ANOTHER YEAR... MARCHing on (Part155f)

To be continued...ANOTHER YEAR... MARCHing on (Part 155f)

As my luck would have it Pat (the PTA lady) decided to stop by. She’d been accosted (my word) by Phyllis to work on the variety show she’d spoken to Elle about at the ‘Olympics’. She had told her that Elle was organizing it. I was in the den on the sofa when I heard Elle yell “NO WAY!!!”. I was tempted to get up and head for the kitchen but a combination of vowing to stay of my foot and my dislike for Pat I stayed put. Pat was there for maybe a half hour or so and when she left Elle came in to tell me what had transpired. There was no doubt that Elle was upset and the only thing I could tell her was to stand up tall and just tell Phyllis “No!”, and forcefully. As soon as I finished speaking my piece I could see Elle’s mood changing. Choosing to keep my mouth shut at this point I watched as Elle proceeded to sit on the footstool with a concerned look on her face. I waited for her to speak and the words were basically the same as she’d spoken about Phyllis’ demands at least one time before. With Phyllis, the wife of the principal, and he being the one to choose teachers for both full time and as substitutes, she was afraid the “no” approach would pretty much lead to little or no work. I knew it was useless to say anything as no matter the outcome it would be my fault. She tried to get me to discuss it but all I would say was that we’d had the conversation before and it had to be her decision. When she got up and stormed out of the room I knew any chance for a reprise of the previous day was gone.

I went in to work on Wednesday reluctantly using the crutches. I got a warm welcome from Trish and Bret which was sort of unexpected. One reason for going in was it was the monthly Board meeting and one that was very important to me... as my salary adjustment was to be determined. Back when Jerry (the new branch manager) was hired in at a salary more than what Bret and I were making, we (I) made a bit of a fuss and a promise was made that the Board would make an adjustment during the next calendar quarter. For reasons that I never understood it was decided to change my anniversary date back to the date of my hire which was in September rather than the end of March which was when I became a permanent employee. I’d expected that there would be the adjustment for matching Jerry’s salary as well as my annual raise. I won’t deny that I’d thought about it a lot. I had set a figure in my mind that I thought was fair. However, even with Gee (the Trustee/attorney) on my side and as chairman of the salary committee all I got was the adjustment. The adjustment was a nice sum of money but it galled me that Jerry and I were now making the same amount and he reported to me. The only thing was that I could look forward six months and know I’d get my raise at that time.

With almost three months of the deposit accounting being done by the service bureau we had a pretty good ‘handle’ on what to expect when the busy period started. The service bureau provided us with some very interesting statistics one of them being the number of accounts that hadn’t had any activity since the switch over. It was almost 60%. I’d hoped that we could remove the old ledger cards from the fire safe located right behind the teller stations. We’d used them many times to show disbelieving depositors that the amount we transferred was correct. With that many customers who hadn’t yet been in I could just imagine how difficult it would be if we didn’t have the ledger cards available as proof. I’d envisioned using the space the safes occupied for more work area and to get the signature cards to a more accessible level. I was talking to Bret about it a few days after the Board meeting when we heard a combination of a scream and a cry. Bret had his back to the work area so he didn’t see what had caused it.

After 3pm, with the customers gone, we allowed the employees to get somewhat casual. Jackets could be removed by those wearing pants and there was some joviality among them. Peggy, operating the drive up window used a secretarial chair, on casters, as it was impossible to operate it while standing. She, being responsible for the school savings program, would need the records so, after 3pm she’d use her chair and scoot across the floor to the fire safes to access them. For whatever reason she didn’t see Alice who was walking by the opening between the two safes and ran right into her knocking her over and into a heap on the floor. When I heard the noise I stood up and saw Alice on her side with her dress (or skirt) up above her waist, light blue panties showing. Upon his arrival, Bret bent down over her trying to get her to answer him. Peggy had fallen off her chair but was sitting with a dazed look on her face. One of her legs was tucked up underneath her and the other splayed straight out. Bret made a mad dash over to them. I was still trying to avoid walking on the foot so kind of hobbled to the rail that separated the ‘platform’ from the work area. Alice still wasn’t moving but Liz (the auditor) had pulled her dress down. Jerry, who’d been working with one of the tellers, came through the opening between the two safes and helped Peggy up. As he did I saw some discoloration between her legs. The situation didn’t lead to ‘excitement’ as I was really concerned about the health of both.

I just stood and watched. I was pretty sure Alice needed to be looked at by some medical type person. Trish called the police who appeared at the front door (locked) in  no time at all. It took some pantomime motions to get them to go around to the back. By the time they got to Alice she was blinking her eyes but still lying on the floor. Laura had rolled up her jacket and put it under her head. The police called for an ambulance and in less than 10 minutes it was there. I was still standing at the railing, observing and sort of supervising. When they lifted her up to put her on the stretcher is when I got another peek at her panties... a confirmed light blue.

To be continued...