anna liked her new job at the a——— company well enough, even though it was pretty boring and she had no idea what she was doing, because it was preferable to sitting in her room starving and wondering if she would become homeless.
the people at the a———— company, including her immediate supervisor, ms davis, were generally friendly and helpful.
ms davis had work of her own which occupied most of her time, and was not the kind of supervisor who had nothing to do but supervise other people. not only that, she spent much of her time out of the office visiting other offices of the a—————— company. she seemed to spend most of her life in airports and on airplanes, an existence anna did not envy at all.
anna worked alone at her own little desk, as did most of the other people in the office. very rarely did two or more people work together on a job or project. most of the work was assigned through a computer terminal and done on the computer terminal.
anna found that the other employees were almost always helpful whenever she asked questions about the work. in fact, they usually seemed happy to interrupt their own work to talk to somebody else.
the population of the office was about ninety percent female. anna saw few men, and none in a supervisory capacity. there was a mister johnson who was understood to be the “general manager” or big boss, but anna never saw him. he was as remote as a four star general to a private in the army.
the men anna saw were mostly young men whom anna took to be gay. there was one older man, mister lee, who wore what looked to anna to be very heavy and uncomfortable old fashioned suits.
he had been with the a———— company for “a thousand years”. anna thought he was kind of creepy.
one morning mister lee approached anna’s desk. what can he want, anna thought, surely he doesn’t need any help from me, or have any question he needs to ask me.
good morning, mister lee addressed anna. he made a slight movement with his head. a bow?
good morning , anna replied.
i would be honored, mister lee said, if you would allow me to buy you lunch today.
anna was stupefied. i - i don’t think so , she managed to say, i like to go to lunch alone.
i understand, mister lee replied with a little smile. he bobbed his head again, and was gone as quickly as he had appeared.
anna’s first reaction was relief that she had not said anything to him at all that might be the least bit encouraging - no maybe, or i’ll think about it , or some other time. but she was completely creeped out, and could not get mister lee out of her head.
word about the little incident got around the office and the other women laughed about it and thought mister lee was “cute” or pathetic. a couple of them assured anna that mister lee had been there for a thousand years and was harmless.
anna was not so sure. it was easy for them to say!
mister lee never approached her again. his desk was not that close to anna’s, and anna never caught him looking her way.
but anna could not stop thinking about the incident, even when she was off work. in fact it was worse when she was off work, because then how did she know where mister lee was?
she knew that if she went to ms davis, let alone to anybody higher up, they might express some sympathy but would say there was nothing they could do. and the police - forget it. they would probably laugh right in her face.
she did not want to quit the job and go back to starving in her room. and even if she did - mister lee might find out where she lived and be lurking outside.
anna looked up witches on line. she found a madame yora who specifically included “hexes” in her list of services offered.
madame yora operated out of an apartment even smaller than anna’s and anna went to see her on a friday evening and explained her predicament. she brought along a picture she had printed, of an office christmas party from a couple of years before and mister lee was in it.
madame yora glanced at the picture. this is good, but i don’t really need it. mister lee, works at the a——— company, that is all i really need.
great, said anna. but what can you do?
i can change the gentleman into a flea, said madame yoga, a flea on a dog.
that sounds good, said anna. i don’t even like dogs, and try to avoid them.
there is only one problem, said madame yora, one thing that might go wrong.
and what might that be?
sometimes if the stars are a bit out of line, the subject does not turn into a flea on a dog but into a werewolf.
a werewolf! exclaimed anna. will he come after me?
no, werewolves have no memories of anything that happened before they become werewolves. neither do fleas.
anna paid madame yora her reasonable fee. mister lee did not appear at the office on monday morning , or on the days after that.
and then, a week after anna’s visit to madame yora, a story appeared in the news.
anna and madame yora both saw the story at the same time. they each got up and went and looked out their windows.
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