Tussling with her long brown hair in the bathroom mirror, Janet paused to stare at her own reflection. It wasn’t to criticize herself on some feature she was disgusted with, she was an attractive woman and she knew that, but it was just that. It was almost odd for even her to think that someone like her could possibly be a genetically enhanced, trained, government killing machine.
Quite some time had passed since she had escaped that life, but she was still unable to escape her memories. All the people she had killed, the secret overnight missions to countries halfway across the world, and now she rings up groceries at a Cub Foods. The contrast was almost too hard to deal with.
It was even more difficult to think that someone as extraordinary as herself couldn’t find anything to do with her life now that she had decided to stop killing people for a living. Two whole years had gone by since she left the agency and all she had really done was get a job at a grocery store and fall into the terrifying, inescapable trap of “normal life”. If it had not been for the man she met last night, and the offer he made her, she would have shut herself down and ended it forever.
Out of all the exciting things in her life: almost dying in a car crash at four, being brought back to life by a secret government society, and killing countless people under government contracts; she had never been extended such an interesting offer. The man she met the other night had troubled her at first. He had been looking at her and passing by her register all day that day at the grocery store and he didn’t ever buy a thing. When he first approached her she feared he had been from a rival agency sent to kill her while she remained inactive. To her surprise he introduced himself as Bob Summers and asked her on a date. When asked her name and whether she would accept she simply pointed to the name tag pinned to her shirt that read “Janet” and nodded professionally.
At first she thought nothing of it. He was just a man trying to find himself someone to settle down with, no big deal. She had done much more difficult things in her life, but now three hours before he was scheduled to pick her up she was in a frenzy. Never before had she worried so much about what to do with her hair and she had certainly never cared so much about what she had worn. All that mattered about her appearance was, “Will my hair be in the way of my shot? Can I run in these clothes?” Now there were a million questions, she felt more overwhelmed than when she was asked to kill the president.
Everything had to match, things couldn’t be too tight cause she would look easy but it couldn’t be too loose because she had to show off some of her figure, should it be more professional attire or something formal and elegant. All these thoughts racing through her head, she ran through the house grabbing outfits, putting them on, and then taking them off angrily. Janet eventually got so upset that she took a flamethrower to an over extravagant, burnt orange dress that she found to be absolutely dreadful. She had finally found an “acceptable” outfit, had applied her make-up, and was just finishing the horrendous battle with her hair when the doorbell sounded. Taking a deep breath Janet said to herself, “You are completely prepared for this. You have all of the necessary equipment, you are dressed for battle, and the enemy seems to be weaker than you. If the date goes sour just gas him and run.” Nodding she exhaled deep again and answered the door.
“Janet, you look magnificent this evening.” Bob said when she answered the door. He remained astonished as she crossed the threshold and as they walked to the car.
Opening the door of Bob’s blue Chevrolet Impala Janet whispered to herself, “Mission Accomplished.”
