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The Little Prince
Topic Started: Mar 29 2011, 02:44 PM (106 Views)
Chris Nemo

Norie Sazawa was facing a situation she had never expected, and that was saying something. It is generally expected that by the time someone has reached 59 years of age, failed to get into college four times, gotten married, raised five children, and then gone into work at a minimum-wage job to assist with their spouse's suffering business, they will have seen enough of life to avoid being taken by surprise. No one had told her to anticipate something like this, though. Nowhere in all the pamphlets and instructions handed out to Junes' employees had anything touched upon how to handle this sort of situation. She would know, too. Unlike the teenagers who threw away the papers as soon as the manager was out of sight, to whom this job was nothing more than a means of affording that new game system, who were a third of her age at the oldest, Norie studied those publications day and night as if they were the law. And they were the law to someone like her, who had been lucky enough to get a job that paid this much at her age. She couldn't afford to lose her employment here. Her family couldn't. That was why she was not only the oldest cashier, but also the most stringent as far as rules were concerned.

Yet no matter how many hours she spent to memorizing and understanding those materials, right now none of it mattered. Nothing could have prepared her for this.

In a hesitant voice Norie asked, "I'm sorry, could you please repeat why you wanted to get these?" and leaned forward, cupping her hands behind her ears to make sure she didn't misunderstand the child's response a second time. His eyes barely cleared counter top - he couldn't be older than ten, she guessed - so trying to get as close as possible strained her already aching back. But as long as it was for the customer, she had to make sure that every day was great for him while here at Junes. That's what made the customers feel welcome and helped improve morale for the entire team, handbook 3 section 102.b said.

On the bright side, he seemed to be having a great day. It was a bit surprising; Norie couldn't leave any of her children alone in public at that age, yet he had come up to the counter himself and placed his purchase before her as though he were already an adult. Only a child could smile that cheerfully, though. Which was part of the problem.

Norie's day had stopped being great the moment he placed two dozen gleaming-sharp kitchen knives before the register and said that he wanted them to "cut things."

Weapon laws were clear-cut; if he was found carrying any blades over 60 millimeters (all of which the knives he wanted were), he was going to be in serious trouble. The eventual punishment would be even worse because he was a foreigner. Naturally selling them to a child was also illegal. However, as previously stated, she had never seen a child as mature as him. She couldn't imagine him doing this for any reason than as an errand for his parents. As a mother, Norie could understand there were just times when it was impossible to do the shopping yourself. Maybe if any of her kids had been as well-behaved as he was, she would have trusted them with a similar task at this age.

There would have been no problem if one of his parents or guardians, or maybe an older sibling, had been with him, but he was alone. Nobody else was in the line to this register either. Even a written note or some other communication from a legal adult would have made her enough at ease to complete his transaction. When asked where his parents were, he gave the puzzling answer of "Kangerlussuaq," and happily inquired if cash was okay. Speaking of which, she could be thankful that the amount of money he had on hand wasn't an issue, but it raised several much more disturbing ones. The sheer amount of paper in that wallet he'd unintentionally shown off... Norie wouldn't see that much cash after a year of working at Junes! Just who was this kid?!

As if he could read her mind, the blonde-haired boy gave a toothy grin and introduced himself, "McLaughlain. McLaughlain Joachim. Um, no matter how many questions you ask about me, I'm not going to change my mind. I'd like to buy these knives, so could you please scan them and tell me what the total is?"

Norie Sazawa, 59-years-old mother of four, was paralyzed with indecisiveness. Even if it was a random passerby, she would have been happy to sell the cutlery so long as someone older vouched for Joachim. He had enough money, he seemed responsible, and she really, really could not risk doing anything to draw the manager's ire.
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Aya-chan
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The weekly shopping was something Sayuri always looked forward to. In fact, when she wasn't working on a case, shopping at Junes was one of her favorite pastimes.

In other words, she needed to start making friends.

Sayuri was browsing through the seafood section near the cutlery, where rows upon rows of fish slices were displayed, most of them small for use in making sushi. She hadn't even put anything in her plastic basket when she overheard a conversation.

"...Umm, no matter how many questions you ask me, I'm not going to change my mind. I'd like to buy these knives, so can you please scan them and tell me what the total is?"

This sounded like a minor speaking. The kid's voice sounded innocent enough, but something about it made Sayuri's warning bell go off. "Detective's Intuition" or something like that. Something registered in her, that this boy was purchasing sharp objects with the intent of breaking several laws. Sayuri couldn't allow that.

She picked a spot in a store, pretending to be examining the seafood, but choosing a position from which she could easily and covertly watch the richly-dressed blonde boy without being too conspicuous.

"I've got my eye on you kid." she thought. "Let's see what you'll do now."
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