Life's Lessons on Stress

by Nona Mae King

  Chapter Nine

  The Killer Replacement

  I heard Seifer come off the elevator swearing words I'd never heard before. I looked to my left--I gasped and stood to rush forward. "Sir? What happened?"

  "Mistaken right-of-way. Tunnel vision. Hell if I know," Seifer growled.

  And his coffee was all over his black-silk shirt and slacks, even staining the report in his hand. He roughly handed it to me before stalking toward his office.

  "Get me a change of clothes!" he barked.

  I nodded, tossing the report onto my desk and hurrying down the hall to the closet opposite Fujin's office. I didn't know why Seifer had extra clothes down here, but it was a good thing. I grabbed another shirt, this one dark blue, and another pair of black slacks. Then I hurried back to his office feeling more like a wife than a Special Security Officer.

  "Here, sir."

  Seifer grabbed them from me and then roughly motioned out to the security office. "See what you can do with that report."

  "Yes, sir."

  And I scurried out to do just that, flinching when the door slammed closed behind me. I gnawed my lower lip as I sat at my desk. It was times like these that made me wish I wasn't quite so sensitive. I mean, I knew Seifer wasn't mad at me, but I couldn't help but feel stressed and anxious. Of course, now that I knew Seifer was in a bad mood, the rest of the day probably wouldn't go so great.

  I rubbed at my forehead and sighed. Zell, help! Then I straightened and pressed my lips together. Come on, Sally. You don't have to let the day go horrible! You and Zell had a great morning; talking, laughing, sharing breakfast in the Training Center after a workout. I smiled. See? Just remember that. You'll be fine.

  I picked up the report and set it up on my report stand to the left of my monitor.

  "Regal."

  I twitched and looked to my left. Fujin--I blinked. She didn't have her eye-patch on. "Yes, ma'am?"

  She presented a stack of transcripts. "Organize by date and time. ASAP."

  I took the transcripts with a sinking feeling. "Yes, ma'am."

  I set them to the right as I looked again to the report Seifer needed. It was stained pretty bad, so I would need to type it up. If only it was a report done here. Then I could just reprint it. Hey. Wait. We're on a Network. I smiled and logged on, looking at the name and byline of the report before going in search of the master.