Two short stories by Guy Haley: 'Kasimir Larkin's Final Sale' (science fiction) and 'Man of Stone' (fantasy).
Kasimir Larkin was, if nothing else, a man of habit.
Every morning at 5.30am, as soon as the alarm wailed its wail, Kasimir swung his legs over the edge of his cot, eyes snapping open as he did so, feet slipping into slippers that were always in the same place. Today was no different.
"Another day, another dollar," he said, as he said nearly every morning, and yawned expansively. He stood up, scratched his chest and stretched his institutional stretches. "Another day..."
He had a routine for waking, a routine he enjoyed. It plucked order from the chaos of sleep: first, a quick breakfast, self-heated, then a short shower. A purposeful walk to the basin followed - two minutes brushing his teeth; two minutes - precisely. When the sonic brush chimed, he set it down, walked away, returned to the sink to straighten the toothbrush fastidiously, his frown turning to a quick nod at the rightness of the its new position.
"Everything in its place and a place for everything," he said, as he almost invariably did.
He dressed in his uniform - underpants, sock, shirt, tie, trousers, in that order. Only when he had straightened his tie and oiled his hair, only when he was sure of the neatness of his beard and moustaches, did he purposefully stride out of the low door of his small, plastic living unit. His every movement directed to the goal of fulfilling his employment, no more and no less flamboyant than they needed to be.
Kasimir Larkin was also a man of purpose.
Outside the door he smiled, for the finale of Kasimir Larkin's waking routine was to tell himself, every day, that he loved his job; and he did.
There were, at the height of its pre-eminence, over 60 million stores in the galaxy-renowned Star Chain. Outposts of standardised commerce dotted throughout known space, wherever there was a spare corner for a shop, and often even if, a man could be sure that he could find a Star. In old barns, abandoned factories, high-price residential districts, isolated asteroids, dead colonies... And each one, for 18 hours of the standard 24 hour cycle, come rain, shine, or meteor shower, would provide its Star's unique, incomparable service to many nations of happy shoppers.
Kasimir Larkin was the proud manager of one such store.
