Chapter 3

The next day started like any other. From the moment Ellie entered the store, it felt like business as usual. She’d spent the morning working through several trollies already, all the while trying to keep a low profile through fear of running into Carol. 
Ellie had expected to find the front of the store sealed off by police tape, the place swarming with officers searching for the missing man. Instead, customers came in and out as they always did — capitalism at its finest. 
If it wasn’t for Cheryl Hudson, it would have been very easy for her to imagine it was all a dream. Her voice was audible from several aisles away, telling someone or other an embellished account of what had happened. It was typical of Cheryl, jumping on the gossip as she always did, no different from a hyena, feasting on scraps left behind by others.
It fascinated her why people still talked to her, given she had shared the secrets of almost everyone in the store several times over. Ellie found it remarkable that something about her personality still made people buy into her deceit. 
“...and Steve from Security said the guy had just vanished, like something out of Doctor X.”
“Professor X is way better,” Ellie muttered to herself, placing the last box on her trolley and pulling it towards the shop floor.
“If you ask me people just aren’t doing their jobs properly,” continued Cheryl.
Ellie hastened her step before she heard something that made her cross.
She had barely made it two steps onto the shop floor when someone called, “Hey there!” in a thick Irish accent. Ellie smiled to greet her, and recognised her as one of the newbies who had sat with Charles in the briefing room. As she approached, she hastily pawed at her wild, untamed hair, giving the distinct impression she had got changed for work in a hedge. 
“Excuse me,” said — as Ellie quickly learned from her name badge — Aoife. “I only started yesterday, and I’m having trouble looking into the logs on SPIMS.”
“Oh right,” said Ellie. “I can help.”
Aoife smiled and held up her scanner. “Thanks. You see, when I hit the data part of the app, it won’t let me view the colleague's performance stats.”
“Ah,” said Ellie. “That’s because Gary changed the permissions on them a few weeks ago — it was getting a bit cutthroat between us all when we could see each other’s rankings.”
“Oh,” said Aoife, disappointed. “I thought as a manager it would be useful to know that kind of stuff.”
“Yeah…” said Ellie. In truth, she was surprised the data wasn’t available to Aoife, especially when Carol had only threatened to look at it and reprimand her yesterday. “Maybe speak to Gary about it?”
Aoife grimaced. “I’m not keen on the idea of pestering the boss man on my first week,” she said.
“He’s a nice guy,” said Ellie, “but I get what you mean.”
Aoife continued to stab her finger at the scanner, and the conversation seemed to die.
“I suppose you’ll just have to do it the hard way,” said Ellie, trying to resurrect the discussion as best she could. 
“Do what?” said Aoife, without looking up.
“Find out who works the hardest.” She smiled, then realised Aoife wouldn’t see her, still looking down at the scanner. 
“Oh yeah,” Aoife said, as though her mind was somewhere else. 
Ellie frowned, unsure what else to say. She thought about getting back to her trolley, but felt rude without at least saying something as a parting comment. 
“For what it’s worth, the team in the entertainment section is great. You’ve inherited a good bunch.” Aoife didn’t seem to notice, so Ellie added, “See you later.”
Aoife looked up from her scanner, if only briefly. “Nice to meet you.”
She seemed nice enough, Ellie concluded, if a little scatterbrained. Then again, she thought, if she were new to a job and was expected to manage a whole team with no experience of how the store worked, she’d feel scatterbrained too. 
Ellie checked the time: ten-thirty. She’d started at seven, and the morning seemed to have flown. Flicking through the menus of her scanner, she hit the ‘Break’ button and set off for the canteen, discarding the device in the office on her way. 
From the moment she entered the doors to the canteen, sniffing the greasy concoction of a traditional English fry up, Ellie felt her phone buzzing in her pocket, and smiled as she saw ‘Maddy’ lit up in large letters on the screen. 
“You still off tomorrow?” a serious voice said the moment she answered the call.
“Hello to you too,” Ellie chided. 
Maddy and Ellie were far past traditional hellos. They had known each other for so long that greetings held no meaning. Since the age of five they had lived in each other’s pockets, to the point that they were practically sisters.
“Hello, dear,” mocked Maddy. “You still off tomorrow?” she repeated.
“Sorry,” said Ellie. “I picked up some overtime in the bakery — helping out a friend.” 
“Here you go again,” said Maddy. “By this point you might as well have moved in. Did the store manager convert that disused office into a bedroom for you?”
“It’s just the one shift,” said Ellie. “Besides, the money’s good.” She smiled. “And it’ll help pay for the new Professor X boxset…”
On the other end of the phone, Maddy squealed in delight. “You better tell me you’ve got release day off, or I swear to God…”
“Don’t worry,” Ellie assured her. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“I’m relieved to hear it. Now, we won’t have to go calling an ambulance because you’ll have gone one day without working a shift, will we?”
Ellie chuckled. “I’m not that bad.”
“Trust me,” said Maddy. “You are.”
“Look, I’m on my break, and need to get some food. I’ll see you Thursday, alright?”
“No worries, girl, see you then.”
The call ended, and Ellie smiled widely. Maddy was the sort of friend who, no matter what the situation, made everything better. 
If only I could meet a guy like that, Ellie reflected, trying to catch Jae-Sun’s eye from across the room as she bought a sandwich from the counter and sat down at an empty table. 
“Who said you could go working in the bakery tomorrow?” snapped Carol, before Ellie could take her first bite. 
Ellie nearly jumped out of her skin. Carol’s voice was like rubble on a metal roof — unexpected and harsh. 
“Just doing my bit to help out,” said Ellie, innocently. 
Carol’s eyes were like serpentine slits. “You do your bit to help my department before anyone else’s.”
“But there wasn’t any overtime in our department,” Ellie pointed out. “I checked.”
“There’s always overtime somewhere,” snapped Carol. 
Ellie could feel her heart racing. She knew there was nothing she could say that would change her mind. “Sorry,” she replied, weakly. “I’ll check with you next time.”
“There won’t be a next time,” muttered Carol. She stormed away in a huff, leaving Ellie physically shaking in response. 
Ellie would like to say that was the first time Carol had treated her in such a way, but the truth was that it had rarely been any different. Even when Carol had been temporarily moved to manage the checkouts, she had still held her disdain for Ellie, and anyone else who crossed her sights, for that matter. 
Ah well, thought Ellie, at least I’m not the only one. 
Tucking into her sandwich, Ellie tried, as she had many times before, to put her encounter with Carol behind her, and focus on the positives ahead.

Next Aisle: Chapter 4