Jane Actually by Jennifer Petkus Read Free Book Online Page A

lbert Ridings watched the girl collect the discarded dresses from the bench of the fitting room. She’d tried on four dresses and apparently had decided that none of them suited her, although he thought the dark green dress went well with her red hair. One of the dresses would clearly be too tight, a size 12 on at least a size 16 figure. But most of the dresses seemed appropriate and flattering.
    She had already redressed in her jeans, sweater and trainers 1 , collected her purse from the hook provided for same and now stood there, juggling the dresses, her handbag and her coat. After some back and forth, she left with three dresses in her left hand and the green dress underneath her coat in her right hand, her purse slung over her left shoulder. She exited the dressing room stall and returned the three dresses to a rack where they would be later returned to the floor.
    She left the racks displaying early spring fashions in the junior miss department and entered the aisle that led to the sales registers and the exits. She moved to her left, angling toward the exits and away from the registers.
    Albert raced ahead of her and captured the AfterNet field of the terminal hanging from the arm of the loss prevention guard near the exits. Albert was about to log in when he saw the woman suddenly stop as she struggled to put on her coat and noticed the green dress. She turned around and Albert followed her as she returned to the dressing rooms, returned the dress and then departed the store.
    Oh well, she seemed like a nice person
, he thought.
But it might have been nice to have another shoplifter. It’s been a slow month.
    He’d only identified 10 shoplifters so far with only a few days left in the month, down from his high of 28. Apparently the word had gotten out that it was a difficult department store from which to steal and although he doubted he’d lose his position, he might be transferred to another store.
At least I’d have more to do.
    He worked the remainder of his shift without identifying any shoplifters and left, never having spoken a word with anyone living. He had hoped that Phyllis would have been the guard at the door, who during breaks would at least natter on to Albert about her grandchildren, but instead it was the taciturn Ted whom Albert suspected was not overly fond of communicating with the dead.
    He left the shopping mall and hopped a bus that would take him to the assisted living centre and the room he shared with, at last count, 15 other disembodied. It was also the games room for the living residents and he hoped he might find someone with whom to play chess. His previous regular partner, Joe, had died a week before and Albert still felt a sense of abandonment after Joe failed to appear on the AfterNet.
    Probably went back to Massachusetts to plague his poor daughter. Can’t say I blame him,
Albert thought ruefully. After all, the only reason for Albert being in Boca Raton was to occasionally look in on his great-great granddaughter. In fact he was to visit that weekend and thought he might surprise his family by buying them a new computer, which coincidentally would improve his ability to surf the web.
    The games room was empty of any living chess partners, and after logging on to the shared AfterNet terminal, he saw that none of the disembodied he might call friends were online. He did see Ronnie’s name listed, and as the oldest dead person, having died in 1918, he felt some responsibility toward Ronnie, the care centre’s newest resident. The 25-year-old man had died in a car crash last fall, but Albert felt he had little in common with the youngster and he thought the feeling mutual.
    So instead Albert checked his inbox and found an email about the upcoming JASNA AGM. He was puzzled by the early announcement; registration didn’t usually begin until late spring. Then he saw the link that explained all. He clicked the link that took him to the JASNA website and read the news.
    Oh my, Jane