Looking for Lisalee
It’s been about two weeks since Lisalee disappeared. It was weird that night at first but we thought she just went home without saying anything. When she didn’t show up for her shift the next day we didn’t think too much of it at first. We figured she was sick and, you know, that’s complicated as a shift worker. That, and vacation gets a little iffy. So it’s not uncommon for folks to not show up and to get their shift covered on the low. At a place like Fast Fud the shift managers are all homies.. just make a few dollars more per hour so we organize ourselves the way we need to typically. And, like we said, they’re all in on the skim.
After a few days, Shelly had decided to go by Lisalee’s house a couple of times, just to see what was up. She wasn’t sure exactly who Lisalee lived with. But she knew she didn’t live alone on $8 an hour. When she told us she had gone by and that the house seemed empty we thought, okay, maybe they went on vacation? But after a week or two it felt like something was really strange. The last time she passed by was on her way to work before the night shift that Shelly, Lisalee and I usually work together along with Donny, Jupiter and Niecy.
That night Shelly had walked in while I was dealing with a customer. I looked at her and mouthed “Anything?”. She shook her head…”no”...
I wrapped up the sale and turned to face her.
“Shelly...nothing?”
“Nah...nobody’s there. I don’t think anybody’s been there for two weeks.” Shelly shook her head.
“Damn...you think they just went away somewhere?”
“Uhhhh...maybe…”
Shelly wasn’t very talkative. She worked at Fast Fud while going to Community College. She’d been here since she was in high school and she’d take one class at a time working up to her Associates at first and now her Bachelors.
“Meet me out back during my break….I found something” she whispered as she grabbed her apron and walked past me to put another batch of fries in the bubbling oil…
I nodded “Uh huh…” and went back to the register…
During my break I went outside...in the back where we usually go to smoke or just chill when we were on break. Also the only part of the building that wasn’t on the closed circuit feed. It was cold as I waited for Shelly to join me. What had she found? Did it have to do with Lisalee?
About five minutes later she came out through the back door her hand fumbling in her pocket. She took something out and held it up in front of me. It was something shiny and the light was bouncing off of it in a way that felt blinding. I squinted and took it from her. It was a shiny gold piece of metal, like a coin. But it was inscribed with symbols or some other language I didn’t know. There was a symbol in the center that looked like a machete and some shackles...with the machete looking like it was breaking the chains of the shackles. I didn’t recognize it. It looked like some kind of token maybe? Something from a game. I turned it over and there was a pin. So maybe it was like a lapel pin.
“What’s this?” I turned and looked at Shelly, confused.
“I found it in the back room, the day after Lisalee disappeared.”
“In the back room? Way back then? What is it? You think it has something to do with Lisalee disappearing?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t think about it at first, I just thought it looked cool...but now that we can’t seem to find her and no one knows where she is, maybe it’s connected somehow…
Look, I’ve been going by her house at least twice a week for the past month. Three times in the last week. There’s no sign that she ever even lived there. No one just disappears just like that especially after just going to the back room to get cups. Something’s up and we have to do figure it out…”
I stared blankly. My breath was coming more quickly and I could feel the adrenaline start to surge...I couldn’t tell if I was just excited because it would be a cool adventure or whether I truly thought Lisalee was missing and needed our help…
I must have stood there like a fool for a few minutes because Shelly started shaking my arm…
“Calvin. Calvin. What the f&5k dude. You’re freaking daydreaming right now? Did you hear me? We have to do something!”
“Uhhh sorry. I was just processing. Ummm how do you know for sure her family didn’t just leave town?”
“Do you hear yourself? What family? Did she ever talk about any family? I don’t even know anything about her. She just worked here on my shift and now she’s gone! I don’t even know why I care so much but maybe it’s because those creepy dudes from corporate have been meeting in the back and I don’t know...something just feels weird. Are you gonna help me?”
I swallowed. Maybe this was the kind of thing my grandma had been talking about when she had told me that one day I would have the choice to answer a noble calling. Maybe this was the time for me to do something heroic.
I took a deep breath.
“Okay Shelly. Let’s do something. Let’s find Lisalee.”
….