THE NEW JOB... & other things (Part 100b)

I was to find out a lot more about Inez from Inez herself. Alvin would start his day at 8am and only take a half hour lunch. He would then leave around 3:30pm figuring that he’d put in his eight hours. Inez, because she’d been relegated to being the “greeter” and did no work of a productive nature, really had nothing to do after the doors closed to the public at 3pm. She could’ve gone home at that time and no one would’ve minded. Actually, they wished she would leave as all she did was want to talk to those who were trying to be productive. So, as soon as Alvin left she “attacked” me. Trying to be polite I listened as she started giving me a history of the bank including the fact that she had, in her younger days, been “sweet” on the boy who lived in the house that used to be on the present site of the bank. She told me she lived just up the street in the same house where she was born and that it took her exactly seven minutes to walk home. She also told me about her son and grandson who were very successful businessmen in town. It was verbal diarrhea and I didn’t know how to turn it off. I had no time table to read the reports that Alvin had given me so wasn’t able to use them as an excuse. I secretly hoped that someone, anyone, would come and rescue me but that didn’t happen. In fact, after the original introductions no one other than Alvin and Inez had talked to me all day.

When I was finally able to get a word in I commented on that fact. She sort of brushed it off by saying that it was because I was an “outsider”. That term puzzled me because, as I mentioned earlier, my roots went back to the very first settlers of the town back in 1640. I already knew that her roots were the same so questioned her on it. She immediately went into another diatribe explaining what her definition of “outsider” was. Briefly, the majority of the people who worked at the bank lived in town and I remember her saying that most walked to work each day. She was very proud of the fact that she was one of them. The only people who didn’t live in town were Alvin, John (the president), Stasia and now, me. I remember thinking of how petty that was. But I’d heard a name that didn’t go with a face... Stasia. I interrupted her to ask who she was. She was “off and running“ again.

Her name was really Anastasia. She was the granddaughter of a Board member who had gotten her the job and she did the typing and filing for the officers of the bank. The reason she wasn’t there was that she was on vacation. But that was only the beginning. Inez proceeded to tell me that she had a seven year old son ”and she isn’t even married“. The look on this woman’s face when she told me that was straight out of a terrible horror movie... complete with hand motions to her face like she'd seen some horrible sight. The rest of the story was that she was still in high school when she got pregnant and was sent by her parents to live with relatives in another town where she wasn't known and still lived with them. There was a lot more but I’ll spare you the details. However, mentioning Stasia gave Inez more ”fuel“ to continue on.

Evidently, Stasia was hired to replace Mona who had been the combination receptionist, secretary and file clerk for over 20 years. I was a bit puzzled as Mona was still employed. It didn’t take long for Inez to explain. The bank knew it needed to expand their space but the only way they could was to buy the property to the West. It was owned by Mona’s family and they weren’t interested in selling. Someone on the Board came up with the idea of making her an officer and that way they (the Board) would have some leverage in getting the family to relent. They didn’t and now Mona was a ”self important“ problem for everyone. That explained the attitude that Mona had displayed when I was introduced to her.

By then it was 5pm and time to go home... thankfully. It really bothered me that I was almost totally ignored. I was especially surprised that John, who had always been so friendly in the sailing atmosphere where I’d first met him, had ”abandoned“ me after the introductions when I first arrived. Since he was the one who had hired me I fully expected that he’d stop by at the end of the day to see how I’d fared. He didn’t. I truly was confused.

At home I found Elle to be less stressed than she’d been the day before. She’d spent the day ”selling" Jean on how much fun school was going to be. The item that got her attention was the new dress that my mother had bought for her first day. Elle allowed her to get dressed up in it and kept telling her how pretty she looked and how the other girls in the class would like it (and her). She was still wearing it when I walked in the door.

I was really looking for someone to talk to about my day but knew it wasn’t the time to do that with Elle. I thought about calling Mrs K, the head of the Civil Service department, to see if my job was still vacant. However, overriding that was what my father had ingrained in me and that was not to quit something I’d started. Basically, I took a few deep breaths and tried to give some attention to my family.

The rest of the week at work was basically the same. Ignored by just about everybody but Alvin, who didn’t have a choice, and Inez, who I couldn’t escape. I got more “dirt” from Alvin and more history from Inez. The one promising thing was that Alvin had promised that I’d actually have some “real, productive work” to do. As Friday progressed I found myself almost counting the minutes until I was able to leave. I couldn’t remember having a job that I wasn’t totally committed to and it was an uncomfortable feeling. The one thing I had to look forward to was Saturday and closing night at the stock car races. I was in position to end up as Rookie of the year and also had a chance to end up in the top ten in points, something I never gave a thought to when the season started. As I got in my car I pushed all thoughts of the bank out of my mind.

To be continued...