Argyle and Grease

Posted on Sun 2nd Aug, 2020 @ 6:30am by Yuliette Marayan Dr. & Radak

1,159 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Resolution
Location: Brown Sector, Zodiac, Madigan's furniture shop
Timeline: MD12

Hiding under her red hoodie instead of the white scarf, Yuliette was fairly certain she wouldn’t be mistaken for a widow again. She relocated the furniture shop belonging to the man with the loud argyle socks and let herself inside, taking off her dark glasses once safely off the street again. A little bell chimed on the door as she entered and she slowed down to appreciate the stock. The store was well swept and smelled like freshly milled wood. Yuliete wondered at how much of a luxury a material like wood was likely to be on a space station, but it occurred to her that they did carry stone fruit. Which meant somewhere there were trees. And besides, much of what she saw looked like it had been recrafted or restored. On closer inspection some of the material appeared to be composite or resin or various other things. In a word, resourceful.

Gingerly she tested out a chair and looked at the description tag as she sat back into the cushions. “Restored. 90cr.” well, she could at least enjoy a proper seat here, for the moment on the show floor. Making herself comfortable, she crossed her legs and pulled the hoodie over her bare knees for warmth.

As she relaxed, Yuliette heard some men’s voices coming from the open door in the back of the store.

“The power cycler just gave up the ghost last night,” came a rough, older man’s voice. “Damn thing. My lights barely stay on without it.”

“I wouldn’t notice, Mr. Madigan,” came another voice, deep and soft-spoken. “I think I can fix it, though. Last time it was the capacitor. Bet it’s that again.”

“And when you’re finished there, the laser scroll, it’s off alignment again. If you could check it for me. Hold on, I think I heard somebody come in.”

Yuliette stood as Mr. Argyle-socks... Mr Madigan emerged from the back.

“You restore everything yourself?”

“Pretty much, unless I can get help or I need some specialty work.” Madigan pointed to the chair Yuliette’s hand was still resting on. “My wife does the tufting and upholstery.”

“By hand?”

“Not by foot, that’s for dern sure.” His broad bottom lip formed a grin. “What is it you’re in the market for?”

“Do you sell mattresses?”

“I have a few in stock, in the store room. Follow me.”

Madigan went around the counter to the back and Yuliette got a look at the workshop. It was modest but had a long workbench with a disassembled project on it. The room smelled like fresh lacquer, machine oil, and sawdust. Most noticeably, Radak, the big deputy with the dark glasses that he still wore now, was taking up floor space with a kit of tools spread out around him and the guts of some kind of machine set out on a drop cloth. Yuliette slowed curiously.

Radak turned towards the new presence. He’d heard her voice in the front room and recognized it easily enough. “Hi,” Radak said. He was sitting across-legged on the floor in front of the power cycler. “How’s life at the Zodiac treating you?”

She thought through the highs and lows of the day. The realization she could get food, the embarrassment of lining up for it, more shunning from Bajorans, kindness from some other Bajorans, and and the spectacle that was the naussicans in her hall. She had the paper in her pocket of ticket prices to the cardassian colonies and crunched it in her fingers. "Fine." She said. "You're a repairman?"

“You’d be surprised how little they pay their deputies around here,” Radak replied. “This helps people out, helps me out.” Radak shrugged at that and turned back towards her. “We never did get your name. I’m Radak.”

She wanted to joke that she hadn't had a name when they'd met that morning. Not one she could give. Yuliette hesitated to give him her alias, looking a little away as she said it. "Neone." Then, she tried to look him in the eyes to figure him out, but just saw her own reflection in those lenses. One of her hands went to her own dark glasses, hanging from the neck of her hoodie. Over the past couple of days, she kept trying to hide behind them but having to take them off to see in a lot of places. "How do you see with those on all the time?"

“I can’t see much without them,” Radak said. “I lost almost all of my sight when I was younger. These help me see what I can.” Mr. Madigan was coming back towards her, frowning slightly that she’d stopped while he’d continued to the store room until he had to come back to find her.

"So-" Madigan scratched the back of his head. "You want to see the mattresses?"

"Oh yes, sorry."

Pushing a door opened, Madigan switched on a light in a side room. Yuliette followed him in.

"Oh." Yuliette turned each price tag over in her fingers. Even the smallest mattress was way too much. "How much for just removing an old mattress?"

"Removal is free with buying one." Madigan said.

"What if I'm not buying one?I don't think I can afford these."

"We can do payments, if you need."

Yuliette didn't want to be here long enough for payments. "Just... do you have some floor cushions or a cot?"

Madigan rubbed the back of his head again and switched off the lights as they left the store room. "Sure, we have cushions. You can look around in the storefront. They're mixed with the things. I don't know, My wife arranges the front. You call me if you want to buy." He shuffled back to his work bench.

As she came back past, Radak called out, “You need help getting rid of a mattress?”

"Yeah, there was one in the apartment, but it's kind of —" she made a stink face in place of an adjective.

“I can take care of it for you,” Radak said. “We have an airlock we can use to dispose of our trash. We don’t have control of it, but every week Starfleet operates it from the command center. It’s like a weekly check or something. They never notice minor junk going out.”

"That would be really helpful, thank you."

“I’m a helpful guy.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be helping me?” Madigan asked.

“I’m sitting on your floor, aren’t I?” Radak looked at her. “I should be done here in an hour. Is that good?”

"That's great. I uh. You already know where it is, so. I'll see you then. Good luck with your project." Yuliette put her hands back in her pockets and went to check if there was anything else in the shop that would serve to sleep on.

 

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