Spinner's End

chapter28

Raven awoke slightly earlier than she would have wanted to for her long Monday at work. Most people dreaded Mondays but she had even more reasons to dread them. Firstly it was her extra long day of the week, twelve hours long and she also had a new boss.

Elizabeth, the old boss had moved away to become the area supervisor of some shops in London, a boon for her but for her staff, they hated to see her go. She was a good, fun boss to work for. The new boss however left something to be desired in all of the employees.

Raven filled her tub with the hottest water she could draw from the old plumbing as she thought about the mean spirited boss, Kevin. Just Saturday he was working on the psyche of other employees, trying to turn them against one another.

Elvira, a younger, beautiful girl said that she wasn’t feeling well after a few hours of being at work. She had gone home. Kevin then stood behind Raven and Emma and started saying how Elvira was only faking being sick because her area of the store was in disarray and she was too lazy to straighten it up. He went on and on about how lazy and stupid she is. He then proceeded to tell them some errors she had made on the cash register and in pricing items.

Raven lowered herself into the warm bath water.

She despised Kevin because his cheap tactics had worked on Emma. She had commented later to Raven that she also thought that Elvira was stupid, because she made the register errors. Raven pointed out to Emma that almost anyone could make errors. She had tried to explain to Emma what Kevin was doing to them. She tried to explain that it unnerved him that the women that worked there were so friendly with one another and excluded him from what they were discussing. Emma seemed to not believe Raven though. This worried Raven because it would then be likely that Emma would go and tell Kevin what she had said about him.

Raven was actually worried for her job, as she could tell Kevin was a vindictive person.

She had tried to explain this and her worries to Severus, but he pooh-poohed her and offered to turn the man into a toad for her. To which she replied that since he was very nearly a toad already; she could probably accomplish that feat herself. She decided that Severus had enough of his own worries and that she shouldn’t put any extra burden on him with her own problems.

Raven sipped at her tea, thinking of her plan of action towards Kevin.

Raven, as well as the other employees spent the day suffering the foul mood of Kevin. He spent most of the day telling each and every person what they were doing wrong. Raven over heard him hissing at Tom to quit straightening the books and go and help a specific customer, the same customer in fact that had just told Raven that he was fine and didn’t need any help. Tom had tried to explain this to Kevin, to which Kevin asked if Tom needed his job.

This being Raven’s long day she tried to keep away from Kevin as much as possible and to keep herself as busy as possible. She did see him throughout the day giving her hard stares as if he was daring her to not be diligently working away.

Raven arrived home at almost Ten PM, thirty minutes later than she ever arrived home working under Elizabeth. She was tired from the long day and exhausted from enduring Kevin all day. She gulped down a small roll slathered with mayonnaise and a thin slice of ham then went to bed and fell into a restless sleep full of nightmares involving work.

Waking on Tuesday, Raven felt as though she had only a nap instead of an entire night of sleep. She dreaded the coming day she knew would be full of conflict for everyone at work. Whereas she had liked her job, now she hated and dreaded it. Moreover, she hated feeling this way.

Today she used her regular Earl Grey but she also steeped into it some St John’s Wort. She further made extra of the concoction and put it into her small thermos. Already when she had come downstairs today she made sure to bring her small satchel of her favorite items, for she had a plan for tonight, no matter how tired she might feel after work. Looking at the bag hanging over the back of the kitchen chair made her feel better already. A small smile played at her lips.

Raven Arrived home after another arduous day at work of dealing with Kevin’s inadequacies as a human being. However today as she entered her house she felt better than she had in a while.

Having eaten her dinner, Raven lit some small candles and placed them in her kitchen counter top. She turned off the lights in the kitchen; working by candlelight was always best she thought. Moving around her small kitchen she placed her small houseplant, to the north, on her kitchen counter. Pulling one of the kitchen chairs behind her, against the east wall she sat the chair and on it she placed a long feather, which she had drawn from the satchel. Against the south wall she lit some incense, this she placed on a plate on the floor, mentally reminding her self, as she always did, not to step on it later. Towards the west side of the room on top of a small metal shelf that she had taken from the factory grounds so long ago, she placed a small conch seashell, also from within the satchel.

Seating herself at her little table, she felt good in her actions, as Tuesday was a good day to deal with conflicts, destruction, assertiveness and male energy. While thinking of work, she pulled all of her thoughts then to Kevin. She concentrated on his demeanor and movement and face, pulling from the satchel a small white candle and her cooling, blue, glass candle holder, with her silver nut picker, she wrote on the side of the candle the most simple and non-threatening, self protective words that she could find. She scratched into the side of the candle,” Protect me from Kevin Patel.”
She mixed her chosen herbs into a small dish of oil as she pictured everything at work. Using an inviting stroke, as she wanted to bring the protection to herself, she dressed the candle, all the while keeping her intentions in her mind and her thoughts about work in her mind.

Lighting the candle she gazed into the flame picturing it’s protective light engulfing her. She mentally pictured all the negativity of work being burned up in the flame. Silently as well as aloud she said “Protect me from Kevin Patel.” Over and over again also thinking of instances that she would want to be burned up in the flames. She wanted to protect all the others at work, but without their consent, she felt that it would be wrong to include them overtly in her chants or thoughts.

Raven had exited her ‘circle ‘ after what had felt like the appropriate amount of time. She let the small candle burn itself out in the kitchen as she sat in her living room with the television on low, reading a book. She felt content.

She went to bed that night and slept more soundly than she had for quite a while.