July 14th, 1995

## Lon

\*\*\*Posted July 15th, 1995

**7/14****I'm a pacifist!!! I would never go out of my way to hurt anyone.**

**Sure, if I weren't a man of peace, I'd want to put my fist through Carrie's bookstore boss's face for what he did to her ... but the truth is I had nothing to do with the beating everybody assumes the slimeball got from ME. If you don't know what I'm talking about, 'cause Carrie can forget to mention things, like ... oh, major earthquakes for example, the deal is this: Carrie was forced to quit her job at the bookstore after her boss, Hank, tried to get into her table-of-contents, if you know what I mean. The next day, Carrie goes back to the store to collect her stuff, and she finds a black and blue PUSSYCAT begging for her forgiveness. This dude must have a lot of enemies. I hear he was busted up pretty badly. Hopefully he learned his lesson and won't be trying to molest anyone ever again.**

**Meanwhile, back to my life. I am definitely going to break up with Joanne -- TONIGHT. I want to hang out at the beach this weekend, and I don't need her around every second. She's coming over tonight for her regularly scheduled servicing -- but this time we're going to have a serious talk instead. I'll let you know what happens.**

July 14th, 1995
## Carrie

\*\*\*Posted July 15th, 1995

**7/14/95**

> "Hire, fire, linger, lure, three people in a store, one got fresh, a real sex pest, two flew over the Book Zone's nest."
>
>

Based on the poem by Ken Kesey or was it Dale Wasserman?

I re-adventured back to work this morning. Tara drove me and waited in the "car just in case." What she probably meant, was just in case there was a good photo op. Britt was there -- she's been covering my shifts the last few days. Hank looked a little bit better, but still kind of banged up. I timidly approached him. Britt inched toward us to take in the going's on.

"I was wondering if you were ever coming back," Hank said.

"I'm sorry, about what happened to you, Hank, but I don't think..."

"That's not necessary. I deserved it," he said. "The only thing that matters to me now, is that you come back to work and we try do things like we used to."

I consider the next ten seconds as one of the most crucial moments in my life. Where all of my doubts meet all of my abilities and only the stronger of the two survive. A forced epiphany, if you will. I hesitated and then...

"Hank, I would love to come back to work here..."

"Great!"

Britt stepped closer, looking at me like I'd gone cuckoo for Coco Puffs.

"Hank, shut up and listen! As I started to say, I would love to come back to work here, but I can't. I respected you and you treated me like a sub-human. You made an object out of me, degraded me and forced me into a position where I had to question everything I've ever believed in."

"But, Carrie..."

"No, Hank. I thank you for the opportunity you gave me when no one else would, but if I don't move on now, none of this will have made any difference for either of us."

Then, as if I hadn't lit the morning on fire enough, Britt stepped into the conversation and said, "She means all three of us." Britt smiled, dropped her clipboard on the counter and said, "Come on Carrie, time to enter another time and space, another dimension, time to get the hell out of this freakish place known as the Book Zone!" She grabbed my hand, saluted to Hank and the two of us bolted liked caged birds set free.

It was such an exhilarating moment. I was so proud of myself for asserting my rights and taking a stance that I forget to worry about how I'm going to pay the rent...

July 14th, 1995

## External links

* Lon's entry
* Carrie's entry
* Michelle's entry