by Dave Conifer
~~~
“Good news,” Cindy said as she walked into Steve’s office. “Everything’s fixed. It’s all going out the door to FDA by the end of the day. They agreed to accept it. So I guess you’re off the hook.”
“You’re kidding! When did all this happen?”
“Just now.”
“How come you know all about it but nobody said anything to me? I’ve been sitting here wondering how some new programmer was going to fix all my stuff without ever even talking to me.”
“Well, I kind of helped her out,” Cindy said. “Javier asked me to. I know your style. And she isn’t some new programmer. She’s been here for years and she’s very good.”
He stared, his mouth dropping open ever so slightly. “Javier? Don’t you mean Mr. Ramos?”
She shrugged. “That’s his name, isn’t it?”
“Ramos asked you to get involved in this? You were working on this all day? Why wouldn’t he ask me?”
“Maybe he thinks you’re too close to it,” she offered. “You know how it is. It’s always easier to spot problems in somebody else’s program.”
“Well the way this went down really pisses me off.”
“Look, Steve, I’m just doing what I’m told,” she said, putting her hands up as if to ward him off. “He locked us in a room and told us not to come out until it all worked. I hope—“
“This is bullshit! They’re my programs! I’m your boss! Whoever this other one is, I’m probably her boss too!”
“Don’t shoot the messenger, okay? I thought you’d be happy about this.”
“Happy? I can’t believe you went behind my back like this. Now you’ll be taking all the credit for saving the day.”
“I didn’t go behind your back! I followed orders! And we got you out of a lot of trouble, the way I see it! You should be saying thank you but instead you’re trashing me!”
“Yeah, well try to look at it from my perspective. People that work for me are sneaking around monkeying with my programs. I probably could have fixed them in half the time but Ramos wouldn’t give me a chance.”
“Look,” Cindy said. “I just came by to tell you that Ramos called a four-thirty meeting in the fish bowl. He’ll be there, so you can ask him all about it. Be my guest.” She spun on her heel and stormed out before he could say another word. The meeting announcement popped up in his email box right after she was gone.
~~~
Jane decided to approach the truck on the driver’s side. Now Manteo was rocking forward and backward while continuing his low moan. She could see the sweat pouring down his face as she closed in. When she was within arm’s reach of the door he turned to face her. Startled, she dropped the soda can, which exploded and fizzed at her feet. Manteo closed his mouth and turned away.
What happened since I left? I shouldn’t have pushed him about the steroids. She was scared, but stepped forward and tapped on the window anyway. She was certain he’d seen her but he only stared ahead, breathing deeply and swallowing hard. At least he stopped screaming. But this is even more weird.
She wanted to help but was afraid. Instead, she retreated into the house. Two minutes later, as she watched from a living room window, he stepped out of the truck and walked toward the backyard gate. By the time she’d reached the back door he had the roller in his hand and was back at work staining the deck like nothing had happened at all.
~~~
“This will be a short meeting,” Ramos said. He closed the door of the fish bowl, called that because of the glass wall that separated it from a busy corridor. “Just to be clear, did all the programs run?”
“As of forty-five minutes ago they all run with a clean log,” Cindy reported.
“Great. Cindy, were you able to zip the files and send them off?”
“Yes. I finished just before the meeting. They’re on their way.”
“Well done,” Ramos said. “You too, Ming. I guess the meeting’s going to be even shorter than I thought. That’s all I wanted to take care of. For today at least.”
“What was wrong with my programs?” Steve demanded. Ming never looked up from the table. Cindy sighed. All eyes shifted to her.
“A whole lot of little things. First we thought it was bad data. After that we traced through the logic of every program. There were little things here and there that didn’t match up to this study. It really wasn’t any one big thing. They probably needed a little more tweaking than we thought after being copied from a different study.”
“So there were no errors?” Steve interjected. “I thought the jobs were bombing.”
“There were syntax errors too,” Ming said, speaking for the first time in her heavy Chinese accent. “They weren’t so hard to find. But a lot of them.”
Steve glared at her. Ramos glared at Steve. “We can work through this tomorrow,” Ramos declared. “Now’s not the time. You two need a break,” he said to Cindy and Ming. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow and decide if we need to change anything moving forward. Hopefully nothing like this will happen again anytime soon.”
~~~
Jane and Allie puttered around the house for a while after they went inside while Jane thought about what to do. Should I pretend it didn’t happen? That’s what he’s doing. Should I go outside and ask him if he’s all right? What if he says he isn’t? Should I tell him to go away and never come back? I don’t have the nerve and…I’m too worried about him to do that.
A few minutes later she’d made up her mind. She took a fresh can from the refrigerator, checked one last time on Allie and walked out the back door. The job was just about finished. Manteo was standing in the last unstained section, a ten foot square in the corner. “I thought you might like something cold to drink.”
He looked at her for several seconds without answering before placing the roller carefully on the dry decking at his feet. “Thanks,” he finally said as he accepted the can. As she’d seen him do before, he nearly drained the entire can in a few violent gulps. “I’ll be done with the deck in fifteen minutes,” he told her before finishing off the can.
“I can see that. It’s beautiful.”
“Guess I better get on with it,” he said, turning away as he crushed the aluminum can.
“Rob? Are you okay? I mean, well, is everything okay?”
He stopped and looked back. “I’m okay. Yup.”
“It’s just that we saw you a little while ago in your truck. You seemed like you were upset.”
“Ain’t been in the truck all day since I got here.”
~~~
“I never caught up with you,” Jane said to Steve when he arrived at home, a little earlier than usual. “How did things turn out today?”
“It went as bad as it possibly could have.”
“What? The programs still don’t work?”
“Oh, they work all right. But I had nothing to do with it. They wouldn’t even let me work on them.”
“What happened? Why not?”
“Guess who did work on them,” he snarled. “Cindy Cary! She works for me! I’m her boss! But my boss pulled the damn rug out from under me and handed the whole project over to her. And some other person I never heard of. I’m so pissed. I feel like quitting.”
“I’m so sorry for you,” she said, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. “They had no right to do that to you. But when you land the new job it’ll be okay. Don’t think about quitting. They’ll announce who gets it next month and you’ll have the last laugh.”
“If I get it. I’m not so sure about it after this. My programs were loaded with errors. Do they really want me to head up quality control? Shit, the timing couldn’t be worse.”
“They know your work,” Jane reminded him. “This won’t change anything.”
“I hope. I wish I knew who else was in the running. I called over to HR and they wouldn’t tell me. Of course not. I had to try, though. I should have asked around when they announced the position. Back then I didn’t think it mattered. Now I
’m worried.”
“You shouldn’t be.”
“See, I’ve got this weird feeling that Cindy applied for it too. I asked her straight out a few weeks ago but she ducked the question. Usually HR would automatically tell me if one of my people was in the running, but maybe not this time since I’m in the running too.” His head had dropped onto her shoulder but it snapped upright when they heard heavy footsteps. “Is the caveman inside?” he asked. “Where’s Allie?”
“In the sandbox,” Jane told him. “I’ve been watching her through the window. Mr. Manteo’s still here. He wanted to get everything sized up for the painting.”
“So you’re back to calling him Mr. Manteo now?” Steve asked. “Did we turn him loose on the painting? Did he finish the deck?”
“He finished today. We asked him to paint all the first floor rooms.”
“I’m losing track. Is he okay to have in the house?”
Jane put a finger to her lips just as Manteo came into the room. “Done for the day,” he said.
“Hello,” Steve said.
“How’s it look?” Jane asked.
“Good. Shouldn’t be a problem. Just give me the colors and I’ll paint ‘em. Whenever you’re ready.”
Steve sighed and shook his head. “I wish my life was so simple. I never know what’s coming.” Jane heard Manteo mumbling as he walked out but she couldn’t make out the words.
~~~
“This deck’s looked like shit ever since I can remember,” Eddie said. “He did a kickass job.” He had dropped by the Havelock residence as he often did on Jane’s yoga night. The two friends were sitting on the back deck enjoying the unusually mild September evening.
“He sure did. And he charged practically nothing, as usual. That guy’s a gold mine for me. He’s painting half the rooms in the house next.”
“Do you ever feel guilty about taking advantage of him?” Eddie asked.
“Nah. Guys like him, you’re doing them a favor if you keep them busy. Who knows what he’d be doing if people like us didn’t spoon feed his life to him. If I paid him more he wouldn’t know what to do with it. If he knew he was underpaid he’d ask for more. He’s the one who set the rates, not me.”
“I’m surprised you’re not chugging a brewski. Are you on the wagon now?”
“Things have been tough lately,” Steve answered.
“Funny, that’s usually the reason you are drinking,” Eddie pointed out.
“I guess I’m trying to slow things down some. I was thinking about something you said a few weeks ago. About me and Jane. I’m kind of thinking you’re right. I should treat her better.”
“Now you’re talking. What brought this on?”
“I don’t know. I guess it was yesterday. Everything was falling apart at work and I realized that all I wanted to do was come home to her. I didn’t just want to. I needed to. And she was so supportive, even though I was still being a jackass. I’m telling you, I was on the edge until I got home and saw her. Maybe I don’t appreciate how great I have it with her.”
“Wow, man,” Eddie said with a smile. “I said all that?”
“Sort of. I’ve done some bad stuff. I’m surprised she even stays with me.”
“I don’t know if things are that bad, but I think you’re right on the money,” Eddie agreed. “You’re a lucky dude. We all take what we have for granted most of the time. You’re just one of the ones who does it all the time.”
“I get it, okay? I’m telling you you’re right.”
“So what actually went down at work?”
“Remember I had that big deadline on one of my projects, right? We didn’t have enough people so I had to get my hands dirty and write some programs. If you remember, I was right on target. I swear, all my programs ran. They already worked on other studies. They were perfect. Well, all of a sudden two nights before it was all due I checked and they were all crashing. They just didn’t work. Then the shit hit the fan.”
“Can you be more specific about the fan?” Eddie asked.
“My boss called me in and gave me the ‘what the fuck?’ treatment,” Steve explained. “Which is just what I would have done. Then he handed my programs to a couple other people, junior people, who got them running just in time. So I look like a goat and they look like a couple of fucking heroes.”
“Think of it as a wake up call. Same as with Jane. Were you getting a little sloppy?”
“Maybe, but I’m sure I checked them all and they were okay.”
“You just went from ‘swear they worked’ to ‘sure I checked them.’”
Steve shrugged. “Maybe I got sloppy. I can’t remember for sure. So anyway, I didn’t get fired or anything but my boss isn’t very happy with me. And remember that job I applied for? I feel like this torpedoed me. And the kicker is that I’ve got this feeling that one of the chicks that fixed my stuff is my competition. It would completely suck if they chose her. I’m her boss right now. If she gets this job she’ll outrank me.”
“No wonder you were so bummed out,” Eddie said. “A lot happened.”
‘Tell me about it.”
“Look at it this way. You didn’t get fired. You’re still probably going to get that job because they’re not going to jump somebody right over you and give it to her. And in a way it made you realize that your marriage is fucked up and you need to fix it. Overall it’s been a good thing. Did you ever think of it that way?”
Steve looked past him for a moment before answering. “Eddie?”
“What?”
“Fuck you,” he told him before breaking out into a rowdy laugh. Before long Eddie was doing the same.
Chapter 6
“I was texting with Valerie,” Jane told Steve one night later that week after putting Allie to bed. “Did you tell Eddie you wanted us all to go out this weekend? I was just saying to Kristie that we should go out with them.”
“Yeah, I was thinking it would be cool. Either them or the Durhams. Whatever you want. Just a movie or dinner or something. I know I could use a night out. I should have asked you first.”
“Anytime you want to go out you don’t need to ask,” she said with a smile. “I’m always up for it. I’ll text back and tell her we’re good to go.”
“Tell Eddie I said hi.”
After twenty minutes she hadn’t heard anything back. “I bet she’s on Facebook,” Jane said to her husband, who by then was buried in the newspaper at the kitchen table. “I can send her a message on there.”
“Redundancy,” Steve said, without looking up. “The backbone of communication.”
“What’s that?”
“I’m just mumbling. Nothing important.”
She walked over to her laptop, which was connected to the internet by wi-fi and ready for use on the countertop. Facebook was already running and she had five new messages. Her eyes skipped past the ones from names she recognized and focused on the one from somebody she didn’t. “Do we know anybody named Mike Albemarle?” she called out to her husband.
“Albemarle?” asked. His face crinkled as he considered the name. “No, doesn’t ring a bell.”
She examined the avatar next to the unfamiliar name. It appeared to be a skyline, maybe of Atlantic City. Without taking her eyes off the screen she reached for an apple from the fruit bowl. She clicked on the message and took a healthy bite as the message opened up, giggling as juice from the apple spewed onto the keyboard and screen. The giggling stopped as soon as she began reading the note. After two sentences the apple dropped from her hand onto the countertop before rolling over the edge and onto the floor.
“You dropped something,” Steve said, but she was too involved in what she was reading to notice.
Jane,
I thought you might want to know what your husband is doing on some of those nights when he’s not home, or you’re not around to keep your eye on him. You don’t deserve this. You deserve better.
Mike
p.s. I have lots more of these but I
didn’t think you’d want to see them all. Or maybe you do. I’ll send some later if you want them.
At first she hadn’t noticed the thumbnail of an attached picture but now her eyes were drawn to it. Even before enlarging it she could tell what it was. The only question was who it was, but she had a pretty good idea after reading the note. After two clicks the picture exploded across the screen. She heard herself gasp. She immediately looked at Steve. Somehow he didn’t hear it and was still engrossed in whatever he was reading.
There were enough recognizable features that she knew she was looking at a shot taken on the Atlantic City boardwalk in front of the Tropicana. Two people, one with his arm around the other, had just emerged from the casino and it appeared that they were about to share a passionate kiss. Jane didn’t recognize one of them. The other one she knew. It was her husband.
The room spun and she worried momentarily that she was going to pass out. She gripped the counter with both hands to stop herself from falling off the stool. Her eyes darted between the picture and her husband at the table, almost as if she was looking for a reason to believe it couldn’t be him in the picture. But it was. There was no doubt. Curiously, it appeared that the Mike Albemarle avatar was a broader version of the same photograph. Who was Mike Albemarle, and why was this so important to him that he made it his avatar?
“All of a sudden you’re so quiet,” Steve said. “What’s up online?”
“Nothing but a bunch of spam,” she answered. “There must be fifteen of them. Hope I don’t accidentally delete Valerie’s message, if there is one.”
“Heaven forbid,” Steve said.
There was a message from Valerie but Jane read it without retaining a word because her mind was someplace else. Without shutting Facebook down she closed the laptop cover with a click and thought about what to do. She worried that she wouldn’t make it out of the kitchen without collapsing, but she had to get out of that room. Sitting across the table from Steve was out of the question, too. There was no way her face wouldn’t betray her feelings. As quietly as possible she drew a deep breath, collected herself and walked to the bathroom without a word or a stumble.
