Chapter Thirteen
The rest of the week went by slowly. Brian and Matthew and the others were grinding on my nerves. I found myself often in a stall of the bathroom with tears rolling down my face. I was so unhappy, with this job, with life in general.
I was feeling drained as I punched my timecard on Friday at 5 pm. I placed it back in the slot and went into the lunchroom to my locker to get my purse. Brian was at his own locker, gathering up his stuff.
“How’s it going, Amanda? Get any good calls today?” His idea of a “good call” was being in the position to threaten and harass the consumers.
I didn’t answer him. I closed the locker door and spun the combination lock. There had been a few break-ins, but nothing was done to find the perpetrator(s). Upper management hadn’t wanted to deal with it, and we weren’t allowed to double lock our lockers. Someone up there had a list of the combination numbers, and who only knew what they did with that information.
The weekend had been uneventful. It passed quickly, though, and as I found myself in the lunchroom, headed for my locker, Brian and the others were sitting at the table, snickering and smirking in my direction. There was an intense odor of something bad. At first, I thought I had forgotten to use deodorant, but this was much worse. As I got closer, the smell intensified. I looked over my shoulder at my colleagues. They saw me looking and turned their glances away from me. They were still giggling like a bunch of school children as I opened my locker. From the bottom to halfway up, it was full of stinking, spoiled raw ground beef. It started to spill onto the floor next to my shoes, and I jumped back, gasping. That brought more laughter from them.
I turned to them. “You all are nothing but a bunch of assholes!” I screamed. I left the locker opened and exited the lunchroom. I gathered the few things I had on my desk, and half-walked, half-ran to the elevators. I was so angry and upset. It must’ve showed on my face because Joe stood up from his desk and started to approach me.
“Amanda, what’s wrong?” he said, concerned.
“I want to thank you, Joe, for being kind to me all these years. I also want to tell you that you work for an asshole company, which I won’t be returning to.” With that, I shook his hand and left the building for the last time. I got in my car and the anger turned to tears. I ugly cried all the way home, snot dripping out of my nose. I looked for a tissue but didn’t have any nearby. Some of my fellow drivers looked at me with curiosity. I didn’t care. I know I was a mess and I guess I’d call myself lucky for making it home in one piece. I parked in the driveway and grabbed my purse, rushing into the house so no one would question my emotional state. I went upstairs to the bathroom and avoided my reflection as I took off my makeup and washed my face with cold water. I could feel that my eyes were swollen, and I blew my nose with a wad of toilet paper. I went to my room and took off my outfit. As I was taking off my shoes, I saw some raw meat across the front of them. I tossed them in my trashcan and put on my loungers. I laid down on my bed, but the smell on my shoes wafted across the room. I rose, grabbed the shoes, and dumped them in the can outside. I came back up to my room after washing my hands and crashed on my bed, totally defeated. This had to be one of the worst days I’ve ever had.
*****
I stayed in bed for two weeks, only to get up to pee and fill my coffee cup in the mornings, maybe grab a piece of toast. Then right back to bed. I was sleeping with my covers over my head, trying to keep the world out.
I thought it was past midnight when I heard a gentle knock on my bedroom door.
“Come in, Todd.”
He opened the door and walked over to my bed.
“Man,” he said shaking my shoulder through my blankets. “You got to get up. It’s been half a week since I’ve really seen you.”
“Why suddenly do you want to see me in the middle of the night?” I asked.
Todd pulled the covers off me and I was surrounded by daylight. “It’s the middle of the day, Man. Let me make you some lunch. While I do that, maybe you could take a shower?”
“What are you trying to say, Todd?” I said sitting up. “It smells like roses in here,” I laughed. I waved my arms around. “Have some!”
He gagged and pretended to throw up. Then he looked at me. “Man, you’ve lost some weight. But promise me you won’t continue to lose this way.”
I looked in my full-length mirror and sure enough I had lost some inches. All I could think of was nice.