The Knowledge Stone (43 page)

Looking rather disparagingly at their shiny cars he interrupted their conversation: ‘I know you will both have the standard 5-speed auto but I greatly prefer the 4-speed that I have in my trusty BMW. People keep offering me later BMW models but I always refuse; the older model is a much better car, particularly with the superb 4-speed gearbox. The ratios are finely tuned to the power curve of the engine – and you know how much more torque you get from four cylinders, don’t you?’ The men looked at him rather blankly.

‘We have CVT,’ one said crisply, ‘I think you would find that CVT is much better. It means that the torque distribution is optimal through the power range.’ Julian flushed. He did not know what CVT was! The man recognised his confusion.

‘CVT, Continuously Variable Transmission. Much better.’

He turned his back on Julian and resumed his conversation with the other man.

Julian stumbled into the building to register. There was an elderly man in uniform behind a small reception desk.

‘Yes?’ the man said, without looking up. Julian gave his name.

‘You’re very late,’ the man said, ‘you’ve been allocated the very last room. It’s on the top floor. Used to be servant’s quarters up there, you know. Pretty compact, it is.’ The man smiled derisively as he said this.

Julian thought it was time to put this officious man in his place: ‘I am afraid that is unacceptable, my good man. I require a more spacious room. At my firm, I am Senior Staff, a Head of Department. Would you just sort that out, immediately?’ Julian was at his most haughty.

‘Can’t do it, I’m afraid,’ the man said, ‘everyone is Senior Staff on this course and the rooms are allocated on a first come, first serve basis. You didn’t exactly come first, did you? In fact you came last.’ The man smiled at his joke. Then he reached behind him and threw a key across the desk. ‘Room 509, there’s no elevator, you’ll have to walk up.’ He turned away and paid no further attention to Julian.

Julian was furious. His legs were quite tired by the time he had walked up five long flights of stairs. The fifth floor was a rabbit warren of narrow, dark corridors and he had some difficulty locating Room 509. When he finally found it, it proved to be small and very cramped with a low ceiling.

‘Quite unsatisfactory!’ he raged, ‘I shall complain to the Course Director. And I will place a complaint about that insolent man at the Reception Desk, too.’ Julian consulted the Course Schedule. He saw that all tutors and members of the Course were to meet in the Lounge for coffee. There, the Schedule said, they would meet the Course Director.

‘Good,’ he thought grimly, ‘I have business with that gentleman.’

Most of the course attendees were already drinking coffee in the Lounge when Julian arrived. He looked around and identified the Course Director by the badge pinned to his lapel. He was standing in the centre of the room, talking affably to a small group of attendees. Julian marched across and interrupted: ‘Excuse me,’ he said loudly, fixing the Course Director with a dominating eye, ‘can I have a word? In private …’

The Course Director did not move. He looked at Julian’s name badge and said in a quiet but penetrating voice: ‘Ah, yes. I want to speak to you. There’s been a serious complaint against you from a member of my staff. It seems you were very rude at the Reception Desk. We treat such matters very seriously here. I suggest an apology is in order. Now would be a good time to put things right, don’t you think?’

The Course Director returned to his conversation with the others. The room was hushed and all eyes were on Julian. He was absolutely mortified and went bright red. He had been humiliated in front of the whole Course! He wished the ground would open and swallow him up as he slunk from the room.

The rest of the Course continued in the same vein; Julian seemed unable to get anything right. He had apologised to the man at the Reception Desk with his eyes on the floor. He had tried to recover from his public humiliation by turning on the full force of his considerable charm and wit, all to no avail: ‘I normally get on with people splendidly,’ he thought with despair, ‘but here, I just seem to fail all the time.’ He spent all his free time closeted in his small unpleasant room, thinking: ‘If I just stay in here, hopefully, I can’t get into any more trouble.’

So the Course proceeded with agonising slowness and a depressed and nervous Julian counted the days until he could leave and return to the familiar life he knew.

‘It will be lovely to return to the work I do so well.’ Julian had lost none of his modesty! Eventually, the wonderful day came. The Course was finished and he could leave. As he drove out the impressive gateway, his spirits soared: ‘Soon, I will see Sunia. I’m sure she will be very pleased with her birthday gift.’ The thought of seeing Sunia again made him shiver with the delight of pure love and adoration.

‘So what’s all this about you being pleased with Sunia’s progress?’

Julian had appeared in Margarite’s office and the tone of his voice was derisive: ‘This is what Sunia is trying to tell me. It can’t be true, can it? You’ve always had a down on that girl and I can’t imagine you changing your mind.’

Margarite was stung by Julian’s tone and answered with some irritation: ‘Well, you’re wrong about that, Julian. While you were away, Sunia asked Alex if he would help her and, to my great surprise, it seems to have been a great success. So successful that Sunia assembled a simple Document Pack last week as Base Coordinator. All by herself, I am told. I never thought I would see the day. I have congratulated her and authorised her to work with Alex as much as possible. I doubt whether she will ever be our top scorer, but at least she seems to be gaining confidence and becoming useful at last.’

Julian was greatly alarmed. What was this? Sunia working with Alex? He had never paid much attention to Alex, considering him just one of the unimportant “foot soldiers” in the Department. Now he would pay a great deal more attention to him! Meanwhile, he must put a stop to this right away.

He addressed Margarite in his gravest tones: ‘I think that sounds like a very bad idea, Margarite. Junior staff training junior staff? That’s very dangerous and it’s inefficient, too. I will not have such a thing happening in my Department. I insist that this liaison be broken up immediately. That’s an order.’

To his surprise, Margarite demurred; she normally backed down right away when he adopted his most serious tone. ‘I really don’t agree, Julian. The training with Alex has been highly successful and the girl is now learning well. I think it is essential for her to work with Alex. He is very good with her and he is one of my most reliable workers.’

Julian gritted his teeth and looked angrily into Margarite’s eyes: ‘Listen, Margarite, I have given you my decision on this matter. I am extremely surprised that you should be arguing with me.’ Suddenly, he had a brilliant idea. ‘Anyway, I have decided that Sunia will now work full-time with me; I have been finding her very effective as my PA.’ He turned to leave the office.

‘Fine, Julian. I’ll get on to HR right away and tell them to organise a recruitment exercise for a replacement in the General Office. Do you want me to tell them about your acquisition of a PA, or will you do it? One way or another, HR will need to know. It’s an overall staff increase for the Firm. You know they’re very hot on that.’

Julian froze in the doorway, his mind racing. If Margarite contacted HR, they would report a staff increase request to their Director and an Internal Staffing Review would need to be set up. He, Julian, would need to make a strong case for a PA. He would probably have to be interviewed by the Partners’ Board. If his case failed, it would be a humiliation for him and he would lose Sunia. However if his case was successful, they would insist on a Fair Recruitment Exercise and the best and most experienced candidate, internal or external, would be chosen. This would definitely not be Sunia, since she had no PA skills or experience. Success or failure, this course of action would be a disaster for him! Julian turned back slowly to Margarite, his face ashen: ‘Ah … Let’s take no action on any of this for the moment, Margarite. You will appreciate it’s a very complex matter and I need to think it through properly. I’m very busy at the moment with other things. I’ll let you know in due course. For the time being, Sunia can stay under your control.’

No mention was made of Alex.

‘OK, I have noted that, Julian. No action, no change, at least for the time being.’ She watched him go with a slight smile.

Moments later, Julian was back in his office, wild-eyed, heart pounding. Margarite had outmanoeuvred him! It had never happened before. Worse still, he had lost Sunia completely. Now he could not insist on having her for training or informal PA work, as he did before. If he did, Margarite would insist on asking HR for a replacement for the General Office. He knew it was very unlikely he could construct a successful case for a PA for HDC. None of the Heads of Department at his level had PAs and he was sure the Firm would not wish to make an exception for him. But even if they did, his PA would certainly not be his beloved Sunia. Julian slumped forward in despair and held his head in his hands.

The weeks passed and Margarite was astonished at the progress Sunia was making. She was like a different person! Instead of the dreamy, detached and rather inarticulate person who had come to DC, panicking if asked to do anything and seemingly quite happy to spend the whole day staring out of the window, here was a bright and determined girl, hungry to learn everything she could and approaching every task with meticulous enthusiasm.

‘It really is a miracle to see,’ Margarite thought. ‘Who would have thought she was capable of this?’ As yet, Margarite still insisted that Sunia work with Alex and use him as her informal supervisor. However, she thought it would soon be time for Sunia to “go solo”.

A few days later, a cheerful Sunia popped her head around Margarite’s door and asked if she could speak to her.

‘Yes, Sunia, come in,’ Margarite replied with a smile, ‘I’m really pleased with your progress, you know. You’re becoming a bit of an expert.’ Sunia blushed with pleasure.

‘Margarite, I want to tell you why I’ve improved. Finally, I’ve worked it out.’

‘Let’s make a cup of coffee and then you can tell me all about it.’ Margarite was curious to hear what Sunia would say.

So Sunia told Margarite the whole story of her childhood and the horrifying bullying she had experienced as she moved from school to school in various parts of the world: ‘All the schools were different but the bullying was the same,’ she said sadly. ‘It only takes one bully and their pathetic followers to make the lives of their victims a misery. It’s no good trying to stand up to them. I tried that many times at first and always got beaten – sometimes psychologically, often physically. Bullies like to hurt people. I know now it’s because they feel inadequate. So a long time ago I worked out a survival strategy. If I could make them despise me as an inferior, they would leave me alone. At all the schools I made myself stupid, clumsy and pathetic and it worked. I survived! But unfortunately that became a way of life for me and I carried it with me after I had finished school. When I came here, you and Julian (I mean, HDC) were the authority figures here and I automatically wanted to establish myself as stupid and inadequate in your sight. If I made you believe that, you would leave me alone and not ask me to do difficult things that I would get wrong; because if I got things wrong, I would get punished – and that would hurt me, just like the bullying did. Do you see? It was just another application of the survival strategy.’

Margarite looked at this beautiful girl with sympathy, deeply aware that she had misjudged her: ‘Sunia, I think you are really brave and very clever to have worked all this out. But how were you able to overcome it with Alex?’

‘Margarite, I like Alex. He was always very nice to me, even when I was being stupid and pathetic. Recently, I suddenly realised that I didn’t need to make myself stupid to him. He was not an authority figure like you (sorry, Margarite!) and he was not going to bully me. So I thought if I could persuade him to put up with me tagging along behind him, I might learn something and become a little bit more useful in the Department. After a while, I began to realise I wasn’t so stupid and became a bit more confident. Alex is so nice to me. I really like him.’

Margarite smiled: ‘Well, I imagine that pleases him quite a lot.’

‘Do you really think so, Margarite? I want him to be pleased.’

Margarite smiled again: ‘What young man is going to object to a beautiful girl following him around, hanging on his every word?’ After a short pause, Margarite said: ‘Sunia, I was very surprised to hear you calling HDC “Julian”. No one in the General Office calls him by his first name.’

‘I’m very sorry about that, Margarite. I made a mistake. I hope I’m not going to get into trouble.’ Sunia looked very worried.

‘No, you’re not,’ Margarite said, ‘but why did you do it?’

Sunia looked uncomfortable: ‘He told me to call him Julian when we were together in his office. He told me not to do it anywhere else. But I made a mistake. I forgot. I knew I would.’ The girl was silent for a moment. ‘Margarite, I don’t like doing it. It doesn’t feel right. But he’s HDC and I felt I had to do as I was told.’

Margarite thought for a moment and then said somewhat hesitantly: ‘Sunia, was everything … all right … when you were alone with HDC in his office? I was always a bit worried about you.’

Sunia replied thoughtfully: ‘HDC was very nice to me. He was kind and I really appreciated that because, in my life, so many people have not been kind to me. He seemed to like me.’

‘What did you actually do, Sunia?’

‘Sometimes he gave me training on the computer terminal. Not the sort of training I need to do my DC job. Really it was training to do the job that he does. I thought that was a bit strange. At other times I sort of looked after him, got him coffee, ran errands for him. The best thing of all was delivering envelopes or folders to other people in the Firm. That made me feel quite important. There were also times when he was busy and I did nothing. I just sat there. It’s what he wanted me to do.’

‘So you were always very happy with HDC?’

‘Yes … in a way … But …’

‘What’s the “but”, Sunia?’

Sunia looked uncomfortable. ‘Well, I thought he touched me rather a lot – just on my hands and arms,’ she added hastily, thinking about the kiss he had insisted upon. After a moment, Sunia continued quietly: ‘But, Margarite, I’ve changed. I think it’s because I’m doing real DC work now. I don’t really want to work with HDC anymore. I just want to be one of the General Office staff. I just want to get better and better at my work.’