Rachael told me to put Melissa’s name in the freezer?
“What?” What kind of nonsense is this?
“Write their name on a piece of cardboard,” said Rachel. “And put it in the freezer.”
“Their name in the freezer?” Simple, I like it so far.
“That’s what I do,” said Rachel in that matter of a fact way Rachel has of saying things.
Well, I did. Not that I believe any of this for a moment. Of course, David squealed and got that look on his face that he gets when he thinks he is proving that I do believe all that nonsense.
Beck doesn’t like Melissa, I mean, she likes her well enough as a person, but her work is sloppy and she never stops talking and she used to take a lot of time off. Beck and I worked together for ten years, and we just work the same way, head down, mouth closed. We’d always stop and have a chat, every hour, when we got coffee, when somebody disturbed us, you know the normal corporate office, but other than that…
As soon as I slid the name under the ice block tray, I have to say, Beck messaged me and said, Good news, Melissa is pregnant. Do you want to do the maternity leave? It was 3 days a week and I really wanted to have more hours than that, back then, to be truthful, but I was taking it, of course. A short time later Beck messaged me, Bad news, Melissa had a miscarriage.
That was five years ago.
Beck told me last time I had lunch with her, a year, or so ago, that Melissa had breast cancer. That was the next time I thought about her name in the freezer. Beck said Melissa was doing therapy around work. I remember wondering how miserable that would be.
And just as it happened, I was cleaning the freezer on Sunday (Mitch left stubbies in there that exploded) and Melissa’s name fell out and slid onto the tiled floor coming to rest at the very end of my shoes. I looked at it, Melissa, on one of Shane’s old business cards that we use as roaches, and I chuckled, checking myself as to the appropriateness of a chuckle, and I put it back in the freezer, back under the ice block trays.
Well, Beck messaged me on Monday and Melissa’s cancer has returned and Beck asked me if I’d be interested in doing Melissa’s job, of course, temporarily, at this stage.
I told Rachael she is a witch.
She messaged me back, You’re welcome.
I wondered if my work clothes would still fit me. Beck will have more news soon.
I wondered if I could get it done in 3 days, considering Melissa, apparently, spends a lot of her time on the internet, much to Beck's chagrin.
So, just like that, I am going back to work. Into a corporate office, what's more. Am I ready for this??
But as the current saying du jour says, I guess, Sometimes, you just have to grow up... even if, 3 days would be better. 2 days would have been great. I just want to get out of the house, vary my routine, find horrible people to write funny things about, that is all I want from a job now. Still, I have my own office, apparently, so I can write at work. USB, easy peasy. My last job, because Fatty Cake took so many sick days, (first post-truth comment, do you think that was because she was so fat?) I used to write for most of the mornings, certainly all of the mornings she was away. And as she took multiple days, as well as working from home, as often as she did, she'd barely ever complete a full week, I was writing most mornings at work. I used to get there at 8am and write until lunchtime, have lunch, and get all of my work done in the afternoon. I'd often write for a time, and then when I needed an imagination recharge, I'd do my work, then I'd go back to writing. Let's face it, any role I have done, it has only ever required 50% of my time. I've never worked over 50% capacity at work, it's never really been needed. Once I master a role, I can usually do it in half the time it would take anyone else, it's true. It has always given me lots of "other" time at work, which I have used wisely, and not so wisely at other times. It certainly gives you a lot of spare time to fester about the shit job you have. So, I write instead.
Oh yes, that paradigm. I remember... I remember... I remember. Back to that, hey? Ten months off. It went so fast.
It is not one of my favourite paradigms, I have to admit, I’m not telling you anything, but, I should work when it is offered to me. And this is really a 2IC job, so easy. Jack was sending me on too many managers jobs, he knew I didn’t really like them, but I always did such a good job, flying by the seat of my pants, living in a state of anxiety every time I crammed all the information in my head, just in case whatever exec wanted whatever figures, and I just don’t want to do that any more. And it is all Voula has offered me since she took over. I still haven’t answered any of Voula’s calls, not since that day she caught me off guard, and there has been multiple calls every week, so I keep figuring that bridge is burnt… although, she hasn’t stopped calling. That’s how I treat my boss. Hah. They only want to employ me casually, then I get to act like a casual worker.
This job, I just do what I am told and I go home at 5pm, heaven.
8am. I just saw fat chick coming out from Starbucks coffee with take away ice coffee with cream on top – Sam.
He’s in Brisbane working. You know what that means? (Okay, so I’m pretty sure he doesn’t read my blog, but he could if he wanted to. So code for this part) I’m keeping it a secret this time. (That is code to myself, so don’t even try to figure it out, but when I come to review this entry, as I surely will, I’ll know what that means)
Sam sends me footage of said fat chick.
So, do I take Melissa’s name out of the freezer now? Surely that bitch has suffered enough, one part of me thinks? But the other side thinks, finish the job. She makes a recovery, she comes back to work, I’m out of a job again.
Will I like working though? It hardly seems fair to take some woman’s life, on a whim of working.
I ask Rachel, she responds with, Do you want the job, or not?
I should ask David. What was he raving about the last time I saw him? Guys doing tarot readings in German sex on premises venues. Perhaps, we should do a reading?
I'm sitting on my balcony with coffee, the morning sun is shining, the birds are singing, the air smells fresh, this is the paradigm I much prefer.
No comments:
Post a Comment