5. Gandhi with a K

They were still discussing strategy when the conference was interrupted by "the chirping presence" (Tom's description) otherwise known as Kandhi, the stock clerk. They were used to her varying but always dramatic entrances. It was her job to push an empty cart into the stock room, fill it up with newly arrived books, and push it back out to the sales floor. Usually she managed to arrive either inside of the cart, on top of the cart, skating the cart, sailing the cart, one time even carrying the large metal beast on her back. On entering she would call out some random greeting in an attempt to never make sense and never repeat herself.

"Watchtower Ho!" was her calling card this time, as she waded in, balancing a back wheel of the cart on each of her shoes, like you might walk an incipient toddler.

"Hi Chris", she shouted as she let the front wheels fall and clatter onto the floor. Tom did not like the girl, at least not that he would admit to anyone or even himself. She was too something or other. Girls were always too something for Tom. He turned away and went to work on one of the twigs from his collection. He had to figure out how to embed one of his tagging devices in there.

Kandhi was still trying to figure out how to embed Chris. Even since she found out Laurie had gone off into the wilderness, Kandhi was one (of many) who figured it was now or never. She sized herself up and thought she had a decent change. Where Laurie was a redhead, Kandhi's short and spiky hair was day-glo pink. Where Laurie had a vast array of freckles spread across her face, Kandhi had a lot of piercings. Where Laurie was as thin as an extension cord, Kandhi had plenty to grab on to. Besides, she was friendly, happy, and positive and who didn't like that?

"Hey Kandhi", Chris replied. "What's cooking?"

"So much work!" she feigned fatigue, wiping a hand across her brow. "Did any book come in?" she laughed. It was a frequent joke of late, the singular case. There had been a day recently where one and only one book did in fact arrive. It was a special order called "Hives and You". Everyone had made a big production out of it, solemnly placing it on a tissue on a platter and forming a procession to carry it up to the front desk where Harry, the ancient queen who ruled the register, snapped at them to cut it out.

"Not a peep", Chris told her. It was at this point where she would usually begin a new round of small talk, trying to sound just the right note, to make the right impression, but this time Chris surprised her by asking,

"Say, you're from the Southland, right?"

"Yeah sure", she told him, "Anaheim".

"Any chance you're going down that way anytime soon?"

"I could", she said. Could this be the chance she had been waiting for?

"Need me to do something for you?" she hoped.

"Maybe", Chris said, "I don't know yet. Hey Tom", he called out. Tom turned back with a look like he was trying to smile and scowl at the same time.

"What do you think? Possible agent of change here?"

This was the part Tom didn't want to deal with. He just wanted to stay behind the scenes, let Chris do all the people management, but they hadn't explicitly worked out that division of labor yet.

"Your call", he said. "How about you run the outside operation? Whatever you say."

"Wow", teased Kandhi, "you guys are running an operation from out of here? I hope it's not something too illegal!"

"I don't think so", Chris said, turning to Tom again. "Is it?"

"No way", Tom said.

"So?" Kandhi asked, "what do I do?"

"Well, it's like this", Chris started to tell her, but then stopped himself and asked Tom, "Do we tell her everything, or only on a need to know basis?"

"Need to know", Tom said.

"Yeah, I need to know", Kandhi cracked.

"Okay, okay", Chris continued. "It's pretty simple, really. There's this guy I know down there, and we want to give him this cool idea we have, so we need to find him and let him overhear it somewhere in public."

"Why don't you just call him up and tell him your idea?" Kandhi asked.

"Um. Yeah", Chris scratched his head, and turned again to Tom. "Why don't we do that?", he asked.

"That's not the point", Tom said. "What if we didn't know the guy at all. This time you happened to but next time no. It's a test."

"You're giving me a test?" Now Kandhi was confused. She was still part way through community college and the word 'test' was enough to make her feet cool down.

"Not you," Tom said impatiently, "the process. It's like a dry run. We've got to work out the kinks, see if it works. It's okay if you don't want to do it. We can find somebody else."

"So let me get this straight", Kandhi said. "You want me, or somebody else, to go down to L.A., look for a certain person, follow him around and then, when we think he might be in a good spot, say some idea out loud and hope he hears it?"

"Not just any idea", Chris said. "Our great idea! But yeah, you've got it. That's the plan."

"It sounds kind of creepy", she said. "The following around part. The rest of it just sounds stupid."

"You don't have to literally follow him around", Tom explained. "You'll tag him and then you can always see where he is on this thingie here".

Kandhi came over and looked at the handheld device, where Chris' little light was still pulsating in place.

"That's me", Chris said, joining them, and pointing at the light. "He tagged me so I could see how it works. Look, I'll walk around and you can see", and he headed out the back door. Kandhi grabbed the device from Tom and followed after him.

"This is fucking cool", Kandhi shouted as they went through the alleyway and out to the Post Street. "Where'd he get all this?"

"He invented it", Chris told her.

"No shit", she said. She was surprised. As far as she knew, Tom was just the cranky guy in the stock room who never talked much.

"How'd he tag you", she wanted to know, and Chris explained about the laser and the pistol and the stick. Kandhi pictured herself pointing a stick at someone and having some light shoot out of it. Sounded like magic. This could be fun after all, she decided. By the time they got back she had already agreed to go and "do the test."