Subj: The Saga of Nicole Collins' First Job Part
Three
Date: 10/21/00 1:10:20 PM Central Daylight Time
From: N.E. Collins
Nicole Collins had been developing natural psychic abilities ever since she had turned twelve years of age. Her parents, Barnabas and Julia Collins were quick to see that she received proper and careful training of her naturally born talent. They had put her under the care and guidance of Professor Elliot Stokes, and he had gladly taken Nicole on as his student. She had proven to be a quick study, but she was often too eager to try her wings as the young often are with a new toy.
Being able to read other people thoughts was fine,
but when there was too much emotion involved it could be tricky and near impossible
to read someone correctly. So Nicoles mind reading capabilities were both a
blessing and a curse, and when they were a blessing she was simply remarkable
with customers. She knew what they were looking for before they even asked,
but often she made the mistake of answering their questions before they had
asked them, and this tended to make other people nervous if she was too bold
in her advances. One time she was waiting on Mrs. Wuddermaker, one of the local
school teachers and Mrs. Wuddermaker was looking for inexpensive trinkets to
distribute to her entire class of 3rd graders. Nicole made the mistake of saying
what a nice gesture it was for the woman do this for the entire class before
Mrs. Wuddermaker mentioned her purpose. Nicole was able to get out of it by
saying that she had "heard" that Mrs. Wuddermaker tried to do this every year
for her class, and that there was nothing unusual about her making the assumption.
But it wasn't always so easy to sidestep the issue, and some of her customers
began to talk about that "strange
uncanny ability that that salesgirl at Brewster's seemed to have.
It was getting close to the Halloween season and the store had a few items available that fit that theme. There were a few sweaters depicting jack-o-laterns in their pattern and there were even some mask and outfits for children to wear on the night of their trick-or-treating. The store was modestly decorated with pumpkins and autumn leaves and even some ghosts and witches on brooms. Outside the skies and the air was cool and crisp. It was a lovely fall day in Collinsport and Nicole was longing to walk along the local beach and take in the beauty of nature. But alas, she was stuck working at Brewster's and she wouldn't be off until seven that evening. She had been relagated to cleaning up the handbag and accessories stockroom and it was dirty and dusty work.
It wasn't all that well lite in the stock room and the ventilation was near to none, so when the girl first made her appearance Nicole didn't notice her. She was about twemty years old and had long blonde hair that trailed down her slender back. The first thing that Nicole noticed was that her clothing looked about ten years out of fashion and normally employees of Brewster's were strongly encourgaged to dress in current fashions. It was also recommended that they buy their clothing from the store as well. Nicole tolerated this reasonably well, but she wasn't about to let Brewster's control her every move.
The girl didn't speak. She just stood there and stared at Nicole who had been startled by her seemingly sudden appearance. "Oh! Hello. I didn't see you come in. Are you new? I don't think I've ever seen you here before."
The girl did not speak. Instead she walked into the stockroom and just past Nicole. When she got just past her she cried out in alarm, "Watch out!", as she pointed upwards! Nicole swept her eyes up and saw that some shelving had come loose and the heavy contents of the shelf were in the process of falling to the floor and in her direction! She moved ahead and out of harms way just in the nick of the time. When the dust cleared she turned back to thank the mystery girl, but she was nowhere to be found! "How did she get out of the room?" Nicole wondered to herself. "She was standing over there and the only door is back over here!"