Molly blushed, her heart fluttered happily that her attention to the customers and her job had been recognised as Mrs Murphy handed her a digital voice recorder . Molly took it and stared dumbly at the device not realising what it was.
“Errr…thank you.”
She said not wanting to sound unkind, but not entirely sure what Mrs Murphy expected her to do with it. Mrs Murphy leaned in, whispering in a conspiratorial manner.
“That my dear in a reality altering device. Press the red button here, that pauses things then, say what you want into the microphone piece here and TA-DA instant altered reality. I’m giving it to you, because I can tell you’ll put it to good use. You have a kind heart. I can tell. I have a sense for these things.”
Molly realised the poor old woman was clearly at that age where people started loosing their marbles and she plastered a fake grin on her face and hugged the digital voice recorder .
“Thank you Mrs Murphy. That was awfully thoughtful of you”
Molly didn’t want to upset the old woman.
“Go on dear. Try it out.”
Mrs Murphy poked Molly in the upper arm eagerly. Molly looked at the device, feeling stupid. She didn’t want to dash this poor woman’s delusion, but Mrs Murphy didn’t seem to want to take no for an answer. Feeling ridiculous she pressed the red button, then thinking what she could do her eyes fell on her two friends, more importantly their hair colour.
“Jennifer hair colour is black, Sarah’s hair colour is red”
Molly felt instantly light headed and it seemed that the room grew dark. She felt like she was going to faint, but then the light returned to the room and the sick feeling she had had vanished.
She looked around wondering if anyone had noticed anything strange but the few people in the restaurant were chatting as if nothing bizarre had happened at all. Maybe Molly had just been too close to the disinfectant. It had been pretty strong. She should have used proper ventilation. Her gaze wandered over to Jennifer and Sarah. They were arguing with each other, a common occurrence, but what Molly saw almost made her drop the digital voice recorder . Both her friends hair had changed colour to match her command. Her mouth fell open, gob smacked. Mrs Murphy shuffled off to one side chuckling.
“Well, have fun kiddo. ”
Molly ran up to Mrs Murphy.
“Hey, wait. You can’t just give it to me…”
Mrs Murphy cut the teenager off mid sentence.
“I can and I have. It’s rude to give gifts back sweetie so just be careful with it and look after yourself”
She gently patted Molly on the arm and continued out.
Molly stood in the middle of the restaurant completely bewildered by the whole experience. She rubbed her eyes and looked at her two friends new hair colour. She put the digital voice recorder in her pocket and wandered over to the table not sure what to say. Both friends stopped chatting heatedly as Molly approached. They both looked at her and concerned expressions crossed their faces. It was Sarah who spoke.
“Molly? Are you all right? You look ill.
Molly nodded dumbfounded.
“i’m fine, really. Just need a quiet seat.” She slumped down into a chair as Jennifer scoffed.
“Quiet seat. HA! You’ll be lucky with all those kids running around and screaming in the play area. Its like a herd of elephants in there.”
Molly looked over at the play area, wishing for the umpteenth time that she could play in there without being stared at like an oddball. Her mouth went dry as she suddenly contemplated the digital voice recorder . Would it work like that? She looked at Jennifer’s black hair and Sarah’s red hair. She quietly pulled the digital voice recorder up out of her pocket and pressed the red button, the whole restaurant seemed to suddenly hush as reality was paused, a small smile played on her lips as she spoke.
“It’s perfectly normal for 18 year old girls to play in the play area”
There it was again, that sickening woozy feeling, the way the air seemed to grow darker, thicken, and then suddenly the room was bright again and the general background rabble of conversations had returned.
Molly looked around feeling like people must have been looking at her but no-one was. Suddenly Sarah bounced out of her chair.
“I know what’ll cheer you up. 20 minutes in the ball pool. That always cheers you up. You’re due for a break from work now anyway right? Come on”
Sarah grabbed Molly’s hand and hauled her to her feet. Once it looked like Molly was going to follow her, Sarah broke away from her older friend and raced over to the play area, easily vaulting the soft padded fence and plunged into the ball pit squealing with glee.