Chapter Four
Feeling rather victorious after his success in Old Navy, Jim took out his list again.
Pink Cat/Build-a-Bear
His new assignment made all of his post-Old Navy happiness fade away. Jim had heard of Build-a-Bear before, but had never once set foot inside. However, the images he remembered from the commercials were enough to know that it was not somewhere he really wanted to be. But, not wanting to disappoint Pam or whichever of her young relatives this gift was for, Jim dutifully took his list and headed toward the beckoning primary colors ahead of him.
Build-a-Bear had at least one positive thing about it-it wasn’t crowded at all. There were a few other customers, but not very many. As he entered the store, he was greeted by a young woman in a denim shirt and khaki pants.
“Hi, welcome to Build-a-Bear. Have you visited us before?”
“Um, no...”
“Oh, ok. Well, let me give you the rundown of how this works. If you’ll just follow me over here...”
There wasn’t much in the world that Jim wanted less than instructions on how to build a stuffed animal. But, not wanting to be rude to the obviously highly-caffinated woman, he nodded along as she showed him the bins of empty animals, which he found surprisingly creepy, and the giant rotating machines full of stuffing.
“So that’s basically how this works. Now, were you looking for something in particular today?”
Jim looked at his list again. “A pink cat...” he said, sheepishly.
The woman led him to a bin full of un-stuffed pink cats, all with freakishly large embroidered eyes and a white heart embroidered on their chests. Jim looked into the bin, then back at the woman.
“You don’t have any of these things like...already made?” Jim hadn’t expected this assignment to be quite so interactive. It was bad enough he had to buy this cat-let alone having to make it.
The woman shook her head, obviously trying to keep from laughing. “Not at the moment. Plus, I’m sure you want to pick out a special outfit for whoever this is for.”
Although relived that the employee had enough sense to realize the pink cat was not for him, Jim was not at all happy about this turn of events. He picked up the pink cat skin, and headed towards the stuffing machines with a sense of impending doom.
There were two other customers ahead of him on the way to the stuffing machines. Technically, there were three people, but two of them seemed to be traveling on this magical journey together. All of them were women, either Jim’s age or younger.
As the first customer approached the machine, Jim overheard her give her name to the machine attendant, who was seated on a stool next to the wall. “There’s no way my name is going anywhere near this thing...” Jim thought to himself. The woman was then instructed to take two fabric hearts from a bin attached to the machine, and the attendant led her in what was essentially a game of Simon Says. The woman was told to hold the hearts over her eyes, to hold them over her own heart, to kiss them, and the hop around in a circle. At first, this was quite amusing to watch. But as the first customer got her monkey stuffed and the pair of women in front of him were led through the same ritual, Jim began to realize that he would most likely be put through the same thing.
Just then, another attendant emerged from the back room and sat down beside the second stuffing machine. “I can take you over here, sir!” she called, in a voice that was much too cheery for so early in the morning.
Jim slowly walked around the pair of women in front of him and up to the other machine. He handed the un-stuffed cat to the attendant, hoping that the look in his eyes would be enough to let her know his feelings about being there.
However, it became clear that this woman had either been trained to ignore looks like his, or else simply not noticed it. “So, is this kitty for you or is it a gift for someone?”
Jim’s eyes widened a bit, amazed that he had actually been asked whether or not he was building a pink cat at 6:30 in the morning for his own pleasure. “It’s for someone else...a relative of my girlfriend’s.” he said, giving his best guess as to who this cat was actually for.
The attendant smiled. “Ok, then. Just pick a heart...”
This wasn’t happening. It just wasn’t. Jim picked a simple red heart out of the small bin, hoping that he would be spared the embarrassing ritual he had observed.
“Ok, now hold the heart on your forehead and...”
“Look” Jim interrupted the attendant. “It’s 6:30 in the morning. Do we really need to go through all of this?”
“I’m sorry, we get in trouble if we don’t do this.” she replied.
“You do? Even at 6:30 in the morning?” Jim suddenly felt a pang of sympathy, much like he had felt for the poor employees at Target.
“Look, I’ll make this fast. Um, turn around.” the attendant said. Jim obliged. “Ok...um, jump up and down three times.” Jim didn’t quite jump, but bounced three times. “Alright, that’s enough. It’s early for me, too.” The attendant took the heart out of Jim’s hand, inserted it into the cat, and then proceeded to fill the cat with stuffing.
“Does it feel ok?” she asked, handing the cat off to Jim.
“It’s fine.” Jim said quickly.
“Alright, have a good day.” Jim gladly stepped away from the machine, as another customer took his place. He glanced at the wall of clothing, but decided that if Pam had wanted an outfit with the cat she would have written that on the list. Instead, he took the cat straight to the register.
As he carried his awkward, house-shaped box out of the store, relieved to have accomplished another mission, he caught a glance of the stuffing attendant leading another customer through a heart ritual. And, for the second time that day, he realized that Dunder-Mifflin wasn’t the worst place in the world to work.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Sorry this chapter took a bit longer. It's finals season and sadly papers have to be written before fanfiction.
Chapter End Notes:
Next up: Jim further explores the mall. And there may be more run-ins with Dunder-Mifflinites.
