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By the Pricking of my Thumbs

By Kami Bryant

By Kami BryantPublished 3 years ago 7 min read
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By the Pricking of my Thumbs

By Kami Bryant

“By the pricking of my thumbs,” quoted True Neutral as the Apothecary joined her two sisters already seated at the restaurant’s outdoor dining patio table.

“Hilarious,” replied the Apothecary as she took a seat on the black metal chair. Today the Apothecary wasn’t wearing the over the top “witch” persona that her victims at her Apothecary shoppe seemed to prefer. She had her liberally streaked with grey black hair pulled back into a messy bun. She wore black capris, slip on white sneakers and a simple white Old Navy t-shirt. True Neutral wore her bright pink and black hair in pigtails, a hot pink mini skirt, platform black boots covered in pink rhinestones and a midriff baring cotton candy pink Hello Kitty top. Lawful Good wore her typical navy-blue pantsuit and practical shoes.

“Hello, I am Neil, and I will be your server for today. What can I get started for you ladies?” asked the twenty-something, tall, all-American server with the vibrant smile as he approached the trio.

“Iced tea,” said T.N. “with lemon, unsweetened.”

“Jasmine green tea, hot,” answered Lawful Good.

“Black coffee,” said the Apothecary also known as Chaotic Evil.

“Would you like to look at a food menu?”

“We will each take a slice of your double chocolate cake,” answered L.G.

“I will get that right out for you,” cooed Neil.

“Thank you,” chirped L.G. back to him.

“The Scottish play is definitely my favorite of the plays that the actor stole from Christopher Marlowe,” said True Neutral.

“We aren’t in a theater, sister,” said the Apothecary. “You can say Macbeth.”

“Speaking of the theater and chocolate cake,” began Lawful Good.

“That bulimic play?” asked the Apothecary.

“Yes! I like it. It is just two women speaking to each other about compulsive overeating and women’s issues. There should be more plays about women just sitting around and talking,” said L.G.

“What, you mean like The Vagina Monologues?” asked True Neutral.

“There should be more stories that pass the Bechdel Test,” mused Lawful Good ignoring her younger sister.

“They talk about men in Chocolate Cake,” replied the Apothecary.

“Yes, but they talk about things other than just their husbands.”

“Food!” squealed T.N. as just then Neil arrived with a heavy tray, he balanced in one hand. Neil placed the sisters’ drinks and slices of chocolate cake in front of them. T.N. got a little bowl of lemon slices beside her tall glass of iced tea and a glass reusable straw. L.G. got a metal teapot of hot water, a jasmine green tea bag and an empty cup. Neil also set beside her a bowl of sweetener packets and a spoon.

“Is there anything else I can bring you?” asked Neil as he finished setting forks and paper napkins around the table. The three sisters shook their heads and Neil exclaimed, “Enjoy!” as he walked away with the empty tray tucked under his arm.

“So, what should we do? Play a game?” asked T.N. taking a huge bite of cake.

“I would win,” said the Apothecary taking a smaller bite of her chocolate cake. “The service industry is the domain of Chaotic Evil.” The Apothecary gestured with her fork to the twitchy pock marked man dressed in black who slyly pocketed the twenty-dollar bill left on a nearby table. “Or the guy in the back who spit on that woman’s salad,” she added as another waiter set a plate before a pinched faced older woman loudly complaining.

“I want to speak to your manager!” shouted the woman.

“Okay, Karen,” hissed the waiter as he turned away from her.

“What did you call me!” screeched the woman.

“I said okay ma’am,” answered the waiter, with a quiet added, “Bitch,” under his breath.

“The other day I was at a hospital, and I was working as a janitor,” began Lawful Good. “I was emptying trash and an employee walks by and stops at the elevator. ‘Hi!’ I say to her. ‘Hello,’ she answered.”

“How are you?”

“Okay,” said the employee as she waits for the elevator. “Tired.”

“What do you do?” asked L.G. in the guise of a cleaning lady.

“I am a scheduler.”

“For surgery?” asks L.G.

“No, for neurology.”

“Is it a hard job?” asks L.G.

“It can be, yes,” replies the woman with a sigh.

“Your day will get better starting now,” said L.G. confidently.

“Thank you,” replied the woman with a smile as she gets on the open elevator. Some of the tension from her shoulders seemed to lift and her back straightened as she stepped onto the elevator.

“You see,” said Lawful Good to her sisters. “That’s all it takes sometimes to brighten someone’s day. Just a kind word and some confidence.”

“Whatever, you say sister,” answered the Apothecary. “Your little conversation gave that hard-working support staff the confidence to apply for school and go on to pursue her dreams as a screenwriter. And in four years she will be standing up on the stage of the Dolby Theatre to a standing ovation as she accepts her academy award for best Original Screenplay. And she will say in her acceptance speech, ‘My life has been a very difficult one. I never thought I could be the very first black woman winning the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, but a few years ago I was working in a hospital as a scheduler for Neurology and a cleaning woman said to me from now on your day will start getting better. And I believed her. And my day did get better. And now I am standing here in front of you amazing people!’” The Apothecary snorted and sipped her hot coffee.

Lawful Good glared at her sister over her teacup. “Maybe the kind word didn’t change her life but maybe it made her feel a little better.”

An older man wearing a suit followed the young server back to the unhappy woman with the salad.

The apparent manager introduced himself and asked how he could help the angry “Karen”.

“I specifically said no tomatoes and when he,” she said gesturing to the hapless server, “brought me my salad, there was a tomato in it!”

“It was a piece of red bell pepper,” answered the server.

“It was a tomato skin!” screamed the woman.

“Then what happened?” asked the manager patiently.

“Then I took her salad back and I went to get a replacement,” mumbled the young man.

“At which point he spit on the salad,” mumbled the Apothecary quietly as she watched the exchange at the nearby table.

“Then he brings me a new salad, and I had clearly said in the beginning, bacon bits and dressing on the side and no tomato and this salad is drenched in dressing!” screams the woman.

“I am very sorry about that ma’am,” replied the manager. “I will personally make sure that this next salad is exactly the way you want it and I will of course comp your meal.”

“Of course you will,” said the woman with a harrumph.

“He is going to pee in that salad next,” commented the Apothecary.

Right then Neil came by with a coffee pot and he topped up the Apothecary’s cup. “Do you need more iced tea?” he asked True Neutral. “More hot water?” he asked Lawful Good.

“Let’s ask Neil his opinion,” said the Apothecary.

“Okay, sure,” said Neil.

“Who is more powerful?” asked the Apothecary. “Chaotic Evil or Lawful Good?”

“Oh,” said Neil, pondering the question. “Like in D&D? Sure. Well, hmmm. I think chaotic evil is more powerful because chaos can wipe out whole civilizations. Goodness is more of an individual action. One person does something which can inspire someone else and then you have a revolution, but I think evil has a bigger body count.”

The three sisters stared at the waiter. The Apothecary smiled.

Lawful Good took a sip of her tea and then poured the remaining hot water into her cup. She held out the little tea pot to Neil. “I think I will have some more hot water please and then we will go ahead and get our check.”

Neil smiled and asked, “How was the cake?”

“It was good,” replied True Neutral slurping her iced tea from her glass straw.

Their waiter started to turn away. “Oh, Neil,” began L. G. and he turned back to her with a wide smile. “You may be faced with a choice sometime soon and I want you to choose good and do the right thing. Evil isn’t more powerful; it is just easier. Don’t succumb to the temptation.”

Neil’s eyes widened with surprise at her words as he stood there awkwardly. Then he regained his friendly plastered smile, but somehow it didn’t quite meet his eyes.

“Alright,” said T.N. as she took another bite of her cake. “The game is on.”

Fantasy
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About the Creator

Kami Bryant

I am a single mother of a teen boy. I work at a hospital and like to write stories in my free time. I self published a novel on Amazon. I am working on some short stories that I am going to publish as an anthology.

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