A short story defining a young girl's trail of contagion. |
Cassandra, commonly refered to as Cassie, was a petite woman of age 24. She had light auburn hair, blue eyes, and arguably pale skin. She worked at Hollister as a sales woman. She is very caring and nice towards strangers and friends. Cassie sauntered into Hollister for her first of a double shift that she worked that day. When she arrived there were 3 other people in the store: Angeline (another sales woman), Natalie (the store manager), and a small customer looking at the jeans rack. The woman was quite bundled up even for a Florida winter. "Hey, Nat. Hey, Angeline." Both women replied with half-hearted smiles and waves and then returned to folding and hanging clothes. Cassie, after removing her coat and hanging it in her employee locker, walked towards the heavily clothed woman. "Hello, ma'am. How are you, today?" The woman glanced at Cassie and replied, "Not, so well. I've been feeling a tad bit..." She stopped, turned away, and raised her hands to her mouth and nose. 'Heh, heh... hut'scheww!' "Excuse me! How innapropriate of me! What I was saying was I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately." Cassie nodded with understanding. "I'm sorry. Whenever you're ready I can check you out over at the register." The woman finished her shopping in between a few noseblows, coughs and sneezes. She walked to the register and sneezed, uncovered and abruptly, to her right. Cassandra walked up to the right of the register as the woman began to sniffle and blew her nose. Cassie checked out the items quickly. As she scanned the second to last item, the woman scrunched her face and, within a second, let out a resounding sneeze directly in Cassie's face and chest. "Oh no! I'm incredibly sorry! Is there anything I can do?" The woman was shaken with embarrassment and apology. "It's okay, really." Cassie reassured her. "It's not like you can control having a cold." The woman went on her way. Hours later, Cassie's shift ended and she met up with friends at the Karaoke Club near the mall. Cassie was a phenomenal singer and often performed on nights when awards were being given. Cassie, again, won first place and was given $50 as a prize. Cassandra woke up the next day with a scratchy and slightly sore throat. She attributed that to her effort in singing the prior night. She didn't have to work that day so she decided to run errands. Her first stop was at the grocery store. She began a coughing fit as she entered the store. Near the end of her rounds, she approached the first register and began placing items on the conveyer belt. She finishes and nears the cashier to pay. She felt a sneeze coming on but froze and couldn't cover it before it escaped from her mouth and nose spraying the cashier, credit card machine, and conveyer belt. TBC... |