“You hit me, we’re going to have more problems than that package that you just punted out of the truck!” I snapped.
“That was my computer, lady!” Calliope snarled. “And you were supposed to make me sign for it! I’ve had three packages stolen this week, and now I think I know why.”
The woman started to inch forward, but I stayed my ground.
“What’s your name?” Calliope growled, climbing the steps of the UPS truck and doing something inside.
The truck abruptly turned off, and Calliope emerged with a set of keys.
“Give those back!”
“Fuck you,” Calliope snarled. “You better fuckin’ pray that this computer works and isn’t damaged, otherwise I’m kicking your ass.”
“You could try.” The driver came barreling out, dead set on taking her keys.
Kent and I stayed back to watch, but it wasn’t a fair fight. Calliope had been fighting since she was old enough to walk. She’d been fighting for her life and those of her siblings.
Though, she’d done it in a much different way than her sister, Searcy, had.
“Come here!” the UPS driver kept following Calliope. “Or I’ll…”
Calliope turned around just as the driver raised her fist.
“What’s going on here?” Searcy asked as she got out of her car, surprising us all.
I didn’t take my eyes off the two women.
“Ma’am,” Searcy called out. “You can’t park here!”
The driver growled. “I didn’t want to park here!”
I pulled my phone out and called Apollo.
“Yeah?” Apollo answered, sounding distracted.
“You might need to be on standby,” I said. “Patch into my cameras and watch.”
“On it.” Apollo, our resident computer extraordinaire, ended the call just as abruptly as he’d answered.
The UPS driver reached for Calliope, but Calliope slapped her hand away. “Don’t touch me.”
“I’ll touch you if I want to touch you, bitch!”
“What’s going on here?”
Calliope didn’t take her gaze off of the driver, but the rest of us turned to see the newcomer.
“Uh,” the UPS driver looked worried for a second. “Nothing, boss.”
“It doesn’t look like nothing,” the driver’s boss said. “Miranda, I told you last week that you’d be audited due to complaints. And now this? What’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you what’s going on,” Calliope snarled. “This sorry excuse for a UPS employee just threw my computer, a computer in which I was supposed to sign for, into the yard. It’s A, going to rain today. You can see the dark clouds already. B, not on my porch or even into my hands, and I was right here. And C, it’s a fucking computer, and instead of getting her lazy ass out of the truck, she threw it! Who the fuck even does that?”
“Like you can do much better.” The UPS driver rolled her eyes. “This is a hard ass job. You’re lucky I even brought it to your house. I could’ve easily dropped it off with all the other packages at the mailboxes.”
“I don’t know if you’re dumb or not, but considering I just watched you throw my package into the yard instead of getting out and delivering it to the front door, I’m going to assume you are. But the packages up there are in a private building with the rest of the United States Postal Service deliveries. You, dumbass, aren’t with the USPS. You are wearing brown—that’s UPS in case you didn’t know.”
My lips twitched.
