Moulting

(Map. Call. Sob.)

"There weren't always dragons in the valley." It was a bizarre omen, almost an urban legend heard around the office. Lindsey worked for United Parts Company, a company that made generic replacement parts for major appliances, she was in product engineering. Why she had heard such a weird phrase used was something she could never figure out. Lindsey had one other woman close by in her department on the sixth floor: Anne-Marie. They spent their work days scanning name brand parts, reverse-engineering them, and copying them for United Parts for discount mass production. It wasn't the kind of work Lindsey imagined doing when she got her degree in engineering, but it paid the bills and the pressure of the job was never too much.

It was a typical Thursday on the engineering floor, Anne-Marie and Lindsey were working their way through a new line of control boards of washers and dryers. "The scan on item 75 is complete. How many more to go," Anne-Marie asked.

"43. We should have the scans done by Friday and the first prints ready to go by Monday for testing." Lindsey answered

"Do you think they ever bring in their own laundry? You know, in the lab tests of products - just to make sure the stuff works?"

Lindsey scoffed a laugh, "Nah. The last thing I want to bring into work is my dirty laundry literally or figuratively."

"Yeah. I get'cha." Anne-Marie moved the control board from its position, put the next one in, and went back to her computer to update the database while Lindsey started the scan. "That reminds me, I do need to do laundry this weekend."

"We've been scanning these boards all week, and that is what reminded you you needed to do laundry?" Lindsey asked.

"Yeah. Yeah." Anne-Marie dismissed. "It could have been any board at any time."

The pair kept working. It was only the two of them in their part of the office-warehouse-lab space, but they liked each other well enough. Rarely did anyone else come to the fourth floor where the two engineering lady-nerds worked.

It was after lunch that day, the pair were making their way back to their work space, they got off the elevator and realized their office was not as empty as they left it. "The lights are on," Anne-Marie said cautiously.

"Yeah. The motion detectors usually cut them out by now," Lindsey replied.

"There weren't always dragons in the valley," Anne-Marie whispered.

It had been over a year since Lindsey had heard the ominous phrase and never heard the context explained. "What does that mean?"

"It's too late." Anne-Marie said wide eyed. She sped up her walk away from Lindsey back to their desks. When Lindsey caught up to Anne-Marie, there he was, a man in a crisp suit, waiting for them. He was speaking to Anne-Marie, handing her some papers and speaking low. Even as Lindsey slowed her walk and allowed them the privacy to talk, she knew it was bad. She could only see the side of Anne-Marie's face and she saw the expression drop and the tears come. The man in the suit did not offer consolation or comfort. Lindsey waited until Anne-Marie went to her desk before slowly approaching.

"Lindsey Smith?" The man said.

"Yes."

"Jeff Simmons, corporate management. I'm sorry to be the one to have to tell you, your department has been consolidated with research and development. Today's your last day."

Lindsey was shocked. She had been there for six years, all her work, was over. "That's it? No notice? No call? This is coming out of nowhere."

"The decision has already been made. You are getting a severance package and your accumulated vacation time. We appreciate the work you have done." Lindsey's stomach sank.

Jeff watched over the pair of women clean out their desks. No one spoke, the silence was uncomfortable. Lindsey opened drawers and pulled out personal effects: tissue box, cough drops, a sweater. As she placed them in a tote box, an image flashed in front of her eyes: the tissue box was silver, the cough drops were coins, and the sweater was a bolt of silk. The cardboard box became an oak chest with iron hinges. The vision was gone just as quickly.

She looked over at Anne-Marie trying to visually clasp something, someone familiar, and Anne-Marie was still crying hard. She gasped through a sob. The pair shared a gaze. Anne-Marie took a big sniff and in another blink Lindsey didn't see her, but a werewolf howling. Anne-Marie shook her head and looked over at Jeff, he was yawning, but yawned so wide he looked like he was unhinging his jaw and his chin was touching his chest.

What is happening to me? Lindsey sat down, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and when she opened her eyes again, everything was as it had been: her stuff was in a cardboard box, Anne-Marie was crying, and Jeff was standing around waiting for them to be done so he could escort them out.

As the pair finished packing their desks, Jeff escorted them back to the elevator. As the elevator doors closed, Lindsey's eyes blurred and the dull steel walls of the elevator became wooden-plank walls. She couldn't tell if it was a ship hull or a casket, but either way in that moment, she felt trapped and dropped her box. As the box hit the floor, the cardboard box of everyday items flashed into a crate of spiders that seemed to explode; and the explosion ended as quickly as it started. Jeff and Anne-Marie were blind to Lindsey's hallucinations, at least she convinced herself they were hallucinations. She quickly apologized for dropping her box and they all dismissed it as quickly.

As they walked out of the lobby of the building, Lindsey blinked and saw the great hall of a palace, blinked again, and it was gone. And before she knew it, she and Anne-Marie were outside the building without their key cards. Discarded like discontinued parts.

Lindsey and Anne-Marie walked to their cars parked across from each other. "I don't know what I'm going to do. I've done this so long, I don't know how to do anything else." Anne-Marie sniffled and cried.

"You're smart, you have experience, you can take your knowledge and go anywhere." Lindsey tried to be optimistic.

"You've been a good co-worker, and a good friend. You'll keep me up to date on things, right?"

"Of course, you too." Lindsey answered. She watched Anne-Marie put her box in her trunk, get in her car, and cry. Lindsey was haunted in that moment; her cries sounded like howls. She watched Anne-Marie drive off before she got in her car. Lindsey was despondent and confused. She sat still and silent for a while, she didn't even start the engine.

A while later, there was a tap on her window, it was Jeff. Lindsey started her car and rolled her window down. "You left this on your desk."

He handed her a brown envelope with her name on it - it wasn't the severance package, this was something else.

"Thanks." She tossed it on her passenger seat.

"I hope you know it wasn't personal. It wasn't about your performance. We were downsizing all across United Parts."

Lindsey was upset and annoyed. She had given the company so much and was so easily discarded. "More parts for the dragon's hoarde." She rolled up her window staring at him. It was the only power move she had over him. As the window closed, she saw his eyes change through the glass; his brown eyes became yellow and orange with a slitted-pupil.

Lindsey drove out of the lot to the four-way stop on the edge of the United Parts campus. She glanced at the brown envelope Jeff brought her. It wasn't brown paper as it was at its first touch, it was leather. No one was around at the four-way stop. She put the car in park and opened the envelope. There was a map that seemed to be of a place she had never seen, pages of a language she didn't recognize, coins in a metal that weren't gold or silver, and a single yellow post-it that read, "The dragons are back in the valley. Which way will you go?"