“Penny! Wait for me!”
Penny’s striding briskly toward the store, swinging her bag back and forth, when Mogberry stops her. She’s panting, holding an egg sandwich in each hand.
“I’ve been calling to you. You didn’t hear me?” Mogberry says, handing over one of the sandwiches, stuffed with smashed egg. “Here, I know you didn’t have breakfast. Take it.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Mogberry. I must’ve been lost in thought about what to do after work tonight.”
“Welcome to the working life, honey.”
The savory smell of egg yolk and black pepper from Mogberry’s sandwich makes Penny’s stomach rumble with hunger.
“Did you make this yourself?”
“My sister made it. She’s a great cook, unlike me,” says Mogberry as she takes a hearty bite. “I’m staying at her place until the remodel on my house is finished. I guess I’ll see you around more on our commute!” she adds, with an especially adorable smile.
By the time they’ve finished their sandwiches, they’ve arrived at the crosswalk in front of the bank opposite the Dallergut Dream Department Store.
“By the way, Penny. You still haven’t caught that culprit yet, huh?” asks Mogberry cautiously as they wait for the signals to change.
“What? What culprit?”
“You know, the one that stole one of the two Flutter bottles at the bank when you were on an errand for Weather. When you had just started working here—remember?” Mogberry points to the bank building behind her.
“You knew about that?”
“Of course I did! Nothing goes unnoticed at the store. And we managers have to keep track of quarterly revenues; we should be aware of such matters more than anyone!”
“That makes sense. I thought only Dallergut and Weather knew, because no one else brought it up.” Penny’s face starts to flush.
“Speedo doesn’t know, and I didn’t think I should tell him. Given his personality, I could already imagine how much trouble he’d give you for it, so I spared you. I mean, his temperament got the better of him when he was just starting out, making mistake after mistake, you know? But look at him now, so ruthless to others,” Mogberry shakes her head.
“Thank you so much. Speedo’s always given me a hard time, telling me off at least once a day, ordering me to get myself together, saying that I don’t deserve to get paid.”
“Just brush it off. If we deducted all the mistakes he made from his paycheck during his new-hire days, he’d have made about half his salary.” Mogberry pats Penny on the shoulder.
“The thief must’ve gotten away with it and disappeared for good, right? It’s been nearly a year, and they still haven’t tracked him down.” Penny looks back at the bank with a sigh as they cross the road. “I would feel so much better if they could catch him. If we’re lucky, maybe we could get the Flutter bottle back too.”
“I know. It would also help the store, you know. Flutter is hard to come by. But people like him usually operate in syndicates. His gangs are probably committing similar crimes even as we speak.”
“I don’t think they’ll use the same tactic again, though.”
“Who knows, they might wait until the scrutiny wanes and come back. It’s always in the last place you look. We have to keep an eye out,” Mogberry says shrewdly.
The store is full of energy, crowded with employees just arriving and others merrily finishing their night shifts, along with some customers ready to shop early in the morning. One slim employee is waving his hand at Mogberry and Penny. His ripped jeans expose his knees.
“Hey, Mogberry, you should hurry up. Speedo’s been looking for you all morning.”
“Speedo? Isn’t he off work today?”
“I thought so too, but he’s here. I’m heading home. Good luck, guys!”
“Maybe I got his schedule wrong?” Mogberry tilts her tightly ponytailed head.
“Mogberry! Why are you so late? I’ve been waiting for you! For three full minutes! I’ve already sorted out new arrivals on the fourth floor and got the preordered pickups ready in the lobby. Can you just double-check the list before you leave? And hey, Penny, it’s good you’re here. The floor tiles in front of the D-17 pillar on the fourth floor have peeled off, so the construction guy from the next town will be coming in today to fix it. Please pay him out of the repairing expense budget, and don’t forget to keep the receipt. It shouldn’t be over fifty seals a tile, max, so if their numbers are funky, just give me a call right away. Got it?” Speedo fires off a list of tasks for them before they even have the chance to take off their coats. They frantically take down notes.
“Would you please slow it down a notch? I feel like throwing up the sandwich I ate this morning,” Mogberry says, looking nauseous.
“I have the day off today, but I came to work early to finish my part. I can’t spare even a minute of my time from this point on.” Before he even finishes his sentence, Speedo is already running out the door.
Speedo’s plan for today is perfect, even by his own standards. He occasionally takes off on a random weekday, because weekdays off feel even more rewarding than weekends after working every minute and second to the fullest.
Humming, Speedo takes out his notepad to check through his to-do list. First, he has to go to the bank and open a new savings account, one he’s heard comes with a high interest rate. After a steep learning curve and a few failed attempts, Speedo has quickly realized that high-risk financial investment is not his strong suit. Once he opens the savings account, he’ll buy a sweet red-bean pastry at Kirk Barrier’s Bakery at 10:00 a.m. sharp. Then, he will head to the greengrocer’s timed sale, which starts at 10:20 a.m. That wraps up his morning plans. After that, he’ll head to a tempura rice bowl place that opens at 11:00 a.m. to get his brunch without having to wait in line.
“Wait lists are not in my dictionary, even if it’s for a five-star restaurant!” Speedo murmurs to himself, as he takes the crosswalk in front of the store. Then, looking into the bank through the spotless glass window, he covers his mouth in shock.
“Oh, no...”
Based on the data he’s accumulated throughout the years, the number of customers in line at the bank at 9:10 a.m. on a weekday is five on average. Today, there are eleven.
“No, this can’t be right. By the time I’m done opening my account, it’ll be way past ten o’clock.”
As Speedo mopes in despair, one great idea comes to him. He enters the back and lies flat on the ground. He starts looking around for any queue ticket someone might have thrown away. After raking around the place, going as far as to search under the water purifier—and tearing his snow-white jumpsuit seams in the process without realizing—he finally finds a ticket. The fifth to the last.
People glance at Speedo, who by now is triumphantly sitting in the waiting room after his bank floor scavenger hunt. But he could not care less.
“Amazing. It’s a narrow margin, but I’ll still be able to make it in time at this rate.”
Yet there’s one guy who has been bothering Speedo this whole time. He’s in a neat suit conversing with elderly people and wearing kind-looking, smiley eyes.
“Excuse me...”
From a distance, Speedo can’t make out what the guy is saying, but he can guess. This man is clearly begging the elderly for their queue tickets so that he, too, can get ahead in line.
“To abuse the generosity of the elderly like that! The audacity! How cheap.”
Speedo checks his ticket against the numbers on the counter display. They’re taking an especially long time today. If that cheap guy cuts ahead of him, there’s a good chance Speedo might have to pass on Kirk Barrier’s red-bean pastry. The bakery is so popular that once their freshly baked pastries are ready, they almost instantly sell out. The thought of his plans being scuttled makes him panic.
He stands up and resolutely approaches an elderly security guard, who’s dozing off near the water purifier.
“Excuse me, sir? Sir? Do you see that guy over there? He’s doing something very fishy.”
Slowly blinking his eyes, the security guard scans Speedo up and down, then looks around. “What’s fishy about him?” he asks, clearly thinking Speedo seems fishier.
“He’s only talking to the elderly. Which means... Um... Yes! Wire fraud! You know, voice phishing, or something like that?” Speedo rambles.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure. Would you please escort him out, as soon as possible?”
“Okay.” The security guard turns to the stranger and shouts, “Excuse me, sir!” Surprisingly, the guy gets flustered and starts stepping backward, as if he really had been up to something fishy.
“Security! Security!”
A ruckus ensues as all the in-house security guards swarm the guy. Meanwhile, Speedo contentedly sits at the empty counter, unbothered by the scene he has caused.
“I’m here for the new savings account model you’re advertising, with a three percent annual interest rate. Can I open it right now?”
After that, Speedo’s day is near perfection. He secures a set of ten freshly baked red-bean pastries and buys a box of carrots for a mere fifty seals at the timed sale. He makes it inside the tempura rice bowl place as soon as it opens, and while the food itself tastes unexceptional, it feels terrific to see the waiting line getting longer by the minute outside the restaurant as he eats.
Speedo clears everything on his list, including filling the air in his bike tires and picking up his clothes from the dry cleaner. He returns home and plops down on the sofa, turning on the TV.
“Oh, I still have time until the 10:00 p.m. show,” he says. Pleasantly exhausted, he feels his body growing relaxed and languid. “Maybe I’ll have a quick snooze.” And he falls fast asleep on the sofa.
The evening news is playing on TV.
“Finally, we have good news that a criminal organization behind a systemic pickpocketing on Main Street has been arrested. Their targets were older people or newcomers in the waiting rooms of banks and public offices. They would approach their victims impersonating employees of the institution to put them at ease, then steal their money and valuables... One of them was caught in the act at a bank, committing his first crime after joining the group, thanks to a citizen at the scene who reported him to the police. The frightened criminal admitted his crime, disclosed the organization’s base and provided further intel, which helped the police arrest the rest of the perpetrators. The police searched the base and found numerous valuable dream products, including, interestingly, a bottle of Flutter. All the valuables will be identified and returned to their original owners, according to the police. Meanwhile, the brave citizen who first reported the crime to the bank security guard disappeared without a trace. The police plan to reward the citizen, so if you are them, please reach out to the nearest police station...”
Just then, Speedo abruptly wakes up and checks his watch. It is five to ten. He snatches up the remote control to change the channel. Luckily, the commercials are playing before the series. Finally, he crosses off his to-do list for the day, with everything achieved as planned.
“What a perfect day,” Speedo murmurs, grinning.