The Tao of Apathy (12 page)

Susan twisted so that she presented her back
to Joe. He zipped up her simple, black dress. He liked the way it
hung loosely to above her knees after hugging her breasts and
showed off her strong, tan legs. Because she was attractive, people
thought that she was not living up to her potential working as a
housekeeper. As if the low paying jobs were reserved for ugly
people. Susan had chosen the dress to look good so that people at
the meeting would know what she looked like in real life, but when
she looked in the mirror, she contemplated changing into slacks so
that she wouldn’t look so nice that people would call her a
flake.

Mostly, Susan wanted people to like her for
who she was inside. But there was a part of her that wanted to be
recognized as desirable and be singled out as special. It was that
part of her that picked out the dress. “I’m going to
change.”

Joe grabbed her by the arm and kept her from
going back to the bedroom. “Do you want to know why I know that
there is only going to be lots of talk and no action? Because that
is what goes on now.”

“
Dan has some great
ideas-”

“
Dan doesn’t know shit. He has one
of those fantasy jobs that is given to stupid, lucky people. He
gets paid lots and does little. He will always have a nice home and
fly somewhere for vacations, but he doesn’t know his butt hole from
a donut hole. The only world he knows is what can be watered by his
sprinkler system. He doesn’t see that the paper pushers make all
the decisions; they try to steer St. Jude’s in one direction and it
makes us workers furiously work in any direction, but that one.
What does that do? It makes the administration go even more
punitive. The result is everything remains lousy. So why labor to
have things lousy when we can do nothing and have things
lousy.”

“
Don’t be so bitter and
lazy.”

Joe sat down and tapped the bottom of his
beer. “I’m not lazy. Things could get better if one person would
listen to another’s problem and say, ‘Well, I could help you with
that no problem. I was only sitting here jerking off anyway.’ Like
Seuss wants me to go help Louise in the cafeteria twenty minutes
earlier than I do now for lunch. I ain’t doing nothing,
anyway.”

“
So you’re going to do
it?”

“
Nope. I told him I was too busy.
I am not going to be the one. What do I get out of it? Only more
work. What I do won’t make a difference.”

“
But you just said it takes just
one person.”

“
I don’t care.”

“
The union will make the
difference, Joe. Look at the United Auto Workers. They don’t take
guff from anybody. Do you want us to just let management do
whatever they want?”

“
No.”

“
Because things will be better and
better for them and worse for us.” She rapped Joe on the shoulder
with her hairbrush. “And don’t give me your conservative crap about
the free market system and demand determining our wages. I not
picking up and moving just to go to a hospital that pays
more.”

Joe took the brush out of her hand. “I didn’t
say that.” She was ready to leave. He kissed her on her cheek as
she bent down to him and then gave her a goose. “If the union
happens, I will take every benefit it will provide, but it won’t
happen. And all you optimists are going to cause havoc and make my
life worse.”

“
Bye, honey.”

Joe listened to her back out of the driveway,
then turned up the TV and lit a cigarette.

Chapter 22

William Petty, the new acting administrator of
Saint Jude’s Health Facility and Hospital adjusted his bronze bust
of the economist Adam Smith and sat down at his new desk. He posed
as if someone was painting his portrait for posterity. Fifteen
years out of college, he was young and virile and a doer. He was
out to transform health care at whatever his personal cost as long
as it benefited his career.

The nuns had informed him that the employees
were in the process of forming a union, so his first official
communication was a letter to each employee warning them of the
dangers of unions. He had told of how unions took dues, made all
members indentured servants to the mob and had closed down several
hospitals with their tactics. He was confident that his letter
would be effective. He was confident that because he was
enthusiastic, his employees would see that he cared about them and
would not form a union.

If that didn’t work, he would crush them like
so many testicles under the high heel of a dominatrix.

“
Bill,” Betty called out. “The
union representatives are here for their appointment with
you.”

Petty leaned back in his chair. “Thank you,
Betty. But before they come in I want to say something. My first
few weeks as the CEO of this hospital have been very hectic ones. I
couldn’t have made it without you. I really needed you sitting in
on meeting with me and letting me bounce ideas off of
you.”

Betty bit a hangnail. “Great,” she
said.

“
Its nice to see that at least one
person knows her place as an employee. You are not like those
ungrateful union bastards trying to blackmail me.”

She opened the door and said to the group of
six waiting, “Its time.”

They filed in so that they formed a semicircle
in front of Petty’s desk. Dan, Susan, the nurse with bacon and
cigarette breath, and three others stood with nervous
assertiveness. They parted easily for Petty’s secretary, so that
they stood three deep beside Betty who had her steno pad in hand,
already filled with notes.

“
So, you are the leaders of the
potential union, eh?” Petty eyed them up like a telemarketer with
an elderly lady on the line.

Susan shook her head, letting her long blonde
hair, normally up for work, shimmer from side to side behind her.
Wanting to look her best, she wore the same dress she had worn for
most of the union meetings. “No. We are just the people that have
begun the initial steps of forming a union to show that we weren’t
all talk. All we did was get the information from the National
Labor Relations Board, talked with the union people and set up
meetings.”

Petty relaxed back in his chair.

“
We have continued as leaders
because no one stopped us or took over for us, yet.” Susan found
herself enjoying having Petty listen to her, so she continued.
“However, we found that people were willing to be lead and that
being a leader isn’t that hard.”

Dan cleared his throat, afraid that Petty
would take offense to that.

“
All you have to do is act and
forge ahead. Instead of thinking and discussing and rehashing
bombastic bullshit, we did nothing the last few month except what
we needed to do to get what we want.”

Susan, remembering what her lawyer told her
many a time in juvenile court, tried not to give more information
than what was asked for, but wanted this man to listen. “Unsure of
many things, we did them anyway. So we are not the leaders. As soon
as somebody more qualified comes along, we are going to step aside.
But we are the ones you have to deal with today.”

Petty eyed them up again and then put his
hands behind his head. “You may go now, Betty,” he said.

“
I would, Bill, but as chapter
president of the union, I feel that I should be here.”

Petty jumped up.

Chapter 23

It was the first cold autumn day, the first
miserable day of keeping the windows of the Butt Hutt shut. Up to
this day, the smokers had kept the heater on high and the windows
open, but now there was no denying the smell of ashtrays. Not that
the room ever smelled good. Even in the summer, when people smoked
outside, they would come in surrounded by the smell of cigarettes.
The smell force field was about the size of an elevator car and
would shock the non-smoker accustomed to a smoke free environment.
But for every anti-smoking fact, the members of the Butt Hutt club
could tell you of a relative that smoked everyday of their lives
and lived to be eighty-six. Or lived to be sixty-six and that was
good enough for them.

Joe and Bigger sat taking their fifteen-minute
break. In the last thirty-five minutes, they had noticed that
everyone was talking about the union, except for the very large man
in his usual corner and Father Chuck. As a rule, there was never
just one conversation going on in the Butt Hutt, except after an
airing of “When Celebrities Attack.” Of late though, everyone
talked about the union and discussed all the problems it would
solve in one large rap session. To avoid that, Bigger and Joe sat
by a group of patients from the psych ward.

“
I am sick and tired of people
saying, ‘Is it cold enough for you?” Joe said. “God no, I like it
colder. I want it so cold that stupid people like you
die.”

Bigger wrapped himself tighter in the only
jacket his wife let him wear out to the Butt Hutt. “I think they
are just trying to be friendly. It’s people’s attempt at being
civil.”

“
It’s called being
stupid.”

Dan, the audio/visual specialist/union
representative walked into the room and stood in the center. He
waited for conversation to stop. It did when everyone turned his or
her attention to him. For a while no one said anything. Finally,
Dr. Coxcombry snuffed out his cigarette, pinched off the ashes and
put his cigarette back in the pack. Then he opened the door, turned
his face toward the sun and stepped out into the parking lot to
hear Dan begin to speak.

“
My fellow employees, I have just
come from a meeting with Mr. Petty. We handed him the National
Labor Relations Board certification that shows we have enough
employee support to hold an election and we informed Petty that he
will need to meet with us and the NLRB to set up an election date.
Things are going well, but this union needs to address your needs
otherwise we will not get the majority vote required. So I am
making the rounds for your comments and to answer any ideas you
might have.” Several people raised their hands and waited to be
called on by Dan.

“
I have a question, Dan,” Joe
called out.

“
Ask it my friend.”

“
Your job is running a VCR,
right?”

“
Well, back in the day, I was
always pushing a VCR on a cart somewhere, but we are going digital
now. Anyway, that’s a small fraction of my job. My job is much more
complicated. I am in charge of all-”

“
Yeah, anyway, can you tell me
what’s the advantage of having four heads on a VCR? Susan wants me
to buy a Blew-Jay, but I have a two head VCR and I just don’t see
the difference.” Joe took a puff on his cigarette.

“
I am really here to discuss the
vote on the union, Joe. We need to stand together on this-” Joe
shook his head slowly. “Fine. Four heads make it so that you can
freeze a frame without any lines or distortion. Then you can
advance it frame by frame.”

“
Why?”

“
Why?”

“
Yeah, why? I’m watching a film,
not examining footage of the JFK assassination.”

“
Well, you see-” Dan sat on the
corner of the table the farthest from Joe.”

“
Stopping the film ruins the movie
for me. I want action, not a picture. If I wanted a picture, I’d
buy a camera.”

“
I would really just like to talk
about the union.”

“
You’ve got a lame job, Dan.” Joe
put out his cigarette and stood up. He was proud of the way he was
treating Dan and of Dan himself. In the past, he had put down Dan’s
job because Dan’s job was worthless. Today, he was putting his job
down to keep Dan real. Joe didn’t want all the valuable things Dan
was doing going to his head. “Our break is almost over, Biggs.
Let’s go.”

Chapter 24

Gregg Seuss had put himself through college by
working at McDonald’s. He had majored in Food Service at the
University of Michigan after graduating from Hamburger University.
Upon attaining his second degree, he became the head manager at a
Sioux City, Iowa McDonald’s. He enjoyed the respect of the
acne-faced fifteen-year-old working for him, but he wanted more.
Following a closely plotted career plan, he worked day and night.
Then at thirty, his Uncle Jonas hired him as director of Saint
Jude’s Food Service Department as a favor to his sister. Seuss
became the man with the big office and country club membership. For
the next twenty-three years of his life, he was, in real life and
not just a Mclife, well regarded and well-paid. But without his
position, he would just be another guy who spent sleepless nights
trying to avoid erotic dreams of his den mother from Boy Scouts.
Seuss had no family except his mother and few friends he allowed
over to sit on his leather furniture, but he had his
directorship.

And now, in the middle of the night, he sat on
the edge of his couch and had one more thing to keep him awake. The
union was eminent and as soon as his employees were empowered, they
would be worthless. Worthless because he wouldn’t have any control
over them.