Summoning up her courage, Jim walked carefully back to the front desk. With every step she was aware of that bulging stomach of hers. She recalled hearing somewhere how strenuous activity could hasten the speed of a pregnancy; so, she walked very slowly.
Reaching the counter she noticed for the first time how much shorter she was in this costume, standing about 5 feet high. It meant she had to press her palms on the desk in order to force herself up on her tippy toes. "Excuse me," she imposed upon the clerk. Her voice sounded a little sweet and friendly -- and not the least bit masculine.
The clerk behind the counter was a scraggly-haired man in sunglasses, leaning back with headphones on as he read a magazine. He gave Jim no sign of recognition. Jim cleared her throat and called to him again. The clerk leaned forward and asked, "Cash or debit?"
"Neither," Jim answered. "I, well, gee, mister, I wanted to take the costume off but the key broke in my little bitty hands." Jim's vocabulary wasn't entirely 100% normal but it got the meaning across.
The clerk sighed and pulled off his headphones. Picking up the store telephone he pressed a quick dial. "Louis? Yeah. One at the front counter. Yeah. Yeah." He hung up. "Wait here," he said without enthusiasm, then went back to the magazine.
Jim waited feeling somewhat embarrassed to be in the front of the shop in such an odd state. She placed her hands on the large tummy again. "Oooo, you better stay in there li'l guys, mommy's not ready for you yet."
A man dressed in overalls and a toolbelt stepped up the counter and looked at Jim. "What's the problem, lady?"
Jim clasped her hands together. "Oh, goody! Mister, you gotta help me, I put this cuddly li'l costume on in the changing room but when I tried to take it off I got all bamboozled and the key broke in the lock, see?" She raised her chin to display the broken lock.
The worker - Louis - held on to her chin as he stared at it. "Yep, that's a clean break. Okay. Follow me back." He guided her to the back of the shop and through a door marked 'employees only.' He had to travel slower than he liked because Jim refused to speed up in the slightest. Inside the employees' area Louis led Jim into some sort of workshop. "Coffee?" he asked.
"No thank you," Jim answered. "I'll already be up all night the way the babies are hopping inside my belly!" That last part came out a bit wrong. Louis had her sit down in a chair, then pulled out a tool.
"Hold still, lady, this is very dangerous," he cautioned her. The tool fastened itself around the head of the lock and he cranked it about several times. In a moment he drew it away and the broken key pice tinkled to the ground. "All right," he explained, "we can make a new key."
"What a relief!" Jim exclaimed. "How long will that take?"
Louis glanced about the area around the lock and did some mental figuring. "Come back in about..."
Go back - Go to the parent episode.
Fri Jul 07 01:46:06 2017