The old ink cartridge read K10326-478, but none could be found. There were B10326-478 and K10325-463 but none of the kind she needed. The day was spinning downward and there was nothing Trish could do.
"Excuse me, sir?"
The store clerk gave her a sideways glance before walking off towards another customer. Was it her old, faded jeans? Her messed up hair? The fact that she didn't wear make-up? Or that she just seemed to be invisible today? Probably a combination of them all.
"All I wanted was a stupid ink cartridge."
"Excuse me, I'm looking for the lap tops?" A woman, the same one from the grocery store accompanied by two long haired young men stepped past her.
"Right this way Mrs. Hanson." A sales men led them to the computer section of the store.
"Sir?" Trisha called.
"I'm sorry I'm helping another customer, some one else will have to assist you."
"I've been waiting to be assisted for over an hour, could you tell me where I could find some one who could help me?"
"An hour? I find that highly unlikely. However, if you walk to customer service I'm sure you'll find some one there."
"Thank you."
"Nice seeing you again, Trish."
Trisha looked over to see Isaac, her date from the other night smiling next to who she assumed to be his brother.
"Yeah, nice seeing you too." She smiled and walked over to customer service.
"Hello?" She dinged the service bell for a few minutes, even 'borrowed' the PA system to try to get some one's attention. But without luck.
"Attention all staff, I am a customer, and I need an ink cartridge. I have been waiting her for over an hour and a half and I would like to know as to why this entire store seems to find me invisible. So if anyone would be able to enlighten me to this matter, or even better, to assist me in finding a damn ink cartidge could you please come to the customer service desk. Thank you."
15 minutes later no one had arrived and as she sat on the counter she assumed that there was really no one who worked at this store anyway.
"Hey, um...Trisha?"
Isaac's younger brother stared at her. "Yeah."
"Hi, I'm Taylor." He extended his hand.
"Nice to meet you."
"I just wanted to say that the ink cartridges are down aisle 3."
"I know."
"Then what was all the fuss about?"
"Well, I can't find a cartridge that matches the code of the kind I need. And I wanted to know if the code got changed or if it was discontinued."
"That's it? That's all you wanted to know?"
"Yeah, but I guess that was too difficult."
"I can aswer that. Let me see your cartridge."
She walked with Taylor down to the printer accessories aisle. "I think they just changed the code, because my printer at home uses this same cartridge."
"Really?"
"Yeah." He selected a box off of the shelf. "Here, I think this one will work."
"Thank you."
"No problem. Oh and Isaac told me to tell you that he'll call you sometime."
"Okay, bye."
Taylor waved and Trisha went to find a register to pay at.
Trisha walked into her home to find half of her belongings strewn accross the floor and the other half missing. The door knob had been hammered off and then pried open with a crow bar.
"Trish!" Her mother ran to her embracing her.
"Mom! What happened?"
"It's pretty obvious what happened. While you were out and I hadn't gotten home yet some one broke in. I was so afraid that you were here when it happened and they kidnapped you, or worse..."
"No Mom, I'm fine." Trisha tore herself away from her mother just long enough to walk to the bathroom.
The make-up she had played with as a child was smeared across the mirror, and her facial cleansers thrown in different corners of the bathroom. But that wasn't what mattered. It was her pills, 6 months worth of Prozac ground into the floor. At almost $120 for 30 pills, there was no way her mother could ever afford to replace the medicine. She attempted to scrape the powder back into it's container, to collect the remnants of the pills, but it was useless. Now all there was to do, was to make sure that her mother never found out.
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