“New, job huh? Did you get one of the TA-ships?” Artemis asked as she dropped off the pull up bar. Lacey’s roommate was named after a goddess by her parents who wanted her to know strength. In the end the name was fitting, as her father had taught her how to bow hunt and her tuition was paid for by her Archery Scholarship. For a year, she’d been bugging Lacey to walk on for the cross country team, since she was so fit, but it wasn’t of interest to Lacey. Who’d want a walk on senior? Still, the younger girl was a force of a personality, so she kept pressing the issue—any issue really—from time to time.
“Actually no, going to be helping out at a new store in town.”
“They finally get a Pricemart?”
“Ha you wish, nah, just this little side store. Kind of has a hipster coolness to it.”
“What like $5 coffee, and eyebrow piercings?”
“Nah, more like, old stuff, like steam punk.”
Aretmis chuckled, “So, steampunk is hipster now? Meh.”
“What? It’s a thing!”
“You still interviewing for internships?”
“Uhm, actually I don’t know, crap I have to cancel the interview on Monday,” Lacey’s heart sunk. She’d set up an interview to do an internship with a consulting firm. It was run by an alumnus of the school, so they often came back to campus to hire. Now it was on the same day as her first day on the job. Sure it was unpaid, but it would provide experience, and they often led to full time positions.
“Why? What time is the interview?”
She mulled it over, the interview was at 5:30 PM, “Yeah, you’re right, maybe I can make it. It’s late enough.”
Artemis shrugged and cracked her elbows, “What’s your boss like, is she hot?” She grinned.
“It’s a him, and he’s just a middle age dude.”
“Pshaw, of course it’s a man, how could a woman run a new shop in this town.” Artemis headed back to the kitchen, turning her well developed back to Lacey.
Watching her trapezoidal shape and tapered waist, it occurred to Lacey that her roommate was a bit on the manish side from the back. Which reminded her of a rumor, “So, are you and Amanda officially a thing now?”
“What? Uhm,” she chuckled, “maybe, I don’t know.”
Lacey was glad that she’d successfully deflected the conversation. There was feminism, and by in large everyone at Glenda College was a feminist, but then there were some women who saw EVERYTHING as the patriarchy. Sometimes it was just a little tiring to Lacey. It was another reason she liked getting out on the trails.
As Monday rolled around she decided not to cancel the job interview. The experience would be worth working without pay. After all it was her field and it would be a valuable experience to have and good resume filler, even if she didn’t get hired on full time. She had half a mind to just let Dorsey down easy when she arrived at the shop, but when she got there she already saw his opening the shop and an old lady was milling through knick-knacks as he doted on her.
“Ah, good morning Lacey,” he beamed at her when he spotted her, “Could you be a doll and boil some hot water for tea for Mrs. Beasley.”
“Oh don’t make any fuss over me,” Mrs. Beasley protested weakly with a smile.
“It’s no fuss, she needs to learn anyway, she’s my new assistant and service is the matter of the day now.”
“Oh well, then I suppose I’ll just say thank you.”
“Of course my dear,” he smiled, then turned to Lacey, “There’s a pot in the back, just set it to boil and I’ll come back when it’s done. Also, your apron is in the back on the coat rack, here’s my key.”
Lacey nodded, figuring she could tell him about her appointment later. She headed back, and picked up his key on the way. The day started slow as she was stuck waiting for water to boil ‘fun fun fun!’, and then when it was ready, he insisted on brewing the tea himself. She watched him chat with the old lady and after she left, he turned his chatter fount to her. He showed Lacey a few more items, then had her watch while he sold a piece to an older couple. There weren’t a lot of customers, but the few who came stayed for a while and he had boundless energy to entertain them.
On a break, she finally got the chance to let him know she was leaving work a little early. He’d asked what for out of curiosity and she’d let on that it was an appointment. He was charmingly insistent on details, and before she knew it, she’d divulged it was a job interview. He didn’t seem upset, rather he was quite understanding—she noted with relief. With that bit of uncomfortable news out of the way, her day brightened, and much moreso when he told her what her starting wage at Ole Time Curios was. She about spit out her English tea when he told her it was $18.67 per hour. He joked that the 1800’s were one of his favorite time periods as a history aficionado.
She felt kind of bad having to leave early, but well before it was time for her to get going, the shop had gone quiet and Dorsey heaved a sigh. “Well, it seems we have the store all to ourselves. What’s say we indulge a little bit?”
“Indulge?”
“Of course, I’ll give you a hint, it starts with ‘Shave Ice’ and ends with ‘happiness’, though I suppose that is less a hint and more an apt description of the joy that awaits, isn’t it? Come along!” he clasped his hands with glee and turned over the Open sign to Closed before strutting back to the shave ice machine.
She giggled, but more at his big goofy smile. For a boss, he wasn’t bad at all. He was a man happy with what he was doing. In a way she envied him, and part of her hoped that she’d be able to find her own place where she could be passionate about her work and make a great living. She thanked him as she took the whimsy flavored snow cone.
“So tell me about this new job you’re interviewing for, it’s exciting.”
She smiled, “Well, it’s with the consulting firm, they do marketing analytics, hr policy revamps, operations optimization, pretty much anything that can be done to fix an organization, they can do it.”
“Ah, sounds impressive, and what will you be doing there.”
“Let’s see, it’s just an internship, starting out, so probably not a lot of the pitch work, I think the new hires do background research, run surveys, help gather the data that’ll lead to their conclusions. Uhm, the interns, I guess we help out with logistics.”
“Logistics... like getting supplies and getting coffee?”
“Maybe, I don’t know, I guess.”
“Well, no matter, since you’re a bright college educated young girl, they must be paying you top dollar for your time!”
She winced, “Actually, it’ll be unpaid.”
He looked at her quizzically, “Unpaid, that doesn’t sound right. A real job is a transaction between employer and employee. Oh, I see, you’re pulling my leg!”
“No, that’s what it...” she trailed off, a little dazed.
“That isn’t right, if you aren’t getting paid for your work, it’s not a job, it’s servitude. Slavery even.”
She frowned, that wasn’t right, was it? “No, it’s not uhm.. slavery—it...”
“I worked as a paper boy in my youth, and made $2 an hour, I worked delivering pizza in college and got paid, every job I had I got paid. There were things I did that weren’t for money, but those were hobbies.”
‘Slavery that’s not right, is it?’ Her head was getting a little thick, ‘But hobbies, right, that sounds right I think.’ Her lips weren’t moving while she was trying to hone in on the thoughts that seemed to flit around in her head. In the periphery she could vaguely hear Dorsey talking to her.
“Focus. Focus your mind. Remember the feeling, there you go, start to relax.” He droned on for a few more moments, while Lacey’s little lost mind kept drifting around.
Then Lacey could feel him turning her chair around, “Wait, what are you doing? Ohhh....” There it was, the clockwork illusion dancing, flickering, enveloping. Briefly she saw a crystal at its center and the silhouette of the girl and all of her tension drained out of her.
“There we are love, you’re already very deep now. Deeply focused just like a good college girl. Tell me now, can you hear my voice.”
A moment passed in silence as he watched her face slacken even further, he jaw hanging open, and her sweet moist lips parting unconsciously. “Yes,” she exhaled barely audible, but present.
“Ah wonderful, beautiful,” he smiled as he brushed her hair away from her face, careful not to disrupt her line of sight to the hypnotic display. “Lacey, my dear, you are a good college girl, right?”
“Yes...”
“Tell me why again.”
“To get a good job.”
“Why?”
“So I can be a strong independent woman.”
He shook his head and sighed. “Okay Lacey, you want that, but you want a job to make money.” She said nothing. “You need money to be independent, so you need a job to make money right?”
“Yes.”
“So why do you want a job?”
“To make money.”
He muttered under his breath, “Logic, one would think it had gone out of fashion...” Then he returned to his lulling hypnotic drone, “Such a good girl, so smart, you know that you need to make money.”
“Yes, I’m smart,” her lips curled up a bit.
He sneered at that, but grinned again as he looked as her sweet small expanse of cleavage that had become exposed as she slouched over. “Do you want to go to the job interview?”
“Yes.”
“But they won’t pay you money.”
“No.”
“And you need to make money. You want to make money because you’re a good college girl, right?”
“Yes.”
“So you don’t want that job because they don’t pay you.”
“I...”
“Relax and focus. Tell me dear, how do you feel about the interview.” She squinted slightly, trying to process her emotions. But he interjected before she could finish, “You are nervous, it’s only natural to be nervous. Even.. anxious. The whole interview process is making you nervous right now. It is normal to be nervous for an interview.”
“It is normal to be nervous.”
“So how do you feel about the interview.”
“I feel nervous.”
“Focus on that feeling, picture yourself at the job interview. You are sitting there, nervous and sweating. There are many people there and they all want the job. And there are several interviewers, and they are all judging you. Feel their looks as they decide that you’re not good enough. Tell me, how does it feel to be rejected.”
She squirmed in her seat, perspiring just a bit. “It feels... bad.” He could hear the anxiety rising in her voice.
“That’s terrible, but it’s okay, just relax now. Yes, good girl. Relax and focus on my words. That internship is not a job, it’s a hobby. You already have a real job.”
“Already have a job...”
“Just the thought of the interview is flustering,” he could tell she was accepting his words so he pressed, “You get nervous at the thought of even being at the interview...”
“I don’t...”
“It’s so nerve wracking, to go on an interview. But you are much better off than all those other girls because you’re a good girl and you can be right here, safe with a real job.”
“Safe.”
“Now listen very close, I want put all of that interview nonsense aside and good deeper. Yes, focus deeper. Inhale... And exhale. Let your conscious mind completely drift away as I count down from 10... 9... 8... forgetting the world, 7... 6... 5... forgetting your body, arms relaxed, eyes closing... 4... 3... 2... No more stress, just pleasantly drifting, 1 and sleep.”
Dorsey wanted more than anything else to lean her back and grope her whole body, teasing her until she dripped with wetness and plowing into her to fill her with his seed, but as ready as he was for her, she was not yet ready, and he was willing to take his time for his purposes.
“You are very deep now. Lacey, in your mind I want you to picture a door, inside this doorway is your inner core of peace. It is your happy special place. See it in your mind. Now walk to it. Yes, good girl, now open it and step inside. Beautiful. This is the place where you are safe and warm. There is something written on the wall, do you remember what it is?”
“...yeeesss...”
“Read it back to me.”
“I am a good girl. I need a good job.”
“Yes, excellent. But there is a blank space next to those words. Now, it is time to fill in that space with another message. I want you to repeat after me. Good girls submit to authority.”
“Good girls submit to authority.”
“Again.”
“Good girls submit to authority.”
With her eyes closed and her words barely a whisper, she was a vision of perfect submission. “How do you feel?”
“Warm... safe.”
“Yes, you are safe. You are hypnotized, Lacey. Deeply hypnotized. Do you like how you feel?”
“Yes.”
“Yes, Lacey, you like being hypnotized. If I asked to hypnotize you, what would you say?”
“... no...”
“Why?”
“Scary to lose control. I’m independent.”
“Oh Lacey, your conscious mind thinks you’re independent. But you are safe here, and we know the truth. Lacey is the independent one that tried to take you to the scary interview. But you aren’t like that.”
She nodded.
“Deep inside here where its safe, you’re a princess. Princess Lace, you’re a good girl. Always such a good girl, deeply hypnotized where it is safe and warm.”
“Safe...”
“Now princess, do you like being hypnotized.”
She nodded.
“But Lacey doesn’t know about it right?”
She shook her head.
“Then I have the perfect solution for you, my sweet princess. If you ever get stressed and you want to feel safe again, just come to me and ask me to see the crystal clockwork. Lacey doesn’t need to know why, but you will know. Can you do that?”
“Yes.”
“Also, if I think you need to relax, I’ll offer to show it to you, and you need to always make sure Lacey is willing to look at the crystal clockwork.”
“Yes.”
“Perfect. One last think. I want you to whisper, ‘Good girls submit to authority.’ Keep repeating that one hundred times, and as you do, I want you to feel warm, safe and love. Can you do that?”
“Yes.”
“Very well, begin.”
She began to whisper, “Good girls submit to authority...” Over and over again, the words turning to mush and jumble in her ears. They became strange with repetition until they became normal again, mutating a third time to become background noise. Her own voice and thoughts just became repeating noise.
...
...
...
“... and they’re a really good organization to—what was I? I’m sorry, I trailed off there, what was I saying?”
“Well Lacey, you were telling me many stories about the top notch company you’re going to interview with, but I think you better go, you wouldn’t want to be late.”
She glanced at her watch, “Oh my, how did I—no—it’s okay, I still have time, but I have to book.” She bit her lip, as she felt her heart race in her chest. “Bye!” Lacey hurried out, her mind now completely enraptured in the fear of what would happen if she showed up late and a million other worries.
Dorsey watched her go and he lip curled into a lecherous grin, “See you soon, Princess.”