Where the HELL is my dughter?!?
I groan as I am shaken awake.
“What?!?” I mutter at the person waking me up. It’s too early for this crap!!
“Don’t you know what today is? Get up!” A voice I recognize as my landlord says, irritated. “Remember you got a job? The one that requires you to be up at what you seem to think is an ungodly hour?”
Crapadoodles. That’s right. “What time is it??”
As I fly out of bed I realize I’m not wearing any clothes. My landlord is female. And veeery over sexual.
I dive for the covers and bury myself under them. I turn just in time to see my landlord, CJ lick her lips.
“Ya know...”
“No. Just no.”
“Fine. Just know I’m always ready.” With a wink she left. Thankfully.
I look at the time, and start moving faster. The lady I spoke to yesterday say boss hates it when we show up late. I’m not really in direct contact with the boss so I should be okay but....
“Idalease!” I call, chasing after my daughter who was currently running through the lobby of my building. “Ida!”
She was upset because I wouldn’t let her get a puppy this morning. She had found the pup in a box on the side of the road and I just couldn’t be late for this meeting.
Screw it. I’ll skip the meeting. I reach for my phone in the back pocket of my jeans.
I punch in my pin and it unlocks. I hit speed dial and my assistant picks up the phone almost immediately.
“Gorgie. I need you to reschedule the meeting until later. My daughter seems to have run away. Put the building on lock down. No one enters or leaves till my daughter is found.” Without waiting for a response I click off the phone.
I take two steps forward and yell, “Where the HELL is my daughter?!”
Finally making it to work and clocking in just seconds before I’d be considered late.
“Good morning!” I say happily to the HR dude at the desk outside the elevator doors.
He was fairly tall and well built. And scary. Very very scary. But as Pinky Pie says, laugh the scary away.
I giggled to myself and the man rolls his eyes. “Gay faggot.” He mutters under his breath.
“Nope! Guess again!” I say over my shoulder, laughing harder.
I turn the corner towards where the HR lady had pointed to the other day. I would be working as a secretary to one of the department heads. Sales, specifically. I walk towards the translucent door that read, Mark Drab, Department of Sales. And bump into a little girl.
Sh was just barely four feet tall and had blue eyes and black hair. She was adorable.
“Hello there, cutie. Are you lost?”
She nodded. “I.... I ran away from my momma.”
“How old are you?” She held up six fingers, “Why’d you run away from your mom?”
“Mommy was mean to me.” She sniffled. I looked around and found the floor empty, save for myself and the little girl.
The building shuddered as metal shuttered the windows and the elevator dinged as it powered off. The little girl jumped.
“Come here. You’ll be okay.” I acted like I knew what I was doing and guided her to beneath a desk. If the building was in lock down then something dangerous had made itself known. After making sure the little girl was safe I asked, “What’s your name sweetheart?”
“I-idalease.” She whimpered. “I don’t like the dark.”
In the shut down, or rather lock down, the lights had gone into power-saving mode, making it dark when paired with the covered windows.
“Do you know the show My Little Pony?” She nodded, “Do you remember when Pinky and the rest go to the Everfree Forest and they get scared?”
“Uh-huh. Pinky tells them to laugh the scary away...”
“Exactly!”
She giggles,“Why does an adult know that? Not even Mommy knows that!” She laughs again.
“Well, Ida, its because inside, I am no adult. I’m a little kid.” I wink at her. Like we were sharing secrets.
“IDALEASE!” A woman’s voice screams as the door to what I assume to be the stairs slams.
“That’s my mommy.” Ida whispers. “I should probably go.”
“Okay then.”
“What momma? I don’t like you right now!” This little girl has guts. Even now, I wouldn’t yell like that to my momma.
Idalease moved around the desks and ran the few feet towards here mother.
“Where were you? I had to miss the meeting to come find you! I even locked the building down!” So that’s why. “Why didn’t you come back when you saw the building shut down?”
“Because I was mad at you and when everything got dark I was scared.” For a six year old child, she seriously had some guts. “If he wasn’t here, I woulda.... woulda...” She started crying.
“He-” Before Ida’s mom could finish her sentence, I moved from my sitting position on the floor towards where Ida and her mom were standing a few feet away.
“Who cares where she was and what she did and didn’t do right now? You can grill her later. The poor thing is crying. If you’re her mother then you should be comforting her, not yelling at her! I get she ran away, but come on. Seriously? Have some compassion.”
I wrapped my arms around Ida and began soothing her. Her mother stood there, semi-stunned at my lecture. She cleared her throat and I looked up at her, still trying to sooth Ida.
“You sure are out of place. Who are you?” She was most definitely angry.
“James.”
“James what?” She was pretty much dripping venom all over the tiled floor. She really hated being lectured.
Ida broke free of my coddling and ran up to her mother. Well, more like stomped.
“Mommy be nice! I like James. He made me laugh. And we were talking and everything! I promise not to run away ever again if you be nice to Jamie!” She looked surprised at this.
“You talked... to him?” Ida nodded. Her mother turned to me, “I’m Clair Devon. CEO of Devon Corp. Give me your name and number and I’ll contact you later. My daughter seems to have taken a liking.”
Hiding my shock at just who I had been talking to, I answered. “James Malibu. You can find the rest in employee records.” I wasn’t just going to giver her everything she wanted though. At the sound of an opening door, I looked towards the stairs just as a man with a suit appeared.
“You Malibu?” He asked, completely disregarding the tear-stained six year old and the CEO.
“Yes, sir.” I looked towards the CEO and Ida, “See you later I guess.”
“Follow me Malibu.” I did so, waving bye to Ida.
Before we reached the office door, the CEO said, “Don’t get cocky.”
Ms. Devon turned and walked towards the inoperable elevators and pulled out her phone. Ida trailed after her, a smile on her face, like she had accomplished something.
A few moments later, the power was on again.
