by Mac Flynn
their hall. “They get those rooms with a view. No one even sees the Pres and Vice leave, so I think they’re like that one teacher I had. I swear she never left her classroom, and slept under the desk.” She let a wide smirk cross her lips. “I hear they’re real devils to work with when they call you up.”
“Maybe they just like their privacy?” Sam suggested. She was really wishing for some privacy right now. Her stomach was full of butterflies duking it out with an angry grizzly bear. Then her stomach rumbled. “Heh, sorry.” Her cheeks reddened.
“Wow, you eat anything the last few days?” Slinky asked with a smile. She nodded toward the wall that led toward the elevators. “How about we get something from the break room?”
“Is that all right?” The copy room had had a rigid schedule for all personnel. Everyone had their designated times when they could leave so they could rotate positions. Besides, it was only thirty minutes into the work day and they hadn’t gotten anything done. Hell, she hadn’t even figured out what she was supposed to do when she wasn’t needed by the board. “Don’t we have to wait for a break or something?”
“Nah, we just need to have these on at all times.” Slinky pulled out a small pager. Sam remembered that hers was located in the top drawer, and she pulled it out. It was blocky and heavy like a brick. “I know it’s old fashioned but the big guys don’t want to spend any money on us.” She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Especially my cheapskate dad.”
“I’m fine, I just want to get started on my, um, my stuff.” She felt completely lost in this new, bare environment. Slinky leaned over the cubicle wall and smiled at her new, young, frightened protege.
“You have no idea what you’re doing, do you?” Sam slumped over and dejectedly nodded her head. “Well, stick with me, kid. I can show you the ropes when we get back with some cream cheese covered bagels.” Now that got Sam’s attention.
“Did you say cream cheese?”
Slinky laughed. “I thought I found a weak spot. We can even toast it in the little oven in there.” Sam’s large eyes pleaded while her common sense told her to get to work. Food won out and so did Slinky as she walked around and pulled her out of her chair. “Come on, I’ll show you around.”
For the next few hours Sam got the full, all expenses-paid guided tour from her new coworker. She was shown the break room, bathrooms, a storage closet that was bigger than her whole apartment, and even a running commentary about all the names connected to those shut doors on the outside wall. She was introduced to everyone who was anyone on their floor, including the cat mascot, Mr. Whiskers, someone had dragged in off the street. They even had a little fun with Mrs. Winkle. They were talking with a few of the other floor employees around the old water cooler area when it happened.
The pair were just talking to two other employees when Sam heard a door shut and one of them ducked down.
“Hag alert, middle hall!” one of them whispered.
“Oh shit!” Slinky yelped as the others went rushing off in various directions. She dragged Sam with her down the hall and into the large storage closet.
Sam’s heart was beating fast as her friend softly closed the door behind them. “What? What’s wrong?”
“No time, start looking for the paper clips!” Slinky hissed.
Sam dove into the search as they heard the clicking of high heels outside the door. She couldn’t help but pause and watch as the footsteps stopped at the door. There was a shadow beneath the entrance that she swore slipped into the room and watched them. The door opened and the silhouette of Mrs. Winkle stood on the threshold.
“What are you two doing in here?” she demanded to know. Her prudish mouth dropped open when she noticed Slinky trying to hide behind the shelving. “And what in the hell do you think you’re wearing?!”
“They’re called clothes, and we’re looking for paper clips,” Slinky snidely remarked. “I ran out.”
“Th-those cloths are indecent!” Mrs. Winkle stuttered out. “Get out of here and take them off at once!”
“And waste precious hours going all the way uptown and back?” Slinky shook her head and clucked her tongue. “Mrs. Winkle, you should know better than to waste company time. According to Article Five, Section Two, employees can only take breaks no longer than ten minutes except for personal emergencies. I don’t think my clothes count as an emergency.”
“Well, that’s, well.” She couldn’t think of a witty comeback to that one, so she aimed her sights on Sam. “So you both needed to look for these stupid paper clips?”
“She needed to learn where they are in case she ran out,” her friend and mentor--n lies pointed out. “She’s new, remember?” Mrs. Winkle shot Slinky a glare of death, but their supervisor couldn’t argue with that point. Instead their imperious supervisor turned on her heels and slammed the door shut behind herself. Slinky slumped over the nearest shelf and dramatically wiped her dry brow. “Ugh, that was close. Thought she had us good.” Slinky looked down at her clothes. “Man, but I had her good on that one. Good thing dad made me memorize all the company policies.”
“Wait, so she’s the one we were running from?” Sam inquired. She didn’t like the idea of always trying to hide from their supervisor. It was going to get old fast.
“Yep, but we only have to do it if we’re talking to someone about stuff other than our work, except during our breaks.” Slinky leaned against the shelf behind her. There were several rows of shelves that reached to the ceiling. A ladder lay against the wall near the door to reach the tops. “Otherwise we can just give her dirty looks behind her back while we’re pecking away at a keyboard or something.”
“Shouldn’t we be doing some of that right now?” Sam was nervous now, and her friend could see that.
Slinky sighed and rolled her eyes. “If you insist, but you’re gonna be bored out of your mind in a matter of minutes.”
“I think I can risk it after all this excitement.”
“Yeah, it was pretty fun, wasn’t it?” The proud Slinky led her new apprentice back to their cubicles, but she didn’t sit down in her chair. Instead she hung her arms over their shared wall. “So what do you think of everything? The treats and people and stuff.”
“It’s pretty nice.” Mr. Whiskers arrived and jumped into Sam’s lap as she sat down. The scruffy cat purred softly against her chest. Sam smiled down at her feline friend, though Slinky suddenly frowned.
“You know, you haven’t told me much about yourself,” Slinky pointed out. Sam didn’t wonder why. Nobody could get a word in edgewise with Slinky around. “Where are you from? Where do you live? Got any family?”
“Um, a small town up north, I’ve got my own apartment downtown, and my parents still live in my hometown.”
“Sounds kinda uneventful.” Living in the city all her life, Slinky wanted excitement and gossip. “Any jilted lovers or anything?”
“Not many lovers at all, and no jilting.” She glanced down at the cat she was petting. “I’m still looking for Mr. Right, though, so I’m hoping there’ll be some future guys.”
“Mr. Right doesn’t exist,” Slinky scoffed. “But I wouldn’t mind finding a rich guy to marry me and let me have as much fun as I can.”
“Don’t you want to take care of him, and cook and clean? You know, be useful to someone other than yourself?”
Slinky smirked and stood on her tiptoes so Sam could get a better look at her clothes. “Um, yeah, because I’m really suited to that.” Sam looked at her friend’s unruly hair, lack of deodorant and wrinkled clothing. Slinky shook her head at her friend’s naivete, than glanced at her watch. “But I guess we’d better get back to work before I need to make up another excuse for that old witch.” She ducked down out of sight and Sam heard the squeaking of her chair.
“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” Sam agreed. She frowned as she looked at the bright computer screen. “Um, what exactly are we supposed to do?”
“Wait on the big guys, remember?” Slinky jumped back up and was on
top of the wall in a split second. Apparently any work related question was enough to distract her from any work that she actually had to do. “They call us, we go fetch the coffee they want, we bring said coffee back, then we get back into our comfy chairs. End of boring story.”
Sam pulled her pager out of her pocket and set it down on her desk. “So they’re supposed to page us to tell us what to do?” As if on cue Slinky’s pager rang.
“You just had to jinx it, didn’t you?” Slinky playfully teased as she looked at the name. “Well, looks like my dad wants me, probably to check up and make sure I remember all the rules. He’s gonna have a kick out of what I did to Mrs. Winkle today. He hates her almost as much as I do.” She stuffed the pager back into her pocket and gave her friend a wink. “But if you need anything, feel free to call.” She handed Sam a piece of paper. “My cell number, it’s always on me. Just don’t call when I’m in there with my dad. He’ll kill me for interrupting him talking about what a pain it is being the big guy around here.”
“Thanks, I’ll make sure not to bug you to often.” Sam watched her walk down the hall and into her dad’s office, then she turned back to her blank computer screen. “Well, may as well try to do something, eh, Mr. Whiskers?” She stroked the cat and he mewed, which made her laugh.
Sam killed the next hour with learning the few programs on her
