The trouble with a lie
If anyone knew a lady named Maxie, it was that she was a girl with a big sneeze. Oftentimes she wondered why she had such a big sneeze. She loved the feeling of relief that came from sneezing, but she would never tell anyone that. How would anyone not feel that sweet relief? Despair and embarrassment followed her around constantly in the town she was in. Even when she yawned or coughed people who knew her would take cover in whatever was closest to them.
Having such a terrible reputation, it was very hard for her to find a job in this town. She remembered the previous attempts with job hunts. Each one had failed. She decided it would be best to seek outside of town for a job.
As the big girl got in her modest car, modest meaning a used and very cheap car, she rolled down its windows and tried to start the old creaky engine. Black fumes filled the air and Maxie was super glad the fumes weren’t blowing towards her. Smoke was something she couldn’t stand. Her large muzzle wriggled and scrunched at the thought of smoke, and smelling it was something that she never wanted to do. She swore she was allergic to it. The local doctors never have successfully confirmed it…they were too scared to test her.
Finally her car roared to life, and she stepped down on the gas to quickly get moving. A red light quickly came to view and she slammed on her breaks. She stuck her head out the window and growled at the light. These things were always red when she was driving! The jerking stop forced black fumes forward, and poor Maxie was caught in the way. First the stunned look on her face, two blinks, and then her nostrils slowly flared as a gradual hitched breath made her head tilt slightly.
“Hh…aa…aaah…”
The light turned green and a car behind her honked, but Maxie couldn’t drive. She had to sneeze outside of her car, otherwise her car would be ruined!
“Haa…aaahh…” Her chest expanded and her ears tilted backwards. Her long hair flowed in different directions and her eyes started to close. The nostrils now were pulsing in a back and forth flaring motion. There was no stopping it now.
“Haaa…AH…HAA…AAAAAAA…”
The person behind her stopped honking and got a good look at the lady. He knew it was Maxie, and one of her famous sneezes was going to happen. He braced himself for what was to come. He rolled down his window and made sure his seatbelt was fastened tight.
“AASCHOOOOO!” Her cheeks puffed out and her face, or rather her muzzle, forced her whole body to jerk as the sneeze propelled a massive amount of air into the direction her nose had pointed in. The man behind her watched as that air collided with a lamp post and it toppled over like a toothpick. Those things were like superglue! The man started to sweat. Had Maxie’s sneezes gotten more powerful since last time he’d seen her sneeze?
Maxie got her head back in her car and sighed. She wasn’t sure there was a God, but lately she had become more and more convinced. Lately things that she couldn’t explain were happening. She wasn’t positive, but it felt like someone she couldn’t see was causing unfortunate things to happen to her nose to purposely cause her to sneeze. There were some days where all she wanted to do was enjoy herself and work out at a gym or a nice hotel place or a park and all of a sudden multiple different times somehow in someway she would sneeze. It was almost like a game someone was playing. She huffed to herself. If this was a game, she was a key player in it.
The rest of her car trip went without any disasters. She was very happy to get out of her car and into an office building where an employer had asked her to come. This was a job interview and there was no way she was going to mess this up!
As she sat down, her employer took a careful look at the wolf. She was unnaturally tall for a wolf, big muzzle, long hair, big chest that had the look of someone that had worked out a lot. Attractive features and a nice, simple outfit she was wearing made her look the part. Mr. Ego was his name. A plump, short panda anthro with a long bushy mustache and dark sunglasses. He had never seen this wolf girl before. If he had to guess her age, it’d be somewhere in her mid to late twenties.
“Alright lady. I’ve seen enough. Answer a few questions and I’ll consider hiring you.” Maxie beamed a huge smile and she looked eager. This was a great start! She hadn’t gotten this far on an interview in the town she lived in this quickly. It appeared this panda didn’t know her either. That was good. If she kept her muzzle under control, he’d never suspect she was a danger to this building.
“First, what is your name and where are you from?” Just that one question made her hair prickle and stand up. She quickly calmed herself before he noticed.
“My name is Ma…Mary. I live in the town next to this one.” She felt bad about lying, but she couldn’t say her real name and where she was from. Besides, it wasn’t a big lie. It sounded similar to her real name. She just hoped this lie wouldn’t get her into any trouble.
“Good. So where would you feel comfortable working in this building?” This one was a lot easier to answer.
“Anywhere that has a lot of windows. I like the feel of fresh air and sniffing the breeze.”
“Excellent. Ok, final question. Some areas of this building are super old. Cleaning them is a hassle, so sometimes things can be quite disorganized. Your task is to clean, organize, and sort out these areas so we can have full use of this building. You’ll be paid well and after you are done you will get a pay raise. Only after you are done. Got it?” He tilted his dark sunglasses and looked at her. She nodded, excited about a chance to finally work full time, and then he said his question. “Are you comfortable working in old areas and do you have experience cleaning them?”
Maxie’s heart sped up and she gulped. She most certainly did. Cleaning was something she enjoyed, but cleaning in old areas like he was talking about was always a problem for her. Dust was a big allergy for her, and no matter how hard she tried, dust would win the battle with her muzzle.
“I do know how to clean places and I’ve worked in old areas before.” This wasn’t a lie, but she made sure not to answer if she was comfortable about it. Her answer pleased Mr. Ego and she was hired right there on the spot.
The next few days she got trained in her new job. She was free to wear whatever clothes she desired, and for awhile this was surprisingly easy for her. After all, some of the clean ups she had to do from her sneezes back in the day made this building a piece of cake to clean up. Mr. Ego watched as his old building slowly became more and more stable and usable. He most certainly enjoyed himself and was happy with the work Maxie was doing.
The trouble began when Mr. Ego took her to the top floor of the building and led her into a room that was dreadful. The wall was smelly and had some kind of wetness on it, the boxes in this room were covered in dust, and cobwebs were everywhere. Maxie just looked at the room and had her eyes wide open. Mr. Ego noticed.
“I know it looks awful. I’ve been trying to get the wall replaced for years. My boss tells me the only way to get rid of that thing is to do it myself. I can’t even go near that horrible wall! I don’t do well in messes…they gross me out. That’s why I hired you. You seemed like a tough wolf, and I was right. Now take care of this room and the pay raise is yours. Good luck.” He left the poor wolf girl and went back into his office.
Maxie didn’t know what to do. If she stepped foot in that dust, she would definitely need to sneeze! If she put on a mask, which she hated to do because her muzzle liked to be free, she’d be fine. The problem with a mask also was eventually her muzzle would wriggle and twitch so much the mask would snap and fall off her face. She’d done it before.
As Maxie pondered what to do, dust started to creep out of the open door and it blew in the new fresh air. It had been trapped for so long the particles seemed to dance for joy at the freedom. Their ‘dancing’ took them in the direction of Maxie’s poor, defenseless nostril. Maxie was lost in thought, so she didn’t see the trail of dust making its way towards her. She definitely noticed when the dust touched the rims of her nostril. Her allergy kicked in and she sniffed. Her nostrils flared and shook around like jelly. The dust spiraled its way inside her nose, making the inner walls red and sore. Her allergy aggravated her sinuses and she knew this wouldn’t be good.
“Aa…aa…aahh…” Maxie started to panic. If she sneezed in this building, who knows how much damage she could cause? She twirled around and looked down the hall. No luck there. No escape.
“Haa..aaaa…haaaaa…” She was running out of time. With each hitched breath the dust sucked in deeper and deeper, torturing her muzzle with increased desperation. Her checks flushed and started to expand as more air got sucked in than her mouth normally would allow. Her chest started to rise and swell as she walked up and down the top floor, searching for any exit door she could find. If she went down the stairs her boss would hear her and her new job would be ruined!
“Haaaaahh…Aaaaa…AAaaahh…” She tried to hold in her sneeze, but this was making her lungs do their worst. Maxie had a gift, a gift that a few wolves had. She was able to have a huge amount of air in her lungs at a time. This allowed her to work out at a gym with ease, run miles at a time without stopping, and she could even swim way better than most canines. Unfortuantely this meant that when she sneezed, especially when she was holding it in like this, all that air would burst out of her lungs at sneeze speed. The older and more mature she got, the more her lungs could carry. This was why her sneezing appeared to be stronger as time went on.
“HAaaa…AAAA….AAHHHhhh…” Her nostrils were dangerously flared, her chest was to its breaking point. Her outfit was tighter and she knew that this would be it. She opened her eyes for a split second, only to see that she had stopped right where she had started in the first place! Well…if she had to sneeze anywhere, she would chose to be in the direction of the nasty room with the gross wall.
“HAAAAACCHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Years worth of boxes, papers, dust, and even an old cabinet all got shoved by the massive wall of air that exploded out of Maxie’s nostrils. That sneeze felt so good Maxie actually smiled for a few seconds. She loved a good sneeze…but her smile faded as she saw that her sneeze didn’t just blow things at the wall…her sneeze destroyed the wall too. The wall was now about 20 feet away from the building cracked all over the ground. All the garbage that was in the room now was gone. It had been blown across hundreds of meters. The previously messy room was now a lot cleaner than it had been in years.
Mr. Ego blinked and his mouth hung wide open. He walked to his front door, opened it, saw what was there, and laughed. This wasn’t at all what he had expected! A wolf lady with a sneeze that could blow away a huge chunk of wall. This must have been Maxie. The next town over had mentioned her name to him and warned him about her sneezes. However, Mr. Ego wasn’t worried. Matter of fact, he was thrilled. There was a place that Maxie could go that would be just the place for her to work at! She wouldn’t even have to worry about her sneezing in the slightest. Besides, now the place she was meant to clean was totally cleared out of all the junk and there was a reason to finally replace that horrible wall. The garbage men could clean up the mess outside.
Maxie started to cry, fearing that she would certainly be fired. The panda heard her and started to head towards where he had sent Maxie. Walking up the stairs to the wolf girl, he placed his hand on…well…he was trying to place his hand on her shoulder, but he was too short to reach it. Instead he just tugged on her arm. “Hey. Don’t worry about a thing Maxie.” The mention of her name caused her to stop crying.
“You know who I am?”
“Of course I do. Everyone has heard about you here. Listen to me. I have a place that will love to have you.” Whipping the tears from her eyes, Maxie smiled gratefully.
“I’ll be happy with anything.” With those words Mr. Ego showed Maxie what he was thinking. Maxie was definitely shocked, but after thinking she nodded her head in agreement. “I’ll go there right away.” As she got in her car and drove to the place Mr. Ego had suggested, the chubby short panda grinned.
“She’ll do just fine in that place. Just fine indeed.”
