HEADING FOR SUMMER... and whatever it brings (Part 160q)

HEADING FOR SUMMER… and whatever it brings (Part 160q)

Knowing that Lorie was usually one of the first to arrive at work I made a special effort to get in a little early. I wanted to get her ’take’ on the four women without having to worry about being overheard. I remember her first comment had to do with Rita and that it was very favorable. With three years as a bank teller I would’ve expected that but she went further by saying that she wished Rita could be one of her tellers. I was pleased that she had nothing negative to say about the others. I left her by reminding her to “keep the lid on Jerry” as I fully expected him to be in that day.

When Jerry did arrive he went right to his desk, never acknowledging the four women in training that would be his staff. I waited for a bit and when he made no effort to join them I finally broke down and spoke to him for the first time since the meeting with Hobie. I can truthfully say that I had no hidden agenda when I asked him where he was the previous day. He looked at me and the look told me he was thinking it was none of my business. He just sat there staring at me like I was an alien. That made me mad. Throwing aside all consideration for being civil I demanded to know why he hadn’t come in and at least given a reason for his absence. I’m not sure he expected that so he meekly said he was moving in to his new house.

You know how when you bump your shin into something and you have such sharp pain that you actually can’t see for a few seconds? Well, that was the way it was when I heard his answer. I went off on him even though we were out in the public’s view. I was so upset that I really don’t know what I said. The gist of it was to demand to know who he thought he was, arbitrarily not showing up to be with his new employees on their first day. Somewhere in my rant I did ask if he spoke to anybody about his plan to not come in and got a weak negative shake of his head as a response. I honestly don’t know how long it was before I saw Hobie standing next to me and wanting to know what was going on. Seeing Hobie ‘broke the spell’ I was under and I immediately calmed down a bit. He had to ask me again what was happening. I think I took a couple of deep breaths before I told him that Jerry had seen fit to take a day off without saying anything to me, or to anybody for that matter, and with all of his employees here for training. That was when Jerry finally spoke up and, defensively, stated that it was move in day at his new house. Hobie just stood there, not saying anything. I was waiting for some sort of rebuke but all that happened was for Hobie to tell Jerry to follow him over to his area. Now I was pissed off at both of them.

I was back at my desk when Trish came up and asked if I was OK. She’d heard everything so was truly concerned about me. After a couple more deep breaths I regained some semblance of control. I do remember looking up at her and rolling my eyes. That brought a smile to her face and mine as well. Jerry was with Hobie for a while and when I saw him return he headed straight for where Lorie was conducting the training. I wondered how long it would be before I’d get a call from her telling me he was interfering.

The four women left at about the same time for their lunch break. Shortly thereafter I saw Mike (the messenger custodian) headed towards the drive up window with a mop and a pail. I saw Peggy standing in the work area at not at the window and wondered what that was all about. There had been a broken plumbing future on the second floor not too awfully long ago and my first thought was that it had broken again. I walked up to Peggy and asked if the ceiling was leaking and she kind of giggled when she said “No”, and that it was a different kind of leak. My mind was still on Jerry and didn’t pick up on her comment right away. I watched Mike swab a small area right behind where Peggy sat and then it came to me what she meant. Naturally, my first thought was that she’d had an ‘accident’ but quickly realized that if she had she wouldn’t be standing right next to me. Then I wanted to ask if she knew who it was but thought better of that idea. Mike had the floor mopped in short order and I returned to my desk contemplating which one of the girls, or women, had wet themselves. It was a nice diversion for a few minutes.

Prior to the new hires there were twelve females working on the first floor. The one women’s bathroom was usually adequate and other than an occasional complaint about having to wait to get in to use it, not a problem. Now, with the four new females the number was up to sixteen. I wondered if that hadn’t played into the situation and if it wasn’t the ‘culprit’ with the result being one of them having an ‘accident’. Realistically, there was no way that I was ever going to know. I’ll admit that my whole lunch break was taken up by conjuring up different scenarios that might’ve led to not only the situation but also what that person had done right after it.

Bob and John, the owners of the ad agency showed up that afternoon with the mock up of the direct mail advertising piece that they'd thrown together for the branch opening. I distinctly remember my reacting negatively. It wasn’t the same quality as the other materials they’d done for the bank and when I told them how I felt, John literally jumped out of the chair he’d been sitting in. Of the two he was, by far, the more emotional one. I’d been witness to another ‘explosion’ of his when I’d rejected an advertising idea of his. His partner, Bob, had to grab him by his arm to pull him back into the chair. His point was that given the short window of time to create the piece, get it printed, addressed and in the mail he thought it was pretty good effort. After Bob’s input I backed off and gave the OK to move on with the project.  As they walked away from my desk all I could think of was that it had been quite a day… and it wasn’t over yet.

When I saw Jerry headed towards me I looked at the clock. It was right around 4:30pm, the time he would usually leave because of his long commute to the city. BUT… in his own words he’d told both Hobie and I that his reason for not coming in to work the previous day was that he was moving into his new house. I walked up to him and asked where he was going. He gave me a ‘look’ and spit out “Home!” And started picking up things from his desk. I will tell you that I got great satisfaction in telling him “No way!” and reminding him that he only had about a 30 to 35 minute drive and not a 2+ hour drive. I didn’t know what to expect from him and was a bit surprised when he turned around and headed back to where Lorie was working with his staff. To me it was like the cherry on the top of an ice cream soda.

To be continued…