The New Job

This softly tailored, blue-gray business suit looks good on me, I decide; it makes my eye color pop out. Not that anyone would notice my eyes today, they'll be far too busy showing me around the office and inundating me with new information, expecting me to memorise it instantly. I've been hired by Mr. M's company to...come to think of it, I'm not entirely sure what my new responsibilities will be. I suspect it might be a bit of data and file organising and perhaps answering the phone. That'll be a breeze. He'll be so surprised to see me at his office. I didn't tell him I got the job.

I adjust the crisp, white collar of my blouse, check my legs for runs in my hose, grab my small briefcase and off I go. The office is very close; in fact, it's just on the other side of the front door as I walk through. Good, I think. These high heels complete my outfit stylishly but they're killing my feet. Cindy, the woman who hired me, gets up from her desk and greets me with a broad smile. "You're very punctual," she says approvingly. "Hope you don't mind; you'll be sharing a desk with Charlie for a few days. We're rearranging the cubicles and we're a few short. Before we get to your cubicle, let me grab your assignment box and get you set up with your own phone line." Wow, I think, they're not wasting any time but I do hope they run me through what it is they expect me to do.

The cubicle is about the size of a small closet. Somehow, it has an L-shaped desk and two stools crammed in plus two monitors, two phones and on one side, a greasy Subway wrapper with the unrecognizable remains of someone's lunch from yesterday. The air smells sour and stuffy. There is no sign of Charlie. Cindy drops the box with papers on the desk, lifts the phone receiver, presses a few buttons and announces in a chirpy voice: "You're good to go! Five hours till lunch, half hour lunch and five hours till quitting time. Holler if you have questions!"

I ask her what it is I'm supposed to do. She looks at me as if I'm dog poop that she's just stepped in and explains coldly that I'm supposed to look through the papers in the box and make some phone calls; that it's self explanatory. Then she disappears. Sigh. Perhaps when this Charlie character returns to the cubicle, he'll have some answers. In the meantime, I'll just look through the papers and try to figure it out. Better yet, when Mr. M gets in, I'll ask him, he's been working here for ages, surely he'll know.

I grab a small handful of the papers from the box and examine them. The top two are blank, the next one is heavily scribbled in a language that I don't recognise. In the margins is written "translate and follow up with phone call." The next three are stapled together and appear to be written in programming code. At the bottom is written "locate error command, switch and reinsert." The fluttery feeling in my stomach has turned to full blown nausea. I set out to find Cindy and tell her there's been some mistake; I'm not qualified to do any of this work. Why would she think that I was? Not only is she nowhere in sight but the whole place seems empty all of a sudden, the buzzing of chatter silent. It's as if everyone left for lunch at the same time.

After an hour of walking the cubicles and finding no one I decide they can go stuff themselves, I'm going home. It takes me a good half hour to find the door I entered through, the one with my living room on the other side. Relief washes over me. I'll be able to kick these pinching shoes off in just a few minutes. When I step through the door it is semi-dark. For a moment I have no idea where I am. This isn't my living room I discover with a shock. It's my bed. I'm in my bed. I'm horizontal, warm and comfortable and somewhere out there Cindy is having a fit because her new hire just up and left.

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The sky had that white, snow-laden look all day, making both our heads feel thick but it finally snowed an inch and it looks like we're in for a decent warm-up. I am happy about that. This is the toughest time of year; winter tolerance has been worn down to a nub and it can still snow a ton and drop down to many degrees below zero.

Only a little over seven weeks till our trip, I really should get cracking on the to-do list.