Lost December (29 page)

That next Monday at Crisp’s was uncomfortable. Rachael was even more dismal than usual, which is really saying something. The tension was palpable. Just before lunch Wayne called me into his office. I assumed he wanted to ask me what was going on between Rachael and me. As I walked in, Suman was sitting in a chair next to Wayne’s desk.

“What’s up, guys?” I asked.

Wayne smiled. “Congratulations. You’re our new day shift manager.”

Suman put out his hand. “Congratulations, man. You’ll do a great job.”

Oddly, my first thought was less about me getting the job than about Rachael not getting it. For a moment I looked back and forth between them. “Thanks. I wasn’t expecting this.”

“Of course you were,” Wayne said, grinning. “You’ll take over the day Suman leaves. Which is …”

Suman shook his head. “I’ve told him like twenty times.” He turned back to Wayne. “The twenty-second.”

Wayne nodded. “The twenty-second. So Suman will teach you everything you need to know until then.”

“He already knows everything,” Suman said. “Don’t you?” When I didn’t respond, he shoved me. “Don’t you?”

“Right,” I said. I wasn’t paying attention. I was thinking about how Rachael would handle the news. “When are you going to tell the others?” I asked.

“I already have,” Wayne said. “Colby just found out this morning, but I called Rachael over the weekend and told her. I wanted to give her some time to deal with it.”

I wondered if that was before or after our dinner. I could only imagine what Rachael was thinking of me now. “How did she take it?” I asked.

“Honestly, she wasn’t real happy. But not surprised either. She’ll get over it.” He slapped me on the back. “So let’s get some lunch to celebrate. My treat. You like sushi?”

“Love sushi,” I said.

The three of us stood and walked out of Wayne’s office. As we were leaving, Suman said to Rachael, “We’re leaving for lunch. You have the floor, Rachael.”

“Okay,” she said softly. She glanced at me then turned away.

Rachael didn’t say a word to me the rest of the day. Finally, about an hour before quitting time, I saw her go into the back room for paper. I followed her, shutting the door partially behind me. “Rachael.”

“What?” she said without looking at me.

“Look, I’m sorry about what I said to you the other night—the
wild boar thing. That was mean. Can we please just forget about it and move on?”

She turned around. “That’s easy for you to say,” she said. “Chris talked nonstop about you all day yesterday. He didn’t need that
complication
in his life.”

“Complication?”

“Yes, complication.”

“If he was talking about me all day, maybe that’s exactly what he does need.”

“You have no idea what my son needs.”

“You’re right. I have no idea. It’s just unfortunate that he had such a good time that he wanted to talk about it all day. What an awful thing.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Do you think this is a joke?”

“No. I think the way you’re handling this is a joke. Do you think you’re the only one with problems? You think you’re the only one who has ever been
betrayed?”

She bristled at the word. “I didn’t say anything about being betrayed.”

“You don’t need to. Why else would you wear that much armor?”

She stood there staring at me, speechless. “I have nothing to say to you. Now please let me by.”

I stepped sideways. “By all means.”

“Oh, and congratulations on your promotion.” She pushed past me and went back out to the front counter.

I followed her out. “Is that what this is about?”

“No. I didn’t care for you before you stole my job.”

“Stole? It was yours to lose.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means you didn’t deserve it. You know what? You make people feel bad. Whatever the world did to you, you’re certainly giving it back.”

“I could never give back that much.” Her eyes welled up with tears, and for the first time I saw just how deeply she had been hurt. I regretted my comment. She looked down, covering her eyes with her hand. “Please, just leave me alone.”

I looked at her, wanting to say something, wanting to apologize, but I knew she didn’t want me to. I walked away from her. She didn’t look at me again the rest of our shift, and she disappeared quickly at quitting time.

Sometimes it’s not strength but gentleness
that cracks the hardest shells
.

Luke Crisp’s Diary

My job at the Golden Age changed as well. We had lost several residents in November and I helped Carlos quickly fill the vacancies. The facility had, for the first time ever, a waiting list to get in. I think Carlos sensed that I wasn’t going to be able to keep up both jobs forever, so rather than lose me, he changed the deal. The day after my promotion at Crisp’s he brought me into his office.

“What’s up?”

“How do you feel about feeding residents?”

I shrugged. “It’s not really my career path, but with the kind of money you’re paying me, it’s hard to give up.”

He smiled. “Well, I have a better offer. I’ll pay you the same monthly salary as you make now if you’ll come on as my marketing director for two afternoons a week—you pick the days. I just need you to keep helping Sylvia until the twenty-third. That’s when I’ve got some new people starting.”

“I still get meals?”

“Meals, apartment, laundry, everything. Heck, you can still wear scrubs if you want.”

“You drive a hard bargain, my friend. But you’ve got yourself a deal.”

The twenty-second of December was Suman’s last day at Crisp’s. Around lunchtime we had a small going-away party to celebrate his new adventure. Wayne had purchased ice cream and a devil’s food cake at the grocery store down the street. He hadn’t checked the cake at the store so he didn’t notice until he opened the cake box at Crisp’s that they had misspelled Suman’s name. The cake read:

Bon Voyage, Shoe Man

Wayne was pretty upset by the mistake and overly apologetic. Suman thought it was hilarious. He took a picture of the cake with his phone and insisted on having the piece with his misspelled name. He took the cake, climbed up on a chair and sang in his best John Lennon, “I am the shoe man, I am the shoe man, I am the loafer, goo, goo, g’joob.”

Rachael didn’t attend the party. Rather than trading off, as we usually did for internal events, Rachael volunteered to stay out front the whole time. I didn’t like that she had excluded herself and I kept looking out at her. I took her a piece of cake that she refused with a simple, “I’m on a diet.”

Wayne noticed my concern and pulled me aside. “Look, Luke. You’re the right person for this job. Rachael had every
opportunity for the promotion and she blew it. In fact, I put her on probation. I told her if she doesn’t change her attitude we may have to let her go.”

This didn’t make me feel any better. We were winding up our party when we heard an angry customer shouting up front. Suman turned to me. “You’re up to bat, manager.”

“Thanks, shoe man,” I said, shoving a final bite of cake into my mouth, then throwing my plate into the trash. I walked out front to see what was going on. A heavyset man in a dark business suit was standing at the front counter yelling at Rachael. The man was red-faced and looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel in his neck.

I walked up to the counter. “Excuse, me, sir. May I help you?”

“I doubt anyone around here is competent enough to help anyone,” he said. He waved a finger in Rachael’s face. “This is the last time I bring my business here. Do you understand? Last time.”

“Sir,” I said calmly, “please tell me what’s wrong.”

He turned to face me, waving a piece of paper in the air. “I brought this job in yesterday to have printed. I specifically asked this woman for one-sided copies. Instead, I have printing on both sides. I can’t use this. My conference begins in one hour at the Tropicana.”

“Let me see,” I said. I examined the fliers, then looked over the order form. The job was marked for double-sided printing. Rachael had incorrectly marked the order form.

I looked back up. “I can see why you’re upset. You’re absolutely
right, this was supposed to be printed single-sided. But it’s not her fault, sir. It was mine. I’m new here and I got the order wrong. But more important than my incompentency, is that you need your handouts right away. I’ll pull the job I have on the copier right now and get your order for you in fifteen minutes. Will that give you enough time to get back to the Tropicana? Or do you need to get back and have me hand deliver them to you?”