Godsend

Because Why Not

January 28th, 2015

Perry once again found himself in the Littleton Police station, though this time it wasn't as much of a madhouse as per his first experience. He didn't know what the hell he was doing, it was a crazy, stupid idea, but honestly, what did he have left to lose? Ever since Perry had been politely kicked out of the police station last week by Officer Calico, he could not think of anything else to do with his life except come back here to talk to Calico again. She actually understood and, to some degree, appreciated his bone-dry humor. It took him a week of mulling over it to come to this conclusion, but now that he was actually here, it could not feel like a more terrible idea.

Perry shook his head, he wasn't about to let all the effort he had put into looking presentable go to waste. He had combed his grey, thinning hair, put on a relatively wrinkle free shirt, and a pair of jeans that didn't reek of man stench. He approached the woman at the front desk, a petite little redhead lady that didn't seem to have any earthly place in a police station, "Excuse me," Perry got her attention, "I'm looking for someone."

"Who are you looking for, sir." The redhead woman sounded more demanding than Perry had anticipated.

"I need to speak with Officer Calico about something."

"What do you need to speak with her about?" The woman was testing his patience a bit.

"It's a personal matter, can you just get her on your walkie talkie or something?"

The woman pressed a button that relayed her voice across the intercom, "Calico, there's some old guy at the front desk looking for you." Her voice echoed through the entire station.

"Gee, thanks." Perry could feel himself becoming red with embarrassment. The young officer mockingly smiled at Perry as he walked a few paces away toward a wall to lean on while he waited. A few moments later, Perry saw Calico walking down the hall, just as stern as the day he'd met her. He gave a courteous smile as he approached her. 

"Are you the one that called for me?" Calico seemed mildly frustrated.

"Don't you remember me, I was in here about a week ago?" Perry asked, confused.

"Last week was a shit storm, so probably not. Now what do you want?" 

Perry was thrown off, he was sure Calico would remember him, he wasn't that forgettable. Then it hit him; this was probably Calico's Godsend, that's why she didn't know him.

"Actually, can I speak to the, um, the other you?" It was such a clumsy thing to ask. Calico rolled her eyes.

"What is such a big deal about talking to me? Why does everyone want to talk to all the regular people? I'm a person too, you know. Asshole." She stormed off back down the hall. Perry called to her from down the hall, "You're going to get her though, right?" He leaned back on his wall, mentally kicking himself in the ass for coming into the station. Once again, just before giving up and leaving, Calico showed up, the real Calico. The moment she saw him, her face became puzzled.

"Why are you here?" She asked directly.

"I actually wanted to talk to you about something." Perry looked around and saw the multitude of people in the room, peering in his direction, curious about the commotion he was causing.

"Well, spit it out, man, I don't have all day." Calico crossed her arms.

"Well, can we talk somewhere private?" Perry was stammering.

"We're in a police station, Perry, nowhere is private. Now what are you doing here?" She looked increasingly more impatient.

"Okay, fine. I was just thinking that if you weren't doing anything this weekend, would you like to maybe get lunch. Or a coffee or something." Perry found it incredibly difficult to maintain eye contact.

"You've got to be kidding, right?" He had never seen her surprised face before.

"No I'm not kidding. I wouldn't come in here to make an ass out of myself in front of all these people as a joke. Not mention there's two times the people, so I look like two times the ass." 

"Even if I looked past the fact that this is the most ass backwards way of asking someone out on a date, I'm in the middle of a divorce with my husband, who there are now two of, so I have a lot of shit on my plate." Calico looked a little flustered.

"What a coincidence, I'm also divorced. See, we already have things in common. Come on, Officer, I'm offering you free food." Perry was sweating, he just hoped it wouldn't bleed through his shirt. Calico was silent for a moment, until finally speaking up. 

"Fine, one lunch. Now will you please let me get back to work? Don't you have a job?" 

"Save those questions for lunch. I'll see you this weekend!" Perry walked backward out the double doors of the police station as he spoke to Calico. She held a confused gaze with him until he turned and walked to his car. Perry did a full 360 to make sure nobody was looking, then proceeded to dance in front of his car, stopping only when he heard snickering from behind him. He turned to see two identical policemen laughing at him as they wrestled what looked like a meth addict through the door. 

Even the meth head appeared to be smiling about it.