The Soul Mate Program

Seven

The bell on the side of the door jingled as I pulled it open. A girl from the back stood tall so she could see who it was.

"I'll be there in just a minute!" She yelled, before ducking from sight and shuffling some things. I moved over to the cash register, waiting for her.

When she walked over, she was pulling her black hair into a fresh ponytail. It showed a freshly shaved head under it. She smiled at me, offering a tan hand to me.

"I'm the manager here, Mullissa, but you can call me Missy." She said, I reached over and shook her hand, "You are?"

"Alice, uh if you wanna call me Ali you can, but no one really does that." I said, taking my head back to scratch the back of my neck.

"Okay, Ali, you be working here, right?" She said, motioning for me to follow her.

"Yeah, where's everybody else?" I said, I wanting to ask where anyone else was, but that would've been rude.

"Just you and me today." She said, taking the me to the back room, "Arms up." She said, holding what looked like a hand-held scanner from the cash register. I did as told, and she scanned my body.

After a few moments, it beeped out. She looked down at it, giving it an 'eh' with the shake of her head and a shrug. She lead me back to to the front. She handed me a canny pack and a key.

"There's the addition to your uniform, and a key to the store." She said, before leading back to the back of the store.

"Ahh, if you don't mind me asking, why'd you scan me?" I asked, earning a little laugh from Missy.

"Oh, that." She said, chuckling as we reached the back of the back room. It was dark and damp in there, but just like any other storage room I've seen, "I had to make sure you weren't lying to me when you told me your identity."

"Oh, okay." I said, as she pulled a card from her pack, and started looking around the shelves. She read each card with wiggly fingers until she set her hand on a shelf.

"This is your shelf, Ali." She said, leaning against the shelf, facing me, "You come in, and you organize what's here by genre and name. Once you're done, you hang around an hour after. If no one's here, you close up shop."

"This is some shelf." I said, looking up at it. There were about fifteen boxes full of CDs that I could already tell weren't organized at all.

"Well, you can be in and out within an hour. If you work hard, you could get this done in about three hours. But for newbies it takes from four to five. Then you gotta stay another hour, which from anywhere from four to six hours. And that doesn't include if any customers come in." She said, smiling at my surprise face.

"So, I gotta get here early?" I asked, earning a snort from her.

"Nine's preferable. Just so you can get out and browse some time during the week days. We've all got weekends off." Missy said, handing me a box, "Oh, and if a Copy gets in, just politely let it out."

"Copy?" I asked as she was walking away, but she must not have heard me, because she just walked right out of the store.

I stared down at the box in my hands. Well, I thought, let's get started.

...

About three minutes in, Missy finished her boxes and left. I tried to ask her again, but she had ear buds in, and either ignored me or just didn't hear me.

By time I finished, it had been five and a half hours. My hands and feet were sore and I still had to sit there for another hour.

I sighed as I sat in the slightly uncomfortable chair behind the counter. I used the computer to change radio to a mix of the rock I liked. Then I sat back and counted the minutes until I was free.

The bell on the door jingled, I sat up and looked over at the door. A girl my age had already turned away from me, going directly for the rock section. I stood and wiped off my shirt, and walked towards her.

"Do you need help, ma'am?" I asked, I leaned toward her. Smilng the best smile I had. She didn't say anything, but turned her head away from me, going for the alternative, "Miss?" I asked, following her, "Ma'am?"

When she turned to me, I almost fell in shock.

In front of me, was...me. An exact copy stared back at me, opening my eyes wide and cocking my head. She opened the mouth that had belonged to me, and screeched.

I fell back and covered my ears. I tripped over my feet and hit my elbows against the ground. The clone of me grabbed as many CDs as she could hold, and ran off.

I rubbed my elbows. Wincing at the new pain, but nevertheless, I was scared out of my mind. I turned out the lights, and locked shop up. Running back to my home.

I sat at the computer and went back to the real world.

...

Again, I was out of breathe when I woke up. But this time, I was well aware why.

I pulled the cone up and over my head. I looked around at the real world. Calmed by its appearance. My hands nor feet no longer aced, but my head did. A tremendous head ache had fallen on me. It was either from the loud noise that...thing made, or it was from being in the PC so long.

Either or, I went into the bathroom. After using it, I washed my face and gave myself a pep talk. Missy had warned me about this. I just didn't know it would've been me.

I ate a simple dinner of chicken and rice, before forgetting all that happened, and going to sleep.