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It was a busy Friday morning in the autumn of 1983 as the sounds of puppies, kittens, birds and other animals filled the air both in and outside of Trumball Nature Center/Pet Store in a small city outside of Los Angeles. In addition to the animals which occupied cages along the back walls of the pet store, and the tamed owl and iguana which took up permanent residence on perches in the nature center, the spaces of both businesses were now occupied by humans who either worked at the center and store or were visitors and customers.

"Excuse me, how much is this leash?" a nicely dressed woman asked one of the clerks. “There's no price tag."

"Hm." replied 23-year-old Pamela Riley, a pleasant, friendly young woman with big blue eyes and long, light auburn hair now worn in pig tails-one on each side of her head. "It must have fallen off. Let me check it for you." she said as she took the leash from the customer and walked around behind the checkout counter. "Excuse me, I need to get the price book." said Pamela-"Pam" to her friends and co-workers.

Taking a loose-leaf binder off a back counter, Pam carried both the binder and the leash over to the checkout counter.

"Let's see." said Pam while turning and scanning one or two pages. "This leash is seven ninety-five."

"Seven ninety-five." repeated the customer. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." replied Pam as the customer took back the leash and proceeded over to the next available cashier to make a purchase.

"Excuse me. Do you have any more bird seed?" asked a male customer.

"Bird seed? Yes." replied Pam. "What size box?"

"Oh, a regular size box will do."

"Hold on a moment. I'll get one for you." Pam replied with a smile. "I'd better buy more bird seed myself." she said to herself, as she walked back to the storage area and picked up two regular-sized boxes of bird seed, one for the customer and one for herself.

Before ringing up the customer's purchase, Pam placed the second box on the back counter and marked it "For Pam" to remind her co-workers she planned to buy that particular box.

"Okay sir," Pam said pleasantly to the customer now waiting to check out. ” That’ll be four-fifty."

"Okay." said the man pleasantly as he handed Pam a five dollar bill which she exchanged for two quarters after ringing up the purchase on the cash register.

"Would you like the receipt in the bag?" asked Pam as she put the box of seed in a small bag with the business logo printed on the outside

"That'll be fine." the customer replied.

"Okay...There you go, sir...Have a nice day." said Pam.

"Thank you. You too." replied the customer with a smile as he walked away carrying the bag with him.

After finishing with the bird seed customer, Pam looked around to check for other customers to assist. Finding no new customers, Pam then checked to see if her co-workers needed assistance, and after hearing "No thanks, I'm fine." from each of her co-workers, Pam paid for her bird seed and, after excusing herself, went back to the storage room. After putting her purchase in her employee locker, Pam checked her watch.

"Hm, eleven o'clock." Pam said aloud to herself. "Let's see." she continued as she walked through the storage room to a hallway connecting the pet store to the nature center.

"Lunch time, everybody." Pam said cheerfully as she approached a table with two medium-sized wire cages sitting on it, and greeted the occupants of each while opening a small refrigerator and taking out a container of raw meat chunks as well as a container of nuts. The rattling of the nuts drew the attention of two squirrels in the cage furthest from the refrigerator.

'Hello, Wally...There you go, Cash." Pam replied as she poured equal amounts of nuts in each squirrel's food cup.

"Hola, Lobocita." Pam said to the little wolf cub in the second cage, to whom she fed the little chunks of raw meat, and then attached a bottle of milk with drinking tube to the side of Little Lobo's cage.

"There you go." she said after kissing the tame little grey and white cub on the bridge of his nose, and while placing him gently back in his cage.

After putting away extra food and double-checking the condition of her pets, Pam took a short cut, through the nature center back into the pet store. As she walked back into the pet store, Pam found things had quieted down with only a single customer who was just having a look around. Pam also noticed music coming from her boss's office, and her co-workers engaging in chit-chat about her favorite pop singer and theirs, Michael Jackson.

"This song is so cool." said Carrie, the cashier Pam had reached behind to get the price book earlier,-starting to hum along with "Rock With You.' the song presently playing on the radio.

"I remember when this song came out." said another clerk.

"I remember when "Off The Wall" came out." said Carrie. My parents gave me a copy of it for a graduation present-along with a new stereo system."

"My boyfriend took me to see "The Wiz" the year it came out." said the second clerk. "We almost didn't get to see it. The reviewers hated it. Good thing we went to see it the day it opened."

"Oh, I love the "Wiz" Pam thought to herself, choosing to not join in the conversation. "Michael is so cute!"

"I can't believe they hated "The Wiz". said Carrie "Michael was in "The Wiz", how can anybody hate Michael?"

"Actually," said the second clerk. "The critics liked Michael. They thought the movie sucked."

"Well, okay." said Carrie. "That's better."

"I heard Michael's got a new album coming out." said Pam's boss, Mitchell Green-'M.G" to his friends and employees-having overheard the conversation. "Or rather he's working on one."

"How'd we do today, boss?" Carrie asked as Mitchell walked into the pet store and casually looked around.

"We had a good morning...Surprisingly good for a Friday. In fact, we did so well, what say we close up around one, and get an early start to the weekend?"

Mitchell's suggestion was greeted with enthusiasm by Pam and her co-workers.

"Got something special going on, M.G.?" asked Pam.

"I'm taking my family camping this weekend." Mitchell replied. "But first I thought I'd drive into San Diego, check out the snake exhibit at the zoo, see about adopting some baby snakes for the store. Ever since a certain person purchased our snake, I've had lots of requests for others."

"Wow, I didn't know snakes were so popular." replied Pam.

"Well, I guess after people found out the customer who bought this one particular snake from us had brown skin, and the last name "Jackson", everyone and his grandmother decided they wanted the same one." replied Mitchell with a grin and a chuckle.

During the last hour of the work day, as her co-workers chatted amongst themselves between assisting customers and/or visitors, Pam thought over her boss's comment, and tried to think of all the people she knew of who fit the description of the customer who'd purchased the snake Mitchell was planning to replace. She found she knew several people with the last name of Jackson, and several people with brown skin and the last name of Jackson but for people with that skin color and last name who were famous enough to inspire others to make purchases similar to their own, Pam found her task was slightly more difficult. She found she could think of only two Jacksons with celebrity status: Reggie Jackson, the famous baseball player, and Jessie Jackson, the famous preacher but for some reason, the minister and the athlete just didn't seem popular enough, to Pam anyway, to be the impetus of the increase of requests for snakes at the Trumball pet store. Also, Pam wasn't even sure Reverend Jackson and Reggie Jackson liked snakes and/or kept any as pets.

"I'm sure there's somebody else but I just can't think who it is right now." Pam thought aloud to herself as she finished her current task of taking inventory of the storage room, and got ready to leave for the day.

"Oh well, I'm sure I'll think of it." Pam continued while getting her handbag and jacket out of her locker, and sliding her time card into the slot of the time clock mounted on the wall near the back of the storage room.

"Have a good weekend, M.G." said Pam to her boss while walking back through the pet store. "Good luck with your snakes."

"Thanks." Mitchell replied as Pam made her way out of the building.

"Bye, Pam! See you Monday!" Anne, the second clerk called out.

"Bye!" Pam called back as the door to the pet store closed behind her.

When Pam arrived home a few minutes later, she found she had the whole house to herself. Finding herself with a few hours to kill before leaving for her weekly trip to Los Angeles and a weekend of fun as part of a group of aspiring dancers who got together to hang out and also entertain the people as street performers, Pam decided to spend the time watching a movie. Having overheard her co-workers discussing "The Wiz", Pam found her video tape copy of the 1978 movie, switched on the television set in the living room, and inserted the tape into the v.c.r. As she sat watching and enjoying the movie, Pam found herself trying to figure out what it was the critics hadn't liked about the movie.

"Oh, whatever...Not important." Pam whispered. "At least they liked Michael Jackson...That's good...He's the best one in this movie."

An hour later, at approximately 2:30pm, Pam's quiet afternoon was interrupted when the front door opened, and Carol Radley, a dish water blonde haired, blue-eyed woman in her sixties came into the room, clearly tired from a day at the office.

"Hello, Carol." said Pam pleasantly.

"Hello." was Carol's grumpy response. "What are you doing home?"

"Mitchell wanted to close up early..."

"Hm!" replied Carol. "That figures. Bosses usually close up early when they know they have to save money."

"Actually, business at the pet store is good now." replied Pam.

"Really." said Carol. "That's a surprise...What the hell are you watching?” She asked impatiently as she plopped her bag down on a chair near the door, and moved forward for a closer look.

"The Wiz." Pam replied. "It's "The Wizard of Oz" only with black people."

"The Wizard of Oz" only with black people..." Carol muttered, "Frank Baum is probably turning in his grave...What's that supposed to be? Some kind of singing rag doll?"

"No, that's Michael Jackson and he's playing the Scarecrow." Pam replied.

"Huh! Looks more like a black Raggedy Andy. You look more like a scarecrow then he does." said Carol. "With all that red hair...For God's sake, get rid of those freckles. They make you look like a leopard." said Carol with disdain as she eyed the freckles sprinkled generously across the bridge of Pam's nose and her cheeks.

"Well, maybe that's because I am a leopard." Pam replied, playfully ending her statement with a roaring sound.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Carol responded. "You're twenty-three years old. You're a grown woman!. Quit acting like a stupid kid!...So, that's Michael Jackson, huh? The cute little kid from the Jackson Five? He sure didn't stay cute did he? At least he doesn't have freckles. You ought to cover those things up...Use some concealer."

"That's make up." said Pam.

"Yeah? So?" replied Carol.

"Prostitutes wear make up." Pam replied quietly, offended by Carol's comments. "And I am not a prostitute...irregardless of what those men thought."

"Are you still thinking about that incident?" said Carol. "That happened over eight years ago...Get over it."


Kindred Spirits (c) 2010
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