1
All I wanted was to dive into a deep-fried piece of bread and questionable meat on a stick before my interview, which was in… I looked around for a clock but couldn’t see any around. Elevator music was playing from the mall speakers as I maneuvered around throngs of shoppers to get to the corndog counter.
"Shit," I huffed. My interview was likely five minutes ago but I was going to throw up on their lap if I didn't get carbs in me. My mom and I had cleaned out the wine coolers when no other family members felt inclined to imbibe last night. They stuck to their soda while we hackled like hyenas over sweetened peach-flavored alcohol.
Which brought me back to my purse, or should I say my mom’s purse. I’d accidentally grabbed it since we had matching lavender pleather purses. How I didn’t immediately realize something was wrong I was chalking up to early morning delirium. This thing weighed ten pounds and was digging into my shoulder.
It was bursting with Avon cosmetics that my mom was attempting to sell everywhere she went. I heard a lipstickliberate itself from the purse and drop to the floor. I kept walking, unconcerned where it rolled and happy to be free of one of the contents.
The scent of yesterday’s fresh perm wafted in my face—a biting chemical scent I found oddly nice. My fingers pressed into the tight, dark curls, enjoying the texture and bounce.
Man, I was hungry and hungover. Enough that the line at the corndog place didn't even bother me even though it should, considering I was running late. My eyes slid around the packed mall hallway. A thriving mall was a dangerous yet exciting thing—more shoppers than ever, bright smiles, and multiple full bags in everyone's hands.
Ten minutes later I rushed through the mall while forcing corndog down my throat. I ran past a store mascot and shivered in displeasure at the sight of it. I didn't trust people in costumes. Ironically, clowns were my least concern. It was the ones in those cartoon character suits that disturbed me the most. I didn't like knowing there was someone inside its body. Some unknown person I couldn't see and couldn't get a read on. For all I knew they were jerking off in there while holding a knife. Bunch of sick fucks.
I sent the mascot that looked like some peculiar fuzzy monster a mean look he didn't see and hurried down a less crowded hallway. The people petered out as I continued toward the back of the hall. The less popular shops were down here. The mall swords, the antique shop that gave a frightening aura, and my destination: Frankie’s Funhouse.
I pushed the last piece of the deep-fried cornmeal and hot dog into my mouth and chomped aggressively. The thing about eating bread fast was that it gave me hiccups. So as I swallowed a too-large mouthful of only partially chewed breading, I began to hiccup at an alarming rate.
Frankie's was empty, hopefully because of the time of day. It was like an arcade with a few fun games like Pac-Man and Asteroids, but it was mostly carnival games. Bowl a cue ball into the hole. Shoot a basket. Win points and get tickets, trade in the tickets for prizes.
Essentially this was a kid’s gambling casino.
I’d never been here myself but I knew places like it. Cheap pizza, screaming kids, bowling alley carpet. This one was special though…This one had Frankie. He was a has-been now but at one point Frankie had been the biggest thing on kid’s television. And this wasn’t some copycat Frankie, it was the real deal. The very same animatronic featured on the tv show that was also called Frankie’s Funhouse.
Welcome to Frankie’s Funhouse, kids!I could hear the intro in my head. The chipper music, his eyelids blinking one at a time over big round plastic eyes.
I saddled up to the prize counter where a girl about my age was blowing a bubble with her bubblegum. The uniform looked like a cross between a clown and a street walker and it was one hundred percent weird as a uniform for a kid’s place.
"Hey,hiccup." Fuck. She looked up at me. " I'm,hiccup, here for the interview." I hiccuped again but just stared her down as if this was perfectly normal. My glare could make grown men redecide their actions. It was a bonafide superpower. She decided to ignore the hiccuping.
"Back there," she said, waving towards an opening to a large room with a stage at the back. Thick red curtains blocked off the stage. I thanked her, hiccuping more, and then made my way over. When I pulled back the curtain and stepped through I grimaced. A collection of horrifying animatronics littered the stage. Their lidless, huge eyes were all aimed at me. It was a strange ragtag of various human-like animals wearing black leather and chains as if they were a metal band.
Maybe I didn't need money for an apartment. That goal of moving out by 1986 seemed less important right this very minute. I could just keep living at home for the rest of my life…
"Hey there, you must be Ramona." The voice came from the animatronics. I stared at them in a cold sweat. Then a man stepped from behind them, dropping a screwdriver into a toolbox.
“Gus?” I asked, eyeing him.
“That’s me,” he said, flashing a smile. He had rolled-up faded jeans, white socks, new balance sneakers, perfectly cut blonde hair, light blue eyes, and a college shirt that showed off lean muscles. Which was really weird given Gus was the store owner and this guy looked the same age as me.
“Your dad—” he started.
“Not my dad,” I hissed with vitriol. Ray was my mom’s ex-husband and the scum of the Earth. It was almost comical how unlikable he was. Then he had to do something stupid like help me get a job. Which made me hate him even more because now I felt like I owed him.
“Okay,” Gus said, giving a long blink. “Did Ray explain what the job is?” He flashed another white smile. I eyed him suspiciously. Why was the owner of a rundown pizza arcade a preppy college jock?
“How old are you?” I blurted out, my face heating suddenly because that was weird. He probably thought I was interested in him. I saw movement from the corner of my eye and slowly looked to the left but there was nothing there except an empty spot where an animatronic might stand between two others.
“Older than I look,” he said with a chuckle, smiling even wider. God, hedidthink I was hitting on him.
“Ray didn’t say much.” I shifted the purse strap around on my shoulder to try and get a little relief from its weight.
“We’re low staff at the moment so there will be a lot of hours.”
“Perfect.” The idea of a large paycheck sat well with me. Plus, I was tired of my house, cram-packed with my three younger siblings always running around yelling and being annoying. Their puberty stank like sweat, hormones, and unwashed ass.
“Maureen will show you the ropes the first half of the day but then you’ll be on your own tonight. She has some concert she insists is necessary to go to or she’ll die.” I stood there a moment, slightly dumbfounded. Did that conclude my interview? It sounded like I got the job. He hadn't even asked me anything about my work experience.
