“Claire, please—” She hit the delete button before James could finish.
Her heart sagged. He had such potential. He watched the sunset, found a spider web in her hair, and kissed her senseless. Perhaps too senseless. Her boots clomped against the concrete. His house came into view. The rental. Was he lying when he said this was a temporary job, a few months of biding time before returning to the city? He was wrecking everything, destroying the community without any thought to the long-term consequences.
She glared at the house. The row of shrubs and tall oak tree rustled in the breeze. They seemed to be begging her to come back in the middle of the night with a couple of rolls of toilet paper.
Chapter 14
Within two weeks, the sick-outs had spread throughout the company. Half the security staff ‘needed’ another day to recover from their mysterious food borne ailment. Somehow food poisoning also claimed a quarter of the mail room staff and three administrative assistants. James asked Grace to get a list of absenteeism from human resources, but the person in charge of that information was out sick. If this kept up, he’d be out sick too.
Except he couldn’t afford to make mistakes or take a sick day at this point. The PR department in the home office offered to keep an eye on the situation. Their advice at this point was to emphasize the jobs saved, which he’d done since first breaking the news.
He postponed formally reviewing the facilities department until next week. Between ‘Traingate’ and the extra cleanup at home, the delays in improving Adena’s financials piled up.
He expected tonight to be worse. In anticipation of Halloween, he bought two cases of full-sized candy bars, hoping to bribe the kids into not throwing eggs again. As a back-up, he purchased two mops, a bottle that claimed to clean exteriors when properly attached to a garden hose, a box of rubber gloves, and multiple cleaning products.
When the appointed hour rolled around, he sat on his front steps. No-one ventured up the driveway. Instead they booed and hissed from the sidewalk. Or they made a grand production of walking into the street to avoid his house. Some of the older kids pushed each other toward his hedges. He heard them yell “Don’t let the Grinch get you.”
He took a chair from inside the house and moved to the sidewalk, hoping that if the kids saw the treats he’d bought for them, they might be willing take one. He didn’t like that the children were scared of him or thought of him as mean. He was a nice guy, but one who fired people.
He recognized a few of the adult faces that strode past from the office. One looked like the security guard who was supposedly too sick to leave his bed. None of the employees let their children trick or treat at his house. A few held their children closer as if he would bite them. He rubbed his temples. Part of him wanted to go back inside, but then the eggs would start flying. His gut twitched with discomfort in spite of his antacid dinner. He should claim food poisoning. He should have worn a costume, a mask to hide his face. He should have borrowed an empty driveway or sat at a corner so no one knew who he was. Instead, he forced a smile to his mouth and tried to look approachable with the open so-called confident posture he’d learned at a management seminar.
A little girl with curly blond hair and a princess costume tottered his way. He smiled and held out two chocolate bars for her. But as her little fingers touched the wrappers, her brother, a pirate, ran over and grabbed her outstretched hand.
“No, Emma. He stole the trains.”
The girl’s eyes widened, looking back and forth the between her brother, the candy bars and him. She considered the prizes before her. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the brother scowl and tug at her pink glowing bucket of candy.
“Dat Gwinch?”
Her brother nodded. The princess narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her hips. Her glare gave James the heebie-jeebies. He smiled so wide the cool air tickled his teeth. He waved the candy closer to her. “Full size chocolate bars.”
His shin exploded in pain. The chocolate fell from his hand as he doubled over and clutched the swelling lump. That little girl kicked him.
He glanced at her. She wore an evil smile that would put the devil to shame. “You mean.” She puckered her mouth, spit, and turned away empty handed.
HE WOKE THE NEXT MORNING to find his trees filled with toilet paper in addition to what he’d come to consider the usual splattering of eggs. The TP would have to wait. Maybe it would blow away in the wind. If not, he’d need a ladder. There seemed to be more yolks than usual, perhaps two dozen. Some of the yolks cracked so it was hard to get an accurate count. He hosed the mess off the porch and down the driveway.
“I’m getting good with the sprayer.” No-one answered. There was no-one to care anyway. This kind of pettiness wouldn’t happen in the city and if it did, the door attendant would have cleaned it up long before the residents found out about it. If Danny were stuck out here with him, he would have cracked wise about the hose skills and they could have shared a laugh. If he hadn’t tried to save jobs by cancelling the train display, he would have Claire by his
