Sign of the Times

by Susan Buchanan

  Kids in bed, Maria emailed her team and asked them to be available on Monday at ten o’clock to meet a new employee. She’d barely pressed Send when her mobile rang. It was Sandra.

  “What new employee?”

  “What are you doing still working at this time?” Maria accused her.

  “Oh, I had a bit of an incident today and had to bow out early, so am making up for lost time tonight. What new employee?” Sandra asked again. Maria filled her in.

  “You are so impulsive, woman!” Maria wasn’t sure if it was a slight, but she didn’t let Sandra rile her. She wasn’t sure if Sandra was miffed at her for not discussing it with her before hiring Czeslawa, but if she was put out, Maria would sweeten her up on Monday. Czeslawa wasn’t arriving until ten thirty and Sandra was always ridiculously early. Maria would be lucky if she were home from dropping the kids off before Sandra knocked on the door. She explained her reasons to Sandra, not that she felt she had to justify herself, it was her company after all and Sandra seemed suitably mollified by the time she hung up.

  *

  Maria was exhausted. She had run herself ragged all day and now she was at the rehearsal for the McKillop wedding. All of the key players would be in attendance. Everything was in order. There should be no hiccups tomorrow.

  Maria was dressed in black boot cut trousers and a pink V-neck blouse. She could see the groom and another man striding down the aisle towards her. As the other chap resembled the groom, she assumed he must be his brother and hence the best man. A gaggle of girls then entered, led by the bride and a couple of tots brought up the rear. The flower girls, she presumed. The minister arrived and the rehearsal began.

  That went without a hitch, thought Maria, as she packed up her things. She always brought props for those who would be carrying things, flowers, a detachable Velcro train that sort of thing, so that the participants could get a proper feel for it. OK, little Marisa had tripped over the train, but she felt confident she’d be all right on the day. Time to go home. Tomorrow would be a long day and she wanted to get the whole family to bed as early as possible, since she’d have an early start.

  The rain battering against the windows woke Maria up repeatedly during the night. As she shoved her head deeper into her pillows she prayed for it to stop by morning. It didn’t. It was still torrential when she got up at six. It should have been light by now, but the rain clouds blocked the sun’s endeavours. A gloomy mist hung over the village. It could have been a November morning. Typical summer weather. She’d never understand why anyone booked a wedding during this time. May and September were far better months, she thought. Maria hoped that the old Scots saying would come true today, ‘if you don’t like the weather in Scotland, wait fifteen minutes’.

  Kids despatched, Maria smoothed down her suit and retouched her lipstick, before swinging into action. The wedding was at eleven o’clock. Happy that all was on schedule she set off for the venue.

  That changed not long after reaching the church. Inside, she heard raised voices coming from the sacristy. Her heels echoed on the stone until she stood just outside. Pausing a second to listen, she heard a voice, the groom, she guessed, say,

  “I can’t do this.” Maria’s heart froze. This had only happened to her once before. It was natural to feel vulnerable and confused before the ceremony. As the best man tried to reason with the groom, she turned away, but stopped when she heard him utter the unutterable.

  “I have to tell her about Becky.”

  “No, you don’t,” a voice said.

  “She deserves to know. Then she can decide if she wants to marry me or not. But she won’t. She’ll hate me and she should.” His voice was full of despair. Emboldened by the lengthening silence, Maria knocked on the door. After a slight delay, the best man opened the door. He looked as if he’d aged ten years since last night.

  “Hi.”

  “Hi. I couldn’t help overhearing.”

  “Go away,” said the groom, almost in tears. Maria ignored him. She entered the room and closed the door behind her. Soon the guests and then the bride would arrive, so she needed to get this sorted now.

  “You love Carrie, don’t you?”

  Angus nodded mutely.

  “OK, so you’ve screwed up?”

  Again, silent assent. “But, that doesn’t need to be the end of your life, or hers.”

  “It doesn’t?” he looked up at her.

  “No. This Becky, does your fiancée know her?”

  He shook his head. “She lives in Liverpool.”

  “Where we had the stag party,” the best man added helpfully.

  “And this happened only on your stag night?” Maria guessed.

  “Just that one time,” said the groom.

  “Well, Angus, you have two choices. You come clean. Your fiancée will probably hate you. At best she won’t marry you and you’ll have humiliated her and your families. Or, you learn to live with your little indiscretion, marry the woman you love and never tell her. Ever.”

  Angus looked at her with the kind of awe he’d previously reserved for his primary headmistress. Maria broke in again on his thoughts, “When you think about it logically, you just want to assuage your conscience, but is that fair?”

  He didn’t reply.

  “If you genuinely love this woman and what happened was a one-off, then don’t let it ruin your lives.”

  Angus rose to his feet. “Thanks. You’re right” and he hugged her.

  “You’re welcome. Now, go and freshen up.”

  They scampered away and Maria exhaled heavily. She would only feel relieved when they were pronounced man and wife.

  Ten minutes later they were in their rightful places. Maria helped the ushers show guests where to sit. Every so often, she would make eye contact with the groom and the best man. She received the thumbs up sign several times and she breathed more easily.

  The bride arrived and the flower girls sashayed down the aisle without tripping. The service was beautiful, quicker than she usually liked for a church service, but in this instance, relief that it had gone ahead replaced disappointment at the rapidity of it. As the bride and groom passed up the aisle, smiling at friends and relatives, Maria kept in the wings. Angus’ eyes, however, sought out hers and his expression of gratitude was clear.

  She was surprisingly organised on Monday morning for the meeting. Sandra, true to form, was early. Maria regaled her staff; Sandra, Maria’s sister, Wendy, Isla and Amelia with the exploits of Saturday’s wedding. Wendy disapproved, but Maria silenced her by saying, “You only get one chance at happiness.” No-one was going to argue with that.

  The doorbell rang and Maria went to answer it. Czeslawa was shy at first and insisted on repeating everyone’s name several times, to ensure she had them right. Sandra asked Czeslawa how she liked her tea and Isla offered her a choice of carrot cake or coffee cake, which she’d brought from the bakery in her village. By the end of the meeting they were getting on famously and Maria knew she had done the right thing.

  Chapter Forty Seven

  “Maria, here is a list of messages for you,” Czeslawa said. It had only been a few weeks, but Maria already noticed a vast improvement in her English. Czeslawa had chosen the intensive English course. She was very hard-working and Maria was pleasantly surprised by Czeslawa’s progress. She was a very determined young woman. It was almost as if she were proving to Maria that she had made the right decision. After some initial hiccups, the other staff counted her as a valued member of the team. In fact, Sandra had even commented that she didn’t know how she managed before Czeslawa came along. Praise indeed, as Sandra didn’t normally bandy compliments around. With the amount of work they’d taken on recently, Maria knew they couldn’t have coped without Czeslawa’s contribution. In fact, business was growing at such a rate, a nice problem to have she knew, that she might have to consider taking on yet another person. She’d make a decision in a few weeks.

  The three children had become inseparable and a
s a result, Czeslawa and Maria spent more and more time together. They had a lot in common, both were well read and liked quality literature, not necessarily heavy-going and dark, but something requiring a bit of thought. Their tastes in music were similar and they had an aptitude for cooking.

  *

  A few weeks later, Czeslawa arrived at the door, a little upset, dragging Angelika with her.

  “Maria, I am very sorry to ask, but I have a problem.”

  “Come in, what is it?” Maria escorted them in out of the rain.

  “Can I borrow your car to pick my brother up from the airport, please? Wojciech is stuck in traffic and there is no time for him to get here and give me the car and because he is stuck, he cannot even go to the airport to pick Anastazy up.”

  “Of course. I’ll look after Angelika,” Maria suggested. Czeslawa took the proffered car keys and was off.

  An hour and a half later the doorbell rang. As Maria opened the door, she got a shock, as she’d expected to see Czeslawa. However, Czeslawa was retying her shoelaces, so Maria was greeted by the sight of a six feet tall, dark-haired, stubbly chinned vision, wearing a black leather jacket and faded jeans.

  “You must be Maria,” he said, smiling at her. “Anastazy. My sister has told me all about you.”

  Momentarily dazed she then shook his hand. “Nice to meet you. Come in,” she said, as Czeslawa straightened up.

  Maria offered them tea, which they accepted gratefully. It was a horrible night. They were chatting animatedly when they heard a scream from upstairs.

  “Mummy, Amy’s hurt her head,” David cried. Leaping up, Maria sprinted up the stairs with Czeslawa close behind.

  “Oh my God,” Maria felt sick. There was blood pouring from Amy’s head and she was very pale.

  “What happened?” she tried to remain calm.

  “She jumped off the bed and landed on the edge of David’s garage,” explained Angelika.

  “Amy, Mummy’s here.”

  Czeslawa passed Maria a damp face cloth she’d taken from the bathroom. Maria dabbed at Amy’s head. Czeslawa ushered the other two children out of the room, as they were screaming at the amount of blood.

  Instinctively Maria knew it wasn’t a superficial cut.

  “I’ll need to take her to Yorkhill,” she said to Czeslawa.

  “The children’s hospital?” Czeslawa asked.

  “Yes.”

  “I will look after David.”

  “Thank you.”

  They went downstairs and Czeslawa rapidly conveyed to Anastazy what had happened.

  “I drive,” affirmed Anastazy. “You need to stay with your daughter.”

  Czeslawa, David and Angelika watched them set off into the rainy night. Czeslawa started praying, as she beckoned the children away from the window.

  Chapter Forty Eight

  Antonia – VIRGO

  Practical, no-nonsense. Talkative and communicate well. Not interested in idle chit-chat. Critical. Well-groomed and tidy. Obsessed with detail, analytical, intelligent and hard-working. Good organisers and multi-taskers. Perfectionists. Humble.

  As the girl she’d just dressed down beat a hasty retreat back to the relative safety of her pod, Antonia wondered why HR sent her people who didn’t have the confidence to work in this environment. You couldn’t have namby-pamby people working in a contact centre. It was all about being confident, competent and a little bit hyper, she thought. Glancing at her diary she saw that she was meeting HR at twelve thirty and her team leaders at quarter to two. Whilst she tried to find someone for the vacant team leader slot, she had to fill in and do appraisals, which would take the rest of the afternoon. Sighing, she picked up her phone and called down to the canteen for a baked potato to be delivered to her office at half one. With approximately an hour to go through her one hundred and ninety five emails, Antonia started sifting through those requiring attention.

  Dear all

  There will be a meeting of all Directors and CCMs in the Dublin office on 21st August to outline the plans for the next fiscal year. Please see Judy as usual for accommodation and flights. This will be an all day event, with a dinner on the evening of the 20th. Attendance is compulsory.

  Best regards

  Seamus O’Leary

  Chief Executive Officer

  Antonia picked up her PDA, withdrew the stylus and with a few touches, input the dates. Next email.

  Hi everyone

  As you know the European Train the Trainer(s) day had to be postponed. Here are some dates I have available for welcoming you to the Munich office.

  22nd August, 29th August, 8th September.

  Please reply by return with your availability. Course is two days. I need four members of staff to represent each call centre.

  Thanks

  Arnie

  Flipping through her calendar, Antonia saw that the 22nd would be out as she would still be in Dublin. The 29th was fine for her, but the 8th was no good, as she was on holiday. She opened Outlook to look at her group’s holiday planner. She intended to send Noel, Chloe, Rajit and Amanda, as they were good operatives and had the right disposition for training. Fortunately none of them had requested holidays for those dates.

  She banged out the following:

  Hi Arnie

  Seamus has booked all the CCMs in Dublin for the 21st, so the 22nd is out. My team could do the 29th August. Please advise as I am blocking all annual leave until I receive your confirmation.

  Regards

  Antonia

  Twenty minutes left, before her meeting.

  Hi guys

  Please provisionally block out on your calendar 28th and 29th August. It looks like these might be the dates for the TtT event.

  Regards

  Antonia

  Short and to the point. Antonia browsed the rest of her emails, sending some quick replies and making notes in her diary for those which needed some research first. She hesitated before deleting company reports not directly involving her department. You never could tell when you’d need something and she didn’t like to look stupid. It wasn’t something often attributed to her. At forty-seven, Antonia was highly regarded. She’d worked for Insureall for five years. Prior to that she’d been headhunted by an electricity supplier, where she’d worked for four years and before that she’d held various positions within IT. With a wealth of experience in contact centres, she loved the challenges her roles set her.

  Her staff knew she was married to Jack, but she didn’t share any information on her home life with them. Those who read the quality newspapers saw snippets of her life, when Jack and she were occasionally photographed at a charity event or opening of a new arts institute, the Arts being a passion of Jack’s, which she shared.

  Antonia looked up and saw the time. It was twenty five past. Time to get a move on. She was never late and loathed tardiness in others, as it insinuated they were infinitely busier than you.

  “Hello Gina, how are you?” Antonia greeted her HR counterpart.

  “Good thanks. You?”

  “Not bad thanks. Did I see Dougie the other day at La Traviata?”

  “Yes, he was there with some colleagues.”

  “Ah, right. The performance was wonderful, such passion.”

  “Yes. I need to have a look and see what the next opera is.”

  “Well I think Madame Butterfly is coming in September,” Antonia told her.

  “Oh really. Well, that would be good. I haven’t seen that.”

  They settled down, as Gina’s colleagues joined them. There was some talk about Performance Management, recruiting and even potential redundancies in other departments. This was news to Antonia.

  “We’re keen to see where we can redeploy staff, so we’ll be implementing a hiring freeze,” Gina spoke authoritatively.

  “Well, I must say this is a surprise. The business appears to be going well, really well if I’m honest.”

  “Yes, but some of the Finance functions are going to be centralised
in Paris, so at least half of our Finance and related personnel here will have to go,” Gina clarified.

  “What, and you think they’re going to be happy being offered contact centre jobs?

  “We understand there may be some scepticism and we are looking at other departments where they can be reassigned too. What I’d like to do is discuss with you, in say two weeks time, some potential candidates for your department. Since we haven’t actually told those who need shuffled or let go, it goes without saying this conversation is highly confidential.”

  “Of course,” Antonia muttered, her back up a little. She felt as if she were being dictated to and as if she were going to be lumped with unsuitable staff. She knew most of those in Finance or Sales Prevention as the sales team called them. She couldn’t think of a single one who could cut it in her department. It was very high pressure, as opposed to the life of Reilly that Finance led. On the rare occasions when she ventured out for coffee, there was always a gaggle of Finance girls round the drinks machine, sipping coffee and gossiping. No, she was not happy about this at all. Surely Management could see that certain cost-cutting exercises simply didn’t make sense for the overall good of their business unit? She left most dissatisfied.

  Fortunately her baked potato and latte were waiting for her. Twelve minutes until her next meeting. She scooped up some of her baked potato and scanned her Inbox. Damn, she’d forgotten they were doing this Outward Bound day. When was that again? She scrolled down. Early September. At Arrochar. Team building. Too much team building, not very much work getting done, she felt. There was an email from her boss.

  Subject: Impromptu meeting

  Antonia

  I need to see you in my office tomorrow at ten.

  George

  His emails were even shorter than hers. Sign of a busy person. In some industries, the higher up the tree you climbed, the less work you did and the more you delegated, not George. He was very hands-on. He had responsibility for the entire Scottish operation. She didn’t grudge him the job. She was ambitious, but she knew her forte and heading up the organisation wasn’t it. Sometimes she longed to be back on the phones. Now her life was about making decisions. She told George she’d see him at ten.