4
I couldn’t hide forever, but I was willing to try. I’d hidden my food in the far corners of the employee refrigerator behind a tub of mystery soup so cultured the fungus had evolved as far as the Industrial Revolution. With food in hand I snuck away to my usual hiding spot, a far corner of the back room close to the outside doors used for loading and dumping trash. All around me were metal shelves in long, narrow blocks with hallways between them. They were stacked high with merchandise, and nearby I heard a forklift work at getting some pallets down off the higher shelves. I wedged myself between two precariously tall stacks of cardboard boxes full of squeaky toys. They’d been part of a recall that never quite reached the loading dock, and now sat there perfect for my use.
I plo
