Page 35 - Three Adventures

Deflator Mouse

he turned away whistling. His closet held the outfits for several
popular sports; his usual practice was to release his workaday
tensions in violent movements on a tennis court or bicycle. Ken
made no move to change his clothes, however. He picked up the
telephone in the kitchenette and punched in the number of Cindy
Johnson, his girlfriend.
“Hello?”
“Hi, babe. What’s happening?”
“Oh, Ken. I wish it were Friday already.”
“So we could go out dancing?”
“No—I mean, sure, I’d like to go, but right now I’m beat.
Seriously. It’s my job. The salesmen let their orders build up until the
end of the month and then they dump them all on me at once. I can’t
possibly get all that paperwork into the computer before the cut-off.
I mentioned again to Mr. Kostopoulos that we should get another
person to help me with the billing, but he said it’s only bad once a
month so he couldn’t justify hiring anybody else. Of course, he
doesn’t want to pay me overtime, either, so I’m just supposed to
work twice as fast, or whatever it takes. I mean, it’s really gotten to be
a drag there. What about Litmus? Are they hiring? I’d love to work in
a bigger place where the workload is spread out and the bosses can’t
act like such petty tyrants.”
Ken grimaced. “Well, I did inquire, Cindy, but ever since we
started that new project there’s been a hiring freeze. They do post
open positions on the bulletin board, so I’ll let you know as soon as
something’s available. Sorry you’ve got such a rotten deal there.”
“Thanks for the sympathy; really. It’s all who you know, isn’t it? I
got this job because my brother Bob plays racquet ball with one of
the partners. And now I want you to get me into Litmus, where the
grass is greener. I hope. Oh, well. Someday...anyway, I’m just going
to eat some left-overs and watch TV; that new mini-series is on
tonight.”
“Oh, yeah? What is it? Maybe I’ll watch it, too.”
“Haven’t you heard about it? The Whores of Babylon. All about the
actresses and producers who make television mini-series. Everyone in
the office is talking about it. Probably pretty bad, but I’m curious.”

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