Chapter 1: Twenty Dollars Before You Plug In
“STOP! YOU DON’T PLUG IN UNTIL YOU PAY ME! TWENTY DOLLARS—RIGHT NOW!”
Daniel Harper froze with the charging connector inches from his silver electric sedan.
Karen’s hand had slammed over the connector before he could insert it. She stood between him and the charging pedestal like a gatekeeper who had somehow been appointed to guard the entire parking lot.
Daniel slowly lowered his hand.
He looked at the official payment screen attached to the charger.
Then he looked at Karen.
Then back at the screen.
“Pay you?” he asked. “This is a public charger. Who exactly are you?”
Karen’s chin lifted.
She pointed toward her black electric SUV parked a few spaces away.
“Who am I? I’m the one who got here first! You want my spot, you pay for it!”
Daniel stared at her for a moment, trying to decide whether she was serious.
She was.
The charging station already displayed its normal payment instructions. Nothing on the pedestal mentioned Karen. Nothing identified her as an employee, attendant, manager, or representative of the shopping center.
Still, she planted herself directly in front of the charger.
Daniel had seen rude people before. He had seen drivers ignore parking rules, cut lines, and act as though their schedules mattered more than everyone else’s.
But this was different.
Karen wasn’t simply claiming the parking space.
She was demanding cash.
Daniel pointed toward the payment terminal.
“The charger already takes payment. You’re making this up.”
Karen’s eyes narrowed.
“Don’t you dare call me a liar!”
She swung her fluorescent pink handbag onto her shoulder and stepped closer, blocking the connector completely.
“I paid to park here. I waited here. And I’m not letting you use my charger for free!”
Behind Daniel, another electric vehicle rolled slowly into the lane.
Then another.
Drivers began looking toward the growing line.
Daniel glanced over his shoulder.
“It’s not your charger,” he said. “You’re holding up everyone.”
“Then let them wait!” Karen snapped. “If they want access to this spot, they can pay me too!”
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then Daniel noticed something that made the situation even stranger.
Karen’s black SUV wasn’t charging.
Its charging port was closed.
The vehicle wasn’t even parked in front of the charger.
Daniel looked from the SUV to Karen.
“So you’re not using it?”
Karen’s expression tightened.
“I don’t have to be using it to control it.”
That sentence changed the mood of the entire parking lot.
A man waiting farther back lifted his phone, not to record Karen, but to check whether another charger was available.
There wasn’t.
Daniel took one slow breath.
He had places to be. His battery was low enough that he couldn’t simply drive around looking for another station.
But he also wasn’t going to hand twenty dollars to a stranger just because she had decided to stand in front of a charging pedestal.
Karen extended her palm again.
“Twenty dollars.”
Daniel didn’t reach for his wallet.
Instead, he asked quietly, “What company do you work for?”
Karen’s fingers remained stretched toward him.
She didn’t answer.
And that silence was the first crack in her authority.
Before Daniel could ask again, Karen suddenly pulled out her phone.
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll call security.”
She turned away and began making the call herself.
Daniel looked at the charger.
Then at the line of waiting cars.
Then at Karen.
He had no idea that her call for security would produce exactly the opposite result from what she expected.
