“Simple,” Kendall replied as he slid his snakeskin wallet back into his sleeveless leather jacket. “You hold onto Evil for me until Monday. Clean up after him, wipe his ass, hell, give him a diaper if it helps.”

I guessed that I could handle that. I’d dealt with Isabel for ten years, for Pete’s sake! “What if he, well… doesn’t make it?”

Kendall sniggered. “Evil? He’ll be fine.”

I picked up the aquarium in both arms and nearly dropped it. Pop Evil, or ‘Evil’, as Kendall had called him, looked at me. It was the first time I had ever felt uncomfortable around an animal. “Why are you so insistent on leaving him with me?”

“Just take the money, Bro, and don’t ask questions. K?” He turned to leave, kicked his boots on the door threshold and paused. “Somethin’ else on your mind?”

In fact there was. “Why is he called Pop Evil?”

“It’s a long story. A very long story…” He smiled.

Something told me that there was probably a large amount of narcotics involved in that story. I let it drop.

“Monday, Pete. See ya then.” And he was gone, the doorbell jingling as a gust slammed it shut. Pop Evil farted.

“Did I even tell him my name?” I asked aloud.

It’s on the front of your store, dumbass!

I looked at the guinea pig. Did he just read my thoughts?

The fat animal looked at me with red eyes. Its black curly tufts were slightly greasy, like the film on a crow’s feathers, and its hair seemed thin, too sparse. Proportionally, it was wider than it was long, reminding me of an over-inflated football. Someone might think it was cute, obviously Kendall. To me, it wasn’t.

The heater kicked off, causing me to jump. I looked at the waggy-cat clock on the wall and shook my head. Maybe Isabel had been right; the smell of gerbil shit over the years was finally starting to get to me.

I hefted the aquarium again and headed for the back to get my coat, Snowball scampering off into the dark. Near the back of the store was my office, which I affectionately referred to as ‘solitary confinement’. There was no second emergency exit since building codes back when this store was built weren’t as stringent as today’s. I thought about leaving Pop back here (the nickname sounded better than ‘Evil’). I’d have to run the heater at the store over the weekend anyway for Snowball and the other critters. But then I decided that I could hang out with Pop at home for the holiday, scented candles or not. What the hell? I had nothing to do and there was one hell of a winter storm on the way. And, Kendall had paid me $200.

I set the aquarium down and went to grab my coat, checked on a few animals, fed the hermit crabs--god how I hated hermit crabs… maybe because they reminded me of myself--and shut the main lights off. The fluorescent glow from the fish tanks on aisle three lit the store in a faint glimmer that reflected off of the cheap vinyl tile. The store wasn’t much, but it was all mine.
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