"Hi! Welcome to Starsmet. Can I help you find anything?"
The unfamiliar voice drew me from my slumber. It was chipper. Like the tweet of a bird. I'd never heard anything like it before.
"Oh. Uh! Um...I'm not sure. Just..Just browsing." Maille said.
"Okay! Feel free to look around, if you have any questions about anything you can just ask me."
"Uh...yah. yah. I will."
 
Maille hadn't taken me straight home from work. She ended up dropping by a pet store to grab some supplies to make my stay at her house more comfortable.
She ended up driving to a pet store halfway across the city, taking odd routes and back tracking, just in case. She didn't want Howard to see her and wonder why she was going into a pet store when he knew she owned no pets. She wanted him to remain clueless to my survival.
As kind as Maille is, she's also pragmatic.
But Maille wasn't the richest. Her circumstances often left her surviving from paycheck to paycheck. And as much as she wanted me to survive, she couldn't afford everything the worker at the pet shop would have said she would need to get, like a cage, and then have me die the next morning. As it was she barely had enough money to get a week supply of food for herself, and caring for me was going to cut into that.
 
"Aww, you're getting a hamster ball?" I heard a while later.
"Uh.  Yah. That's it for me."
"Cool! Do you have a hamster then? I've always wanted a hamster they seem like such fun pets."
I felt pressure as Maille nervously patted the pocket I was hiding in. "No. No, it's just...a  gift. For a friend."
"Oh, well that's cool too."
"Yah..."
 
Maille isn't the type to feel comfortable with lying. I'd known that from working with her. She tends to bite her lip whenever she attempts it. Though usually it's to the question "How are you?" It's part of the reason why she doesn't speak much at work. She doesn't like lying, and with Howard...you have to lie a lot.
 
"Thanks for dropping by! We hope to see you again soon."
"Yah...yah you to."
 
Now that I was somewhat aware again, I heard the bell that marked Maille leaving the store. I was also aware, that I wasn't feeling that great. I curled into a tighter ball. Maybe I needed more of that bad tasting stuff. I'd felt better then in body, if not in mouth.

Martin Elek