The Cortez home was bigger than David expected. He knew the family had money, but he didn’t understand just how much money until he turned his white Nissan truck into the gravel lined driveway to see the Spanish stucco home surrounded by magnolia trees.

As he parked the truck outside of a six-car garage, he glanced back at the two-story house and guessed it had at least eight bedrooms, maybe more.

The sound of an electric motor engaging caught his attention, and he turned his head to see Emilio duck under an opening garage door and wave for him to get out of the truck.

His boss’ lips parted in a grin as soon as David opened his door. “With a door this big, ventilation shouldn’t be a problem.”

(more…)

David got out of his truck and took a long, slow breath that did nothing to stop his heart from racing. Still, he was bound by his convictions to return. Whatever had attacked him wasn’t some kind of psychic impression. It was just a microscopic mold playing with his mind. He kept repeating the thought while he walked to the door and opened it.

Nina was out of her seat and across the office to hug him the moment she saw him.

“Welcome back,” she said, and then she stepped back, taking hold of his hand to squeeze it. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I think so.” David pointed toward the hallway. “Of course, the acid test will be a full day of work in the back office.”

Emilio emerged from the open door of his office.

He began shaking his head, apparently having heard David’s comment. “It won’t be happening today.”

David felt awkward having so much attention and concern. He tried to cover it with a smile as he said, “I’m okay, really.”

(more…)

Cory’s face pulled into a grimace as soon as David opened the door. “David? What the fuck happened to you, man?”

“Long story,” David croaked as he waved Cory inside.

“Good grief, you sound like splattered bug shit.”

“I feel like it too.” David shuffled into the living room and dropped onto the couch. “I got put in the hospital twice. The second time, they didn’t think I was going to survive.”

Cory asked, “How did this happen?”

(more…)

David knew he was dreaming. His certainty was caused by the ways in which his apartment kept changing. His bookshelves were filled with titles, but he couldn’t read any of them. The letters shifted around when he tried to read them, and the colors of the spines changed every few seconds.

His TV was still missing, but mounted on the ceiling was an LCD projector that kept humming to life every few seconds though the lamp wouldn’t work. He had to replace the lamp, and instinct told him that a new bulb was in the closet in his bedroom.

The walk to his room took forever, and the hallway continued to stretch out in front of him. The walls of his real apartment were bare, and always had been. But here in the dream they were littered with posters of a girl dressed in a denim skirt and a pale blue cami top. The fabric was thin enough to show off her nipples, and in half of the pictures, she jutted her chest out to make her tiny breasts seem bigger.

He heard a soft giggle, and a girl’s voice asked, “Like this?”

(more…)

David walked into the front office, and his lips split in a confused grin as he gestured toward the second desk in the lobby. He recognized it as his desk. If the desk itself was not a big enough clue, the stack of CDs filling the in-box was less subtle.

Still he joked, “Did we hire another receptionist?”

Nina shook her head. “I talked Em into moving your desk in here. I’m still not sure if it’s safe to be back in that room, so we’ll see if this helps stop you from feeling sick. In the meantime, Em’s hiring a crew from the temp agency to clean the equipment.”

“I can do it.”

Pouting, Nina regarded him with a pitying look. “I don’t know.”

David sighed, trying not to feel mad over being coddled. “Nina, I’ll be wearing a breathing mask like you suggested. I know how to clean computers anyway, and I might as well earn my keep.”

(more…)

David leaned over to cough, gripping the side of his desk. Something tore loose in his chest and worked its way up into his throat before it lodged. Hawking, he brought up a lump of phlegm and spit into the trash basket.

He grabbed a handful of facial tissues from the box on his desk and tossed them in as well. Otherwise, the bag would be full of nothing but lumpy green phlegm.

Instead the trash was full of damp tissues stained in bight shades of green and yellow.

The coughing was getting worse, and though he didn’t want to take a sick day, he thought he might need to schedule an early morning visit with a doctor once he got his first paycheck. Emilio paid out checks one week in arrears, and David was only two days away from the first check. Thereafter, he would get a weekly check.

Because so many bills were past due, he was debating putting off going to the doctor until the second check arrived. But he decided to wait and see if he would get worse or not.

(more…)

David closed the video and leaned over to grab the next CD in the pile. He saw a shadow move on his desk and glanced up, finding nothing. Shrugging, he opened the CD and swapped it for the disc in the CD tray. He was moving the copied CD to a case when he heard a sound.

It was low and hard to detect under the hum of the fans cooling every server’s power supply, but after a moment of thought he decided it sounded like Nina giggling.

He glanced at the door of his office and got up, walking over to open it partway. Nina was silent, but he could hear two women talking in the front office.

“…way, you can’t really do that! It’s impossible.”

“No really, you’d be surprised what you can make fit once you stretch out the lips a little bit. The main trick is—”

(more…)

The office of Cortez Entertainment Enterprises was not at all what David was expecting. He imagined posters of adult film stars hung on all of the walls. Instead, he found a drab grey office with a brown leather couch in front of the receptionist’s desk. Between her tastefully stained oak desk and the couch was a glass-top brass coffee table, but there were no adult magazines on display. Against the far wall, a bottled water dispenser was the only other item in the room and the front area seemed disconcertingly spartan.

“Hi,” David said to the receptionist.

She looked away from her computer and smiled warmly. “Hello. Are you applying as a model?”

David smiled self-consciously and shook his head. “Uh, no. I’m here to speak to Mr. Cortez about the webmaster position.”

(more…)

It was in the middle of the broiling blacktop parking lot that déjà vu assailed David Sands. But instead of the impression that he’d already had a similar experience, he sensed that he was about to fail at finding a job again.

His destination was a video store, and every other window not dominated by movie posters was plastered with signs that declared Now Hiring.

But experience had taught David that “now hiring” didn’t mean what he thought it did. Usually, “now hiring” meant, “looking for someone besides you.”

(more…)