Jyri still didn’t know what to do about the whole driving situation. Brittney hadn’t been able to find Jasper to discuss the subject with. He had a feeling she wouldn’t succeed.
“Jyri, I have an idea.” Jessica appeared at his cubicle, later that afternoon. “How about, whenever you need to go deliver or pick something up, I could go with you and do the actual driving.”
“That sounds good,” Jyri said. “But aren’t you too busy with other stuff?”
“A little,” Jessica admitted. “Though I’d rather have too much to do, than for you to get in an accident or pulled over. At the very least, I could help you learn to drive so you won’t need me. Are you able to get a permit at all?”
“No. I don’t have any… documentation.”
Jessica raised her eyebrows. “How’d you get hired here then?”
“No one asked me for any.”
“Oh my God...”
“Is that bad?”
“Very! This company could be in serious trouble if the wrong people found out.”
“Worse than if they find out they have a driver who has no license?”
“About the same, I suppose.” Jessica sighed. “Anyway, one of my customers has an order they need delivered today. Let me check production to see if it’s ready yet. Then we can go together.”
“Okay.”
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A few minutes later, Jessica drove what she referred to as “the company car” while Jyri sat in the passenger seat. When they arrived at the building, Jessica pointed out signs that said, “receiving” and “shipping.”
“Usually receiving and shipping are next to each other,” Jessica said. "Most places, you’d go to where those signs are. Since we're dropping off, we need to go to where it says receiving.”
“Okay,” Jyri said.
“But then there’s places that don't say. You would have to go to the lobby to drop things off or pick things up. It depends on the company.”
“How would I know which is which?”
Jessica shrugged. “I would looks for signs like those. If there aren’t any, go to the lobby and ask about it. And in the future, remember how it works at that company. You’ll mostly be going to the same companies over and over again.” She pulled into a parking space, and the two got out of the car. Jessica grabbed a small box with a piece of paper taped to it. They walked up to a door that said “Shipping/Receiving,” and stepped inside.
It was noisy, and the hard ground was made of gray stuff. Throughout the large area were aisles upon aisles of shelves. Off in the distance, a loud beeping sound could be heard. What was this place?
A man walked by, and Jessica called for his attention. The man stopped, and turned towards them.
“Hi, we’re here to deliver this order,” Jessica said, handing the box to the man.
“Okay, cool. I’ll give it to our receiving team.” The man signed his name on the paper, gave it to Brittney, then walked away. Jessica opened the door, and Jyri followed her outside.
“That was it?” Jyri asked.
“Pretty much.” Jessica smiled at him and handed him a key. “Want to try driving around the parking lot for a bit?”
Jyri studied it for a minute. He figured the parking lot wouldn’t be too scary. Especially after what Jasper had put him through several weeks ago. “Okay.”
They got in the car, Jyri in the driver’s seat this time. He inserted the key with no problems, then turned it. Jessica looked at him questioningly. “Jasper made me drive him back to work from a bar one time,” Jyri explained. “He said he didn’t want to get caught driving drunk again.”
“He went out drinking on company time?” Jessica shook her head. “I’m not surprised. How’d you feel driving?”
“Terrified. And Jasper kept yelling at me for things like not stopping at stop signs.”
“Okay. Well, when you see a stop sign, you are supposed to stop at it. If a cop sees you blow through one, he’ll pull you over. And if you don’t have a license or even an ID, very bad things will happen.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Jessica began pointing out what all the various buttons and knobs. Jyri had already guessed what some of them did, based off of his experiences in Oliver’s car. But he was unaware of things like cruise controls and blinkers.
“To be fair, a lot of people seem to be unaware of blinkers,” Jessica said. “But you’re supposed to flick the lever with your finger whenever you’re turning or changing lanes. Up if right, down if left. It lets other cars know what you’re doing.”
Jyri nodded as he tested out the blinkers, though was beginning to feel overwhelmed.
Jessica then pointed to a button above the back-up cam, with a symbol of a red triangle pointed upwards. A triangle within that triangle. “That button turns on your flashers. See.” She pressed the button and both turn signal lights began flashing over and over again. “If there’s ever an emergency and you need to stop, turn those on. Or if you need to stop the car for a minute, and want cars to go around you. If you don’t, people are gonna wonder why you’re not moving and get mad and honk at you.”
“Honk?”
“That’s another thing. Press down on the middle of the steering wheel real quick.”
Jyri reluctantly did, and a loud noise erupted from somewhere within the car. He jumped.
“Only use that if someone is about to hit your car,” Jessica said. “Though a lot of people like pressing it when they’re mad at another driver.”
“That’s not nice.”
“No, it’s not. Stay calm if it happens to you. Don’t get caught up in it. It’s not worth it.” Jessica pressed the triangle button again and the lights stopped flashing. “Now, let’s trying backing up. First, pull down the emergency break. Do you remember what that one is?”
Jyri grabbed the lever next to his seat, and pulled it down, being sure to keep his thumb pressed against the button at the end of it.
“Now, press your foot on the brake, and put the gear shift on R.”
Jyri did, and noticed a picture of the parking lot showing up on the back-up cam.
“Good. Now slowly ease your foot off the brake. But look over your shoulder both ways first to make sure nobody is coming.”
Jyri did, and slowly lessened the amount of pressure he put on the brake.
“Look in the camera. If an object shows up in that red area, it means you’re going to hit it. There’s nothing behind you now, so you’re good to keep going.”
About halfway out of the parking spot, Jessica gave further instructions. “We’re going to go to the left. So, turn the steering wheel a little to the right. Keep going until you’re parallel to the parking spots.”
After doing just that, Jyri put his foot back firmly on the brake, and asked what to do next.
“Lightly push down the gas pedal. Just lightly! The more pressure you put on the gas pedal, the faster the car will go.”
Jyri already had that part figured out, after his drive with Jasper. But he followed her instructions anyway, and the car moved forward.
“Good. Now, let’s try a few laps around the parking lot.”
For a good ten minutes, Jessica had him drive the car around the parking lot while occasionally having him attempt parking. And more practice backing up.
“We should probably leave, before people start wondering where we are.” She smiled. “Wanna drive us back to work?”
“No!”
Jessica laughed. “Try parking again, and we can get out and switch places.”
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Neither of them felt like returning to work right away, so they stopped at a place called McDonald’s, which thankfully had cheeseburgers and fries. Jessica ordered something called a “milkshake” with hers. They ate their meals on the way back, tossing their trash in a garbage can near the doors of Wattavolt Electronics. Though Jessica still had plenty of milkshake to drink.
Ran and Jasper were chatting with Faye in the lobby as the two walked through the doors. Jasper turned to look at them. “What is this?”
“A milkshake,” Jessica said, taking a sip.
“Not that. I mean,” he gestured towards the both of them. “This. You two, out gallivanting around town, when I have things for both of you to do.”
“I had a delivery to make,” Jyri said.
“With Jessica?” Jasper shook his head. “If I knew you were gonna use your new driving position as an excuse to go on little dates with Jessica, I never would have done it!”
Jyri’s heart soared, but he tried to look disappointed. “Really? Because I was planning on doing that. Using my driving position to go out with Jessica and get cheeseburgers and milkshakes every day. I shouldn’t be driver anymore.”
“You’re right, you shouldn’t. I just had a talk with Brittney. Apparently you don’t have your driver’s license. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Jyri gaped at him. “I did tell you! Several times! And Oliver did too.”
“God, I should fire you for this. But I won’t, because Emily just quit on us. We need a new accounts payable. You’re hired.”
Jyri’s eyes widened. “What!” Though relieved he no longer had to drive, he had no idea what being an accounts payable entailed.
“And Faye can be the new driver.”
“What!” Faye gaped at him. “I don’t know how to drive! I don’t have a license either!”
“God, what is with zoomers never getting their damn driver’s licenses? They’re destroying the auto industry!” Muttering angrily, Jasper stormed off, Ran struggling to keep up with him.
“All that learning for nothing,” Jyri said.
“Yeah. Still worth knowing though. You never know when you’re going to need to drive around a parking lot.” Jessica took another sip of her drink, then glanced at the clock above Faye’s desk and smiled. “Almost time to go home!”
“Thank Odis,” Jyri mumbled to himself as Jessica walked off into the cubicle room. He looked over at Faye, whose expression had changed to one of shock. Or horror. Or both. Something slammed against the front doors. Jyri whipped around, and felt a mixture of shock and horror himself.
An animal the size of a horse with a body long enough for three people to sit on, had put its large paws against the door. Covered in black fur, with floppy ears, the creature put its feet back on the ground. It let out a gurgling sound.
“Is that a bloody estin!” Faye said, covering her mouth. “How’d one of those get here?”
“Maybe this universe has them too,” Jyri said.
Just then, Craig walked by, glanced at the door, and screamed. “What the fuck is that!”
“I’m guessing they don’t,” Faye said quietly. The estin ran away from view at Craig’s shouting.
Oliver and Shawn wandered in to investigate.
“What’s going on in here?” Shawn asked.
“There was this, dog thing. No, horse thing. No... A doghorse! That’s what it was.”
“A doghorse?” Oliver asked.
“Yeah. It was the size of a horse. Though it’s body was long like a dachshund. But its legs were more like a horse’s, but paws instead of hooves. And it’s head was, like, a horse’s. Except it kind of reminded me of those funny dogs with the egg-shaped heads. Bull terriers, I think they’re called. Its ears were floppy like a lab’s though.”
“So you saw a mutt?” Oliver shook his head, and looked at Jyri.
Jyri nodded. “Just a mutt.”
“Craig’s overreacting,” Faye said.
“No I’m not! The government’s been snatching stray dogs off the street and injecting them with horse medicine.”
Shawn frowned. “Horse medicine?”
“I bet that’s what supposed no-kill shelters do when they get overcrowded. They sell the rejects off to the government. And they’re making them into whatever the hell that thing was!”
Oliver and Shawn groaned in unison, then left. Craig looked to Jyri and Faye. “You guys saw it, didn’t you?”
“Yeah,” Faye said. “We saw a dog.”
“That was no ordinary dog. I’m tellin’ you, the government is up to something. Trust no one.” Stroking his chin, Craig walked off.
“First hodags, now estins?” Jyri hissed to Faye. “How is this happening?”
Faye shrugged. “You’d know more than I do. All I know is that we have to pretend we don’t know what hodags and estins are.”
“And whatever comes out from our universe next.” Jyri sighed. “Let’s hope nothing else does.”30Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡolI0W2U072
and then Add to home screen.