Gates of Rome

CHAPTER 26

2001, New York

‘Whoa…’ said the young man behind the counter. He had a steaming cup of Starbucks coffee in a cardboard carry-cradle in one hand. ‘We, like, just opened up here.’ She noticed it wasn’t Starbucks, though; the brand name was SolvoVentus, the logo wavy lines like the sea or something similar.

‘Yeah… I know, but we’re in a real hurry.’ They’d watched one of the store’s employees pull up the window shutters, snap the lights on inside and had generously given him another thirty seconds to wake up before striding in. Maddy handed a sheet of paper over the counter. ‘Can you check the items on this list — see what you’ve got in stock?’

He put down his paper coffee cup, grabbed the printout and looked it over briefly. He scratched at curly ginger hair pulled back into a hair tie. The ponytail looked like a large puffball stuck on the back of his head.

He scanned the list of components for a full minute. ‘What the hell are you making here?’

Maddy wafted her hand impatiently. The plastic name tag on his pale blue shirt read ‘Ned’. ‘We’re kind of in a hurry, Ned.’ She offered him a clipped smile. ‘Don’t mean to be rude or anything.’

Ned didn’t seem offended in the slightest. ‘Looks like some kind of energy storage and delivery regulator? Some real beefy, ninja transformer? Is that what you’re making?’ He looked up from the list. ‘You pimping up a transformer? This a school project or something?’

‘Yeah, kind of.’

‘Well, lemmesee…’ He tapped at the keyboard on the counter. ‘… I’d say we got pretty much all of those items in stock.’ He looked up at Maddy admiringly. ‘I mean, not much call for those things on their own. Most people don’t even bother making stuff from scratch any more, you know? It’s easier to buy whatever they want from Walmart already.’ He looked back down at the screen, sucking on the end of a biro as he scanned the stock listings.

Maddy looked at her watch. ‘You got those components in? Cos if not… we’ve got to hike across to your other store, which is like a real pain in — ’

‘Pretty sure we got these…’ he said, tapping at the keyboard as he entered the last of the items on Maddy’s list into their system. ‘Yeah, reckon that’s all cool.’ He tapped the keyboard one last time and a printer behind the counter spooled out a picking list.

‘Yo… Ganesh!’ he called out.

Double doors behind Ned cracked open and a young man wearing a turban and a thick beard stuck his head out.

Ned handed him the picking list. ‘You do this one, man?’

‘Dude… I’m stocktaking.’

Ned turned his back on Maddy and Sal. There was a hurried, whispered exchange between the pair of them then finally Ganesh nodded wearily and muttered, ‘You owe me, dude.’ He smiled at the girls and gave a friendly wave. ‘Five minutes, ladies, OK?’

‘Thanks.’

The door swung to. Ned, all pointy elbows and bobbing Adam’s apple, grinned self-consciously at them. ‘So… nice day, isn’t it?’ He cracked slender fingers and knuckle joints one after the other, a sound that went right through Maddy. She found herself wincing with each crack. It sounded like a wishbone being parted.

‘Sure. Nice day,’ Sal replied.

‘Uh… so, either of you two girls got a, you know, a boyfriend or something?’ He shrugged and laughed skittishly. ‘I mean… why not ask. Right? Because life’s way too short to just, like, skip around the important questions.’

Sal chuckled at that.

‘Cos if you’re both, like, single, me and Ganesh could take you ladies to see Shrek or something?’ He grinned, his eyes bul-ging with hope. ‘Make up sort of like a double date. Me and Ganesh’ll pay for the movie tickets, of course. Dinner, though…’ He pursed his lips thoughtfully. ‘I reckon we gotta go halves on that. Unless you girls are good for a taco or something cheap? I reckon we could cover that.’

Maddy looked at Sal, taken aback by his forthright manner. ‘Errrrr

…’

‘Sound good?’ His eyebrows flickered up and down and a grin spread across his lips. His best go at a seductive smile. ‘Whadya say? Tempted? Huh?’

Just then reality fluttered gently. A mild sensation that made Maddy feel giddy. She grasped the edge of the counter to steady herself.

‘Are you OK, miss?’

Maddy’s eyes focused on Ned again. Only it wasn’t quite the same Ned. His shirt was bright red. His ginger hair was cut short, almost an army-issue buzz cut. No name badge on his chest either, she noticed, just the store’s logo, a masculine fist holding a bolt of lightning.

‘You OK, miss?’

Sal was kicking her foot gently, nudging her out of the young man’s line of sight.

‘Uh, yeah… I’m fine. Just, uh… just a bit dizzy is all.’