The shoes didn't fit. The whole point
had been to get the shoes and they just didn't fit. Such a waste of
time and effort.
Betty had always lorded it over Linda,
her higher pay, her better clothes, her dates, her extra title at
work, just everything. Linda hated Betty and felt justified in doing
so.
In little ways Linda got some revenge,
when Betty would brag about the rich man she had slept with the night
before Linda would take her pen when she was away form her desk. It
would give Linda satisfaction but Betty never noticed. Linda would
think about it for days and smile, imagining Betty looking for the
lost pen. Betty though would just pull another pen out of her drawer
and not even give it a thought, pens were nothing to her.
One morning Betty was late to work,
Linda had been there ten minutes early as normal, waiting. Betty had a
key, Linda didn't. Linda stood by the door waiting, imagining that
Betty had taken home a murderer from a night club and was now hanging
over a bathtub like a side of beef, her life blood slow dripping down
the drain. The thought made her smile and brightened her day.
Her smile remained fixed but her eyes
had no trace of joy when Betty arrived. The office was small, two
desks, Betty had her name on the door Linda had her name on the
smaller desk. Both desks were cheap but Betty's was wood. Once at
work the door remained open so Betty could see the people from other
offices walk by, Linda closed it when Betty was out. Linda didn't
want to see the others, she hated them all.
Betty had new shoes, they were very
expensive so she made it a point to show them off to Linda.
“Italian”, “perfect fit”, “feel so nice”, “cost as much
as you make in a week”, all the hurtful things that just rolled off
her hateful tongue. Linda imagined the gross things that tongue must
have touched to get those shoes and smiled. Betty took that smile as
friendly interest, Betty had never understood Linda and treated her
like she would have treated anyone else.
Because Betty had been late to work
and had spent so much time showing off her shoes she hadn't finished
her work and had asked Linda to stay over with her. Linda agreed, she
always agreed. Another pen vanished from Betty's desk.
The rest of the floor was empty, only
Linda and Betty remained. Betty was holding up a leg moving her foot
back and forth once again admiring her new shoes. Linda hit her in
the back of the head with her desk lamp. Years of rage were in the
blow. Her imagined injustices gave her the strength to hit over and
over. Betty never noticed, the first blow had seen to that but Linda
had a lot of pent up fury to work out. As the blows faded Linda felt
exhausted but more at ease than she had in years. She sat back and
enjoyed the feeling letting a warm glow wash over her, she so rarely
experienced such joy.
With Betty shoved in a mail bag Linda
tried on the shoes. They didn't fit. Linda pouted and gave the bag a
kick.
4 comments:
I just noticed I went way over on the word count.
Love the ending. :-)
LOL, great ending.
Don't care it was way over, loved it, & you're right woman could easily kill for a good pair of shoes :)
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