House Sitting For Dr. Reid

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 9, Post Number 219

-Outside Dr. Reid's house, Motor City, early morning-

Wearing her casual outfit with backpack and carrying Shining Light in its holster on her right hip, Lucia had traveled to Motor City to help Dr. Loretta Reid. The doctor required someone to watch over her house while she went to buy some supplies for a science project she was working on. Lucia was the one who had answered the job notice, so the responsibility of protecting the doctor's property was hers.

She walked to the address provided and stopped outside the front door, where she tapped the button to an intercom stationed to the right of the front door. A female voice greeted her with a question.

"Password?" A voice asked. Lucia took off her backpack and quickly fished the job notice out and unfolded it, then began looking for the password. She located it in the bottom center of the notice. It was a last name, one that looked familiar.

"Asimov." Lucia answered in a clear voice. The door opened and a young blonde woman with hair slightly longer than Lucia's wearing a pink crop top and khaki cargo shorts with brown work boots stood on the other side. The other blonde was holding a white mug of coffee in her right hand that contained a strong-smelling coffee.

"Hello there. I'm Dr. Loretta Reid. Are you the mage who answered my job notice?" The blonde asked. Lucia nodded.

"I'm Lucia Winchester. I'm here to take the house sitting job." Lucia replied in the affirmative. The doctor smiled.

"Welcome, Miss Winchester. Please, come in!" Dr. Reid requested. Lucia obligingly stepped inside and the doctor closed the door behind her.

-Inside Dr. Reid's house-

Lucia looked at the living room, which was a complete mess. It was of a standard layout with a brown cloth couch and a low coffee table in front of the couch. The brown cloth couch was buried in cardboard boxes containing magazines and the low wooden coffee table was coated in thick stacks of magazines and technical manuals. The wall space where a television would ordinarily go had a few framed diplomas and technical certifications but no family pictures or decorative pictures. The floor was carpeted and it looked like it had not been cleaned in some time. It seemed that the living room was more of a storage facility for excess magazines than a space to actually live in.

"Sorry about the mess, Lucia. I've been busy lately. Really busy." Dr. Reid apologized for the state of her living room. Lucia kept quiet. It was not like she had any room to complain since her hotel room was kind of disorganized. It was mostly her shopping bags from the recent trip to Capital Crocus Mall lining the wall, but it still looked bad.

"Anyway, I'm gonna need to run buy some supplies for a science project. I need you to look after both my house and my laboratory." Dr. Reid said to Lucia. Lucia blinked. She had heard nothing about a laboratory.

"A laboratory?" Lucia asked. Dr. Reid nodded.

"I didn't mention that in the notice, did I?" Dr. Reid asked. Lucia shook her head.

"OK then. C'mon, I'll show you!" Dr. Reid said before guiding Lucia through the living room until they reached an intersection where a mini-kitchen sat in front of them, a medium-length hallway with a few doors sat to the left, and a short hallway with a metal door sat to the right. Dr. Reid briskly walked up to the door with a glowing keypad sitting just to its right and reached out for it.

"Hold on a moment and I'll get us in." Dr. Reid said to Lucia, who gave a thumbs-up. Lucia stood about three feet away from the doctor to give the latter space to enter the code without someone standing over her shoulder. Lucia was in no hurry to get into the lab. The blonde mage heard the sound of rapid typing and a long BEEP, then the door unlocked.

"OK, we're in." Dr. Reid said to Lucia, who walked up to the door being held open by the doctor and peered inside. She faced a mini-kitchen that opened up onto an expansive garage space with two large garage doors and a large trailer truck. Overcome with curiosity, Lucia walked past the doctor and into the mini-kitchen, where she stopped halfway to give Dr. Reid time to catch up to her. Lucia also did not want to enter the garage without the doctor's permission in case there was something in there that the mage should not know about.

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-Inside the garage-

Dr. Reid walked ahead of Lucia and guided her into the expansive garage she had seen from the mini-kitchen. The garage was impressively large and fairly clean: a trailer truck sat facing the garage door to her right while to the left a doorway had been blocked off with a solid steel shutter and a keypad was on the wall to the right of the doorway. Lucia instinctively knew that there was something behind the shutter that the doctor did not want to see the light of day... yet.

"Behind that shutter's my science project. That's all I can say right now." Dr. Reid commented to Lucia. Her tone had an unspoken request for Lucia not to pry into what was behind the shutter. Just like she had done with Dr. Abel, Lucia was not going to press Dr. Reid for more information on her project. She was getting paid to watch over Dr. Reid's house and lab and that was the extent of her duties for the day. If there was something sketchy behind the shutter she was pretty sure that the doctor would not have hired her for this job.

"What's behind that shutter is none of my concern." Lucia replied. That was a dangerous stance to take because if the Rune Knights or local authorities showed up and found something sketchy it would be Lucia's concern, but by not knowing she would be able to truthfully say that she had no idea what was in the lab. Perhaps deciding to nip any and all questions about the project in the bud before her hired helper's curiosity got her into trouble, Dr. Reid smiled and spoke again.

"It's nothing illegal. I can tell you that much." Dr. Reid gave a little more information on the mystery behind the shutter. Lucia would have to be satisfied with that. Fortunately for Dr. Reid the blonde mage was satisfied with what she had been told and turned her attention from the shutter to the doctor.

"What do I need to do while you're gone? Do you want me to focus on your house? Do you want me to focus on the lab? Or do you want me to split my time between both locations?" Lucia asked the doctor.

"I'd like for you to spend most of your time watching over my laboratory. As you can see, it's been sealed off with a shutter that can be opened by keypad, but you shouldn't have to worry about it. However, you'll need to know the keypad sequence to go between the lab and my living room." Dr. Reid informed her. She walked out of the garage and through the mini-kitchen to the keypad that controlled access to the doctor's house. Lucia quickly followed behind her and learned the code that would get her through the door. Once Lucia had demonstrated that she had memorized it the doctor smiled and walked through the door and went down the hall until she reached the door straight across from the entrance to the mini-kitchen/garage.

"I had better go get the supplies before the shops close. I'll be out for a few hours. I'm thinking that I'll be gone for three or four hours." Dr. Reid informed Lucia and gave an estimate of when she would be back. She then shut the door on the far end... Lucia guessed that the doctor had went to change into clothing better suited for a supply run. Lucia was not particularly concerned about the time. It was not like she had anything pressing to do today. She had brought both her iLac and some apartment complex brochures in her backpack to read over to pass the time.

Lucia was getting concerned about the steadily increasing rent of her hotel room and wanted to look for somewhere cheaper to live. She was also looking for somewhere she could have Lumie without fear of someone mistaking him for an unattended open flame and throwing water on him. She did not know if that was fatal to Lumie because he had never told her that he had a weakness to water, but she did not want to come home one day and find him dead in his candleholder.

However, Lucia was not sure if she should go search for an apartment or just join a guild. She did not want to waste time, effort, and money looking for an apartment just to go join a guild a short time later. On the other hand, joining a guild would mean giving up her freedom and having to take orders from the guild's hierarchy. Lucia was not sure if she wanted to trade the life of freedom a Guildless mage for the security of a guild mage's life. She could make that decision after she had completed this job for Dr. Reid.

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-Inside the mini-kitchen, twenty minutes later-

Dr. Reid had left to get the supplies about twenty minutes ago and Lucia was sitting at the small square table in the mini-kitchen reading a brochure for an apartment complex in Talonia named The Enclave. It advertised itself as a moderately priced apartment complex in a good part of town with amenities like a community pool, up-to-date apartments, immaculate front lawns, and other amenities. Lucia saw that the average apartment there cost 10,000 Jewels a month to rent with an option to rent a penthouse apartment for 50,000 Jewels a month.

While the price for an apartment there was decent, she would need to think about that before committing. The hotel room she was currently staying in was about 3,500 Jewels a week and was in a decent part of town where crime was not much of a concern. Crime was even less of a concern for a pistol-packing mage like herself, but she was not sure about the wisdom of going out on a limb and leaving a sure thing for something else. However, the prospect of having her own apartment was too good to simply ignore.

The Enclave allowed residents to use their own furniture and decorate their places within reason. That rule would be easy for Lucia to follow. She did not own any furniture right now, so she did not need to worry about that until she began renting an apartment. Her primary concern was having a place to call her own.

Lucia set down the brochure and left it and the others at the table and stood up. It was time to walk around the garage and make sure no one had gotten in. She left her chair out and made her way to the garage.

-Inside the garage-

Lucia entered the garage and looked around. It was a large one with a few dark stains on the floor from oil here and there, but the rest of it was clean and tidy. The walls were spotless and along the wall was clean. It also had florescent lighting hanging from the ceiling.

Lucia began to walk the perimeter of the garage, heading towards the closed shutter at a leisurely stroll. She walked until she stopped in front of the shutter, where for a brief moment her curiosity took over. She began to wonder what was so special that the laboratory needed to be closed off with a solid steel shutter.

Was it a fancy high-tech vehicle?

Was it a high-tech weapon far beyond anything currently known to science?

Or was it a new computer that outperformed anything on the market?

Lucia did not know, but she was not getting paid to speculate what Dr. Reid was working on. She was getting paid to protect the doctor's property. With that Lucia turned away from the shutter and resumed walking around the garage with only the sound of her own footsteps for company. As she walked she began to wonder how much it cost to buy a house with a garage this big. Lucia could fit at least twenty sports cars in here, if not more.

She approached the garage doors and walked past them while keeping well away from them in case the doctor made a sudden entrance. Lucia had only recently come back to life and she did not want to lose her life to being run over by her client. Once she was clear of the garage doors she got close to the wall again and walked until she came to a stop in front of the mini-kitchen. Lucia had seen no signs of anyone trying to break in from the garage, so she would need to check the doctor's house for intruders.

Lucia walked through the mini-kitchen and walked up to the keypad, then typed in the code. The keys flashed green and the door unlocked. Lucia opened the door and went into the doctor's house.

-Inside Dr. Reid's house-

Lucia passed through the door and shut it behind her, then drew Shining Light. She did not expect any intruders, but since she was by herself she was not taking any chances. She did not know if that gang she had stopped from mugging Dr. Abel had spotted her in Motor City and followed her here to make good on their threat to get revenge. She doubted it, but she was not going to underestimate the lengths they would go to to settle their grudge against her. With Shining Light in her right hand, Lucia began to walk down the hallway and towards the living room to check the first and most obvious point of entry.

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-Ten minutes later, the living room, Dr. Reid's house-

Lucia spent the past ten minutes checking every place in the house that someone could conceivably hide in and found no one hiding. Unless they were very good at covering their tracks, there was no one in the house but Lucia. The blonde walked from the house's mini-kitchen into the living room one last time and began to check behind everything just to be certain that no one had broken into the doctor's house while the was in the garage.

After completing her loop and finding no evidence of a break-in Lucia concluded that all was well and began to walk towards the garage again while keeping Shining Light at the ready. Once she reached the door without incident she put Shining Light in its holster and keyed in the code on the keypad with her right hand. The keypad flashed green and Lucia opened the door with her left hand, then went through into the mini-kitchen that opened onto the garage.

-Inside the mini-kitchen-

Lucia walked into the mini-kitchen and sat down at the table she had occupied earlier. She pushed aside the brochure for The Enclave and looked through the apartment complex brochures she had gathered until she found one for an apartment complex named Olympus Court. Curious as to what its special features were, Lucia grabbed the brochure and opened it up to take a look. The moment she opened it she noticed a theme and that theme was opulence.

For example, the apartment complex was gated, meaning only residents and other individuals with keycards could pass through the gate. Another feature was an immaculate plaza with a large circular fountain featuring a statue of a robed woman pouring water out of a jar. A third feature was a small map of the complex that had sections of housing named after Greek gods and goddesses, such as Zeus Heights, Hera Lane, Hermes Circle, and so on and so forth. That was of some interest to her, but then Lucia looked at the rental price for an apartment in each neighborhood and blinked.

The lowest starting price was 50,000 Jewels.

That was for the least expensive area in the complex, which was Hephaestus Avenue. If she wanted to live in luxury in Zeus Heights she would be shelling out 100,000 Jewels a month. Hera Lane was not much better... it cost 80,000 Jewels a month to live there. Hermes Circle was 60,000 Jewels a month. There were no options for renters on a budget other than to live on Hephaestus Avenue, which was 50,000 Jewels a month. The houses in Hephaestus were kind of small, almost as small as the average apartment in The Enclave.

All of those options were way too much for Lucia to pay, so she set aside the Olympus Court brochure and began to look for another one. She found one for a place named Ryan Tower, which was a luxury hotel located in the upscale part of Talonia. In contrast to the other complexes, it was a single building with numerous rooms, but the most striking feature was the Art Deco exterior and interior. Lucia was not looking for a hotel because she wanted an apartment, but just to cover all her bases Lucia looked at the brochure.

It was a fifty-floor hotel where the inexpensive rooms started at 10,000 Jewels a month and peaked at 120,000 Jewels a month for the top-floor penthouse suites. The penthouse suites billed themselves as the "height of luxury", no doubt a pun on their placement at the very top of the hotel. Lucia chuckled at the awful pun and read about what made them so special.

One of the amenities of renting a penthouse suite was 24/7 room service whenever a resident wanted it; the other rooms only got room service during business hours. Another amenity was the size of the suites... the living room alone was big enough to comfortably fit at least twenty people into. A third amenity was a separate dining hall for them and them alone offering meals prepared by top chefs from all across Earthland.

Lucia was mildly tempted by the penthouse suites... part of her wanted to go back to the high standard of living she had enjoyed as a child, teenager, and young adult. She liked the Art Deco decor and also liked the idea of high-class meals prepared by top chefs from across Earthland. However, her meager budget would not allow for her to feasibly live in such an expensive living place without a lot of scrimping and saving. She needed to be more realistic about what she could afford. Lucia sighed.

While she did not want to spend everything she had on decent housing, Lucia also did not want to live in a cardboard box just to save money. She wanted something with a modicum of class, comfort, and living space. Maybe she should keep looking through the brochures to find something that was an acceptable middle ground between The Enclave and Ryan Tower. But before she did that, Lucia needed to walk through the garage again to make sure that no one had pried a door open or had hacked the system to force a door open.

Lucia got up from the table with brochures spread out and began a walk around the garage to check for intruders or anything else that Dr. Reid might want to know about.

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-Twenty minutes later, the mini-kitchen-

Having done three laps around the garage and having examined each and every square inch of the garage for anything out of the ordinary, Lucia had returned to the mini-kitchen to continue her search for a decent apartment. She sat down in the chair she had pulled out and pushed the Ryan Tower brochure aside, then began to look for an apartment complex that was more affordable than the luxury hotel. She sifted through the brochures until she found another one that managed to catch her eye, a brochure for a gated community named Windsor Estates.

Lucia frowned when she began to read through the brochure for Windsor Estates. It billed itself as a "retreat for those with discerning tastes." That line was likely a big hint that was letting her know that the place was not within her budget, but she continued to read anyway, if only out of curiosity. Maybe it was not so bad, but then she read on until she saw the hoops one had to jump through to start the process of renting or buying.

It really was that bad.

If one wanted to even be considered in the running to obtain a place, first there was a credit check. Then one had to jump through flaming hoops with a complete background check. Then one had to be put on a waiting list since the apartments tended to be rented out quickly. Finally, if one surmounted all those obstacles and managed to get a place to rent or buy, the starting price for a rental was 175,000 Jewels a month. Buying a home started at 600,000 Jewels and only went up as one scaled the ladder and went into the more desirable sections like Mountbatten Lane, which had houses by a scenic lake.

Lucia was somewhat intrigued by what she had read.

Lucia could understand the credit check and the background check. The management wanted to be absolutely sure that they got their money every month and they did not want to rent to just anyone. The background check was not just to maintain an air of exclusivity. The management was trying to weed out those who were inclined to trash the home they rented or bought or conduct legally questionable activity that could draw the attention of the authorities and tarnish the neighborhood's reputation. Lucia could not fault them for trying to keep that kind of person out.

She could also understand the waiting list... a lot of people wanted to live in a nice gated community and places in a nice gated community tended to fill up quickly. Lucia could not deny the appeal of a gated community that not just anyone could walk into whenever they felt like it. When she got home from a job, from going to the supermarket for a supply run, or from a walk around the neighborhood she wanted to feel reasonably certain that her property would still be there when she got back.

Since Windsor Estates was located in the upscale part of town crime would not be too much of an issue. The only real problem Lucia had was her budget. At the current rate she was making money she might be able to live there for a month before having to repeat the apartment search when her money ran out. Lucia closed up the brochure and set it aside.

The blonde looked through the remaining brochures and did not see much that promised to be affordable. This was a serious pain in the backside. Her eyes drifted to a brochure for an apartment complex named Heron Lane and she picked it up. Lucia began to read on for a moment before setting it back down and giving up on the endeavor for the time being. She just could not focus on apartment hunting anymore.

Besides, she really needed to focus on making sure Dr. Reid's property was safe and secure.

Lucia carefully placed all the brochures on top of one another, then put them all together and placed them into her backpack. She then brought out her iLac and began to browse the LacrimaNet for anything new or interesting. Or that was the plan before she lowered it... she really needed to focus on the job at hand.

Lucia struggled with temptation for a moment before duty won over leisure and she put the iLac away. She was going to walk around the garage again, then go into the doctor's house and make sure everything was OK in there. Lucia got up, put her iLac back into her backpack, and began another three laps around the garage before she would go into the doctor's house and sweep through there for intruders.

-Inside the doctor's home, thirty-five minutes later-

After walking around the garage and finding nothing out of place Lucia had entered the house again and drew Shining Light. She began a slow and careful sweep through the house in case someone had broken in while she was busy looking through brochures in the mini-kitchen next to the garage. Lucia started in the living room and then went down the hallway to the left, checking each room that had been left open. No one was inside of those rooms, so Lucia went to the very end of the hall, which was Dr. Reid's bedroom.

Lucia mustered the courage to peer inside and was greeted by the sight of a very untidy room.

There were clothes thrown onto the floor in the top left corner of the room, clothes thrown onto the bed, and a pile of clothing that had been casually tossed into the bottom left corner of the room. There were also boxes of books and magazines sitting in cardboard boxes and lining the baseboards in places where clothing had not been tossed. She could even see the clothing the doctor had worn when they had first met sitting on the edge of the bed facing the door.

Satisfied that no one could had sneaked into that room without getting caught in a tangle of clothes or tripping over stacks of books and magazines, Lucia turned away from the room and back towards the hall. She was going back to the garage mini-kitchen to check her iLac for anything interesting on the LacrimaNet. Maybe Dr. Reid would be back from her supply run soon.

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-Five hours later, in the mini-kitchen-

Lucia had just finished her seventh sweep of the doctor's house when she sat down at the table and fished her iLac out of her backpack. She was starting to worry whether Dr. Reid would get back from her supply run at all. The blonde mage was not sure if Dr. Reid was having to go from store to store to find what she was looking for, if Dr. Reid had gotten caught in a traffic jam, or if she had met a friend somewhere, stopped to talk to them, and had just lost track of time. Lucia was not certain what Dr. Reid was doing, but she hoped that the doctor was OK.

Lucia sat at the table and opened her iLac to find that she had received a text message. Curious as to who it was from, she opened it and read the text. She also read the Lacrima Identification Code and was puzzled as to who had sent the message. When she finally read it Lucia was greatly surprised by the identity of the sender.

The sender was none other than her younger sister Diana!

"Hi Lucia. It's me. Diana. How are you?" The message read. Lucia read the date on which it was sent and learned that it had been sent a few days ago. Lucia's face turned red in embarrassment when she realized when it had been sent.

How could she have missed that message?

Lucia was not sure whether she should even bother sending a reply because she was so late, but then rational thinking prevailed. It would be better to send Diana a late reply than to never send a reply. Lucia began to type out a quick and simple message to her sister.

"Hi Diana. This is Lucia. I'm fine, thanks. How are you?" Lucia dashed out a quick text message to her sister and sent it. She heard the notification noise just as the garage door began to go up. Quickly putting her iLac away and standing up before Dr. Reid entered and found out that Lucia was sitting around instead of working, Lucia went out of the mini-kitchen and walked into the garage. She stood just outside of the door to the mini-kitchen so that she would be clear of the doctor's trailer truck. Dr. Reid backed the vehicle trailer first with practiced ease, then shut the garage door and turned off the vehicle.

Dr. Reid hopped out of the driver's side and shut the door, then walked to the trailer and undid a latch holding the door closed. She pulled up on the handle and the door went up, revealing boxes and boxes of electronic components filling the trailer along with a few boxes of metal and other supplies. The doctor then extended a ramp all the way out and lowered it to the ground. Lucia wondered how much the doctor had to spend to buy all of that material.

"Hey Lucia! I'm sorry for being late. I had to go from store to store because some stores had some things while other stores were empty. I also ran into a friend of mine and spent some time chatting with them." Dr. Reid apologized to Lucia for taking longer than three hours to return from the shopping trip. Lucia was not upset in the slightest. That prolonged absence had given her plenty of time to read brochures for apartment complexes and send a text message to her sister.

Dr. Reid walked up to Lucia and hesitated for a moment before speaking to the mage.

"I'm gonna go change back into the clothes I was wearing earlier. Um, listen... I know that this wasn't part of the job, but would you mind helping me unload the trailer?" Dr. Reid asked Lucia. The blonde mage smiled.

"I don't mind helping, Dr. Reid. Where do you want the boxes?" Lucia asked the doctor. Dr. Reid pointed towards the middle of the garage.

"Just set them there. Just be sure not to set the boxes of metal on top of any boxes of electronic components. In fact, I'd like to save the boxes of metal for last." Dr. Reid answered, also adding the detail that she wanted the electronics components unloaded first. Lucia nodded in agreement.

"OK, I'll get started on the boxes and save the ones containing metal for last." Lucia replied. Dr. Reid smiled and went to go change while Lucia walked to the truck, walked up the ramp, and gently lifted the first box of electronic components she could reach. She then carefully walked down the ramp with it and began the process of unloading the trailer.

-Two hours later-

Two hours after starting to unload the trailer Lucia and Dr. Reid hauled the last box of metal from it and set it down along the wall to the right of the shutter along with the other boxes of metal. Dr. Reid looked at Lucia and smiled.

"I'm sorry to have sprung that unpleasant surprise on you, but I appreciate the help." Dr. Reid apologized to Lucia for having her unload boxes when that was not in the job description. Lucia did not mind. After unloading the boxes she felt like she had legitimately earned her pay instead of walking around the place and getting an easy payday.

"It's no problem. Really." Lucia said to the doctor. Although unloading boxes while wearing a long skirt was a bit of a challenge, it was not too hard. All she had to do was pay slightly more attention than usual while walking up and down the ramp and she was fine.

"Still, I appreciate it. I'll take it from here, Lucia." Dr. Reid said to Lucia. Lucia figured that the doctor decided to do that both to arrange things "her" way and to keep what was behind the shutter secret. Lucia decided to let sleeping dogs lie and let the doctor do that to keep her secret.

"I didn't find any intruders in either the garage or your house, so you should be fine." Lucia changed the subject and gave a report about the condition of the doctor's home and workplace.

"I looked everywhere in the house and I didn't see any signs of a break-in. Everything was where it should be." Dr. Reid confirmed.

"If you don't need me for anything else, I'll leave you to your work." Lucia informed the doctor that the former was about to take her leave of the doctor. Dr. Reid nodded.

"I've got it, thanks. You'll find your payment on the table. You can let yourself out the front door... just be sure to lock it behind you and make sure the door's shut before you leave." Dr. Reid said to Lucia. The blonde mage waved goodbye and headed towards the mini-kitchen, where she would collect her pay and her backpack, then leave the doctor's house to get on the road back to Talonia. Once she got home she would browse the brochures she had collected again and try to find a decent apartment to rent.

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