Elena took about another five other minutes walking inside the large marketplace talking to some of the employees and fixing up patches that were loose. Some old woman was crying after being given a short change by the woman who was attending to her. Elena knew the woman was lying since the collar of her shirt was a little untidy. That was where she'd probably hidden the money under her shirt when no one was looking, so she thought. She didn't want to cause any scene either way so she took money from her own pocket and handed it over to her. The woman walked away the conflict having been resolved by Elena's move.
The employees were kind of starting to get the hang of her. They knew she was the boss' child or something. She would mingle with them when she had enough time and she would tell them about her origin and some stories. At one time she literally took a stall and explained the chemical process when foods went bad so fast as well as the use of refrigerators. Some took notes, some got bored. Her accent was so alien and sometimes it was just an ear candy when one heard her speak.
Elena got to the back of one stall, fished out her phone from her tight jeans, and called Lance. She called him twice with no reply coming from the other end. It felt odd. She was hoping that her first call on her new Mexican SIM card would be him. When three more calls ended up with no response, worry turned to fear.
She had been lost in the call that she barely noticed a certain smell coming off from her left. It choked her lungs and made her feel like she wanted to puke. Her chest muscles pulled towards themselves as a headache rooted in her. Surely the marketplace was to never smell this awful even with poor maintenance if Maca couldn't afford it. This was something different. It seemed too familiar. She remembered the smell from Ethan's farewell party. She walked in the direction of the smell, slowly taking her steps. The hallway here was pretty narrow since it was the last hallway with the last row of stalls. Her eyes had never seen so much darkness at such a time of the day and even all the squint of her eyes couldn't come to her aid.
She held onto the back of the stalls to help her mind register the form and build a mental map in her mind, her eyes not too helpful at this moment. Her fingers moved through the calling darkness, one step at a time as the smell grew stronger and stronger. She saw a figure seated by the end of the hallway and smoke coming from what appeared to be between its fingers. She strolled towards it, as slow as she could. The figure turned into a woman holding a roll of marijuana and she was smoking it. She had on a yellow apron with the logo of the business embedded in it. Her eyes were red, and her cheeks were pink and heavy. She had a smile that had withered and her teeth were pale yellow. With all this darkness down here, Elena was relieved that she had not seen much. Thank God for the darkness.
"What are you doing here?" Elena asked, struggling to catch her latter's eyes. It was after a while that she realized that she had asked her in English, and so she repeated the question in Spanish.
"Hello, I'm talking to you." She continued. The woman looked at her, affording a gritting dirty smile. She coughed out smoke and Elena covered her nose with the length of her arm. It was at this moment she wished she was outside.
"Hello, miss… miss. You're wasted! What are you doing at work high?"
A sequence of giggles from the woman followed. After that, no response.
"Get up!" Elena told her, still covering her nose. "Get up now."
The woman snuffed a bit before she struggled to get on her feet. Even when she was on her feet, she still looked like she was about to fall down the next moment.
"Follow me." Elena continued and walked away from her, heading back in the direction she came from. The woman staggered behind her, zigzagging as she walked. Walking as she smoked.
"Drop that," Elena said when she stopped and turned around in a bid to wait for her to catch up. The woman still had the rolled-up weed in her fingers and she looked at it longingly, snuffing and snuffing. Elena moved closer to her, her flat black shoes hammering the floor in sudden quick steps. She reached for it but the woman pulled it away from her grasp and took a step back to make sure that she didn't let it fall into the hands of Elena.
"Hey give me that!" Elena told her as she tried once more. The woman pulled away. Elena moved closer. Her latter turned around and locked it in her hands firmly, and held onto the small piece of what had remained of minutes of smoking. Elena's hand let go of her nose in a bid to use both hands to get it. Like a chicken protecting her unhatched eggs, the woman concealed her precious entity. Elena pulled away huffing.
"Fine, is that what you want?" She snarled at her in Spanish. "Is that what want? Fine. You want to be done in this way?" Her hands were all over as she tried to pull out her point. "You're coming with me!"
Elena grabbed the woman by her arms and pulled her closer. She walked away and pulled her along. Her steps this time were fierce; more intent and faster. When she had pulled her back to the stalls and everyone saw what was happening, everything else halted. The walk to the front of the premises was long, and the nagging of the woman made it even longer. People looked and people watched; customers and employees all alike. Elena found her aunt at the entrance talking to some of her friends. Paloma, her colleague was one of them. Everyone turned around and saw her as she approached, an angry face too visible with the woman tagging behind.