MONDAY ZERO PLEASANT
Narrated Camille
Wow, what a blessing!!, Monday again, how happy I am to go to that nice job, even happier that I don't even have my old phone to call my mother, how wonderful.
"When are you going to bring some money and get out of here? you're a nuisance!" I run out as fast as I can, that's the good morning from my beloved aunt, I must leave with an hour more time, today I will have to make my way to the office, I don't have a penny for the train.
I walk to the station, hoping that miraculously her watchman will simply be careless so I can sneak in, I don't want to arrive sweaty at work, enough with the appearance of my clothes, to arrive as if I were a beggar.
Ten minutes later he leaves to change the shift, as I can I jump the fence, when I do my foot slips when I cross to the other side and I feel how it twists, I scream from the pain, but I must continue or they will catch me, a few meters later I see myself, and my foot is swollen and twisted, I die of pain and anguish, but why is life like this with me?
With my foot swollen, my dignity on the floor, walking lame and with immense desires that a hole opens in the ground and swallows me, I arrive at the ALF company, as I lost my documents, I ask the watchman to help me, my dear boss supposedly asked for a special permit but here it is again: there was not even a sh**!
I cry very frustrated, I can't believe Andy Alf's capacity to humiliate me, I don't understand anything, was it that he enjoyed seeing me bad, or was he making fun of me? It was already fifteen minutes past eight, most probably I was going to lose my job for being late, Marta my immediate boss was a very considerate woman, but above her, the rest of the people had sawdust in their brains and the word compassion was not a frequent concept in their dictionaries.
I am dying from the pain, my ankle is now more swollen, I feel like inside my skin my joints have little vibrations, my foot is warmer, I try to stand up straight and walk back to the goal, but there I was, defeated and looked down upon, why were these things happening to me?
The security guard approaches me with his security phone and hands it to me.
"Excuse me, it's for you," he walks away, leaving me to receive the call.
Well, I forgot that in this company there were cameras even in the bathroom, what made me think that Marta wouldn't notice my condition?
"Hello," I answer, hiding my pain.
"Camille Ibis, for heaven's sake, what are you doing at the company's door, it's been eighteen minutes?"
"I had an accident, last Friday when I left the company, I was the victim of a robbery and I lost my identification, all my documents were in the bag I lost, including my company ID card. They haven't let me up, besides I can't even walk, I hurt my foot".
"You and your excuses woman, but you were saved because I have three more hours left being your immediate boss, I already give the order to let you in, but I warn you that the new supervisor will not be so condescending, now I explain".
I go up as I can, my foot hurts too much, I can barely hold myself, I go to the office to the proper discharges, and there she is with her glasses on her nose, looking at me angrily, but with some compassion, as if what was coming was worse than what I was already living, that made me tremble.
"What happened to you, girl?" she asks me, pretending to care about my condition, "I had an accident in the tavern.
"I had an accident at the train ticket office, you see my luck."
She makes a grimace with her mouth, she prints my attention call for me to sign it, it was already the second one in a month, if I signed the third one, they would fire me from the company without mercy.
"Look, I am leaving today, I have completed my cycle with this company, and they have retired me, Samanta Noriega, the human resources psychologist, will take over this department, with her you have no chance of anything, if you want to keep your job, you should start by improving the way you dress, Camille".
I look at her frustrated, I didn't even have the money to go back home, now I had to "change the way I dress".
"I'm not that bad Marta, I just dress like this and that's it."
"You know it's not like that, if my clothes were good enough for you, I swear I would give them all to you, but I know we are not the same size, now please go to your office, you must deliver a report as soon as possible, Mr. Alf needs it, he needs to make an evaluation of management indicators."
When she told me that my brain was null, I only knew about hiring personnel and how to keep your brain balanced, something that was very ironic, because I was not even able to keep my conscience balanced.
I go into my office, I see the pile of papers that have been left for me to review, I'm hungry, cold, sleepy, tired, I just want that damn Monday to end immediately, so I get to do my business.
Meanwhile, Camille was not the only one who had woken up in a bad mood that morning, Andy was totally possessed by the demon of anger, from the moment he had gone to bed two hours later than usual the night before, his temper was out of control, he had only slept five hours and did not manage to do his daily exercise routine, his maid did not have her breakfast on time because the waffle iron had a last minute breakdown, and to top it off his driver was three minutes late. Her day was starting at eight forty in the morning, it would be forty minutes that she would have nothing to make up for.
"Christine, what do we have for today?" Andy arrives to the floor where his office is located, he doesn't even greet anyone, everyone already knew that if he made a mistake that day like the other times it could go very bad for him.
"Good morning boss, yes he had a virtual meeting at eight in the morning, but the partners said it could be at ten without problem, after that he has a meeting with Mr. Jones and his nephew Mario, then at ten he rescheduled virtual meeting, at 12 o'clock he has his lunch break until one o'clock, around five minutes past one the human management reports are on his desk for his review...then."
"Understood, don't tell me more, I already have clarity on my agenda, now, go on working if I need you I will let you know."
He enters his office and everything is in perfect order as he had left it on Friday, that morning his brain was totally blank and he had not even remembered Camille, he was never an unprepared and unfriendly man, but Sunday had been a fatal day, that erased all the good things from his head making his short term memories to be forgotten, it was a strange condition he suffered from.
Although tears were streaming down her face, she tried to be as strong as she could, if she didn't turn in that report before one o'clock in the afternoon, she would lose her job, and now she was in no position to do anything.
She felt frustrated, she could not even leave her burrow, in the company, the employees had access to unlimited coffee and snacks, but this was mostly consumed by the cleaning staff, usually the plant staff with their large salaries did not require such help, she did not eat breakfast that day, her stomach was crunching, but that Monday she was more poorly dressed than usual, to top it off her shoe broke when she crashed on the train, what else could happen? ALF AND ASSOCIATES, not a place for a woman like her.
Hours go by and she can barely finish the report, she sends it to her boss, and she didn't get a chance to review it, so she sends it straight to Andy.
After forty minutes of exhaustive review, and reaching the end of the report when he thought it was almost perfect, Andy finds a syntax error. It was not a good day "for errors".
Camille was still in her office immersed in the pain of her ankle, it was so strong that it did not even allow her to concentrate, just that morning was the change of boss, she had to deliver some reports to the presidency that were costing her work. The bad day, the lack of food, the pain in her ankle and her bad economic conditions were breaking her.
"CRISTINE! Who the FUCK DID THIS REPORT? "She shouts at her secretary over the phone.
Poor Cristine just makes an anguished face, her eyes are glazed over now, and her voice shakes to answer.
"I know...sir, it was in human resources, but I'm not sure who it was since Marta sent him directly".
"Tell Marta that the guy who made this report wrong has fifteen minutes to get to my office, got it?"
"Oh sir, yes sir".
Marta receives Cristine's call and looks sympathetically at Camille, who is pale and on the verge of fainting.
"You have ten minutes to go to the boss, I wish you the best of luck".
Camille curses to herself Now what went wrong? It seemed that her story in the company was coming to an end, she was going to resign herself to look for another job to support her mother. It was the most he could do.
She comes out of the dark office, she is the center of attention of her coworkers, she is disheveled, pale, limp, her hair in disarray and her dignity on the floor. The women gossip around her and sneer, the men look at her with contempt, for none of them she was attractive, they saw her as the ugly duckling of the office.
"Of course, how they use all their salary for clothes and make-up, they don't know what it's like to have a sick mother," Camille mutters to herself.
One minute short of the ten minutes Andy had ordered her to be there, she arrives and knocks on the door. She no longer cared what that horrible man was going to say to her.
"Go on," Andy's thick voice gives her permission.
"Good afternoon, do you need me doctor?" Camille's voice is distressed.
Andy doesn't even turn to look at her, he just yells at her while looking at the screen.
"We don't pay you here to do things wrong, you need a conclusion to your report, do you need the company to back up your studies, you need to learn how to write more!" Andy's tone of voice was now sarcastic.
"Sir, the report doesn't need a conclusion, it doesn't need a title that says conclusion, that's why it says there, "to conclude this report". That is taken as the conclusion, but if you wish, I will modify it right away".
Andy raises his head when he hears that voice, his eyes open like saucers, his temper had not let him think about the young girl from Friday nights and there she was in front of him.
"Camille, what happened to her? Why is she so pale?" Andy's voice was not so harsh now.
"I got robbed on Friday, I had to jump over the fence at the train register and almost broke my foot because my boss gave me a check without a signature! Without so much as a bite to eat today, putting up with his fucking temper". Camille felt her heart fill with anger, did he not remember?
"Regulate your language Camille, I don't understand, why are you talking to me like that? I didn't know everything that was happening to you" Andy's cheeks blush.
"You can fire me if you want, I'm not interested in this company anymore, your company is an elite, they are all mean, just like you, arrogant and bad people" Camile frowns and wrinkles her mouth "this gesture seems comical to Andy, who puts his hand to his chin while he listens to her".
"All the women wear long straight hair, designer heels, designer suits, what can I do with my salary as a secretary? I am a professional and here I am treated like a miserable person, doing reports, not that my job is a sin, but I studied for more than six years to specialize in human management. -Camille was increasing her tone of voice as she said each word".
"And you know what, Mr. Andy If you want to, kick me Mr. Andy, Kick me!
Andy is surprised by everything she was telling him, if he was having a bad day, Camille was really having a bad life.
"Well, I am not to blame for what is happening to you, but I feel that everything has a solution. Please sit down" Andy points to the chair in front of him, he remembers for a moment what he had promised on Friday and feels miserable.
Camille sits down, she keeps frowning, she feels like crying, but she won't let herself, she wasn't going to show her boss that she was totally finished.