White Walker (4 page)

By the time Norman and Andrea reached the main
floor, a maze of cubicles with gray dividers sectioning off
individual cubby holes, each containing a small desk upon which sat
a computer and a telephone, the rest of those who had made it to
work were standing around Teddy in a loose group. With the addition
of Norman and Andrea, there were a total of ten people present, the
group evenly divided between male and female.

“It’s about time you two decided to join us,” Cody
said and Norman’s face immediately flushed with embarrassment as
the entire group turned to watch their approach. Self-consciously,
he released his hold on Andrea’s hand, not wanting to draw any more
undue attention to himself. He felt Andrea’s disappointment and
realized that he had already jeopardized their budding
relationship.

But he’d make it up to her, he promised himself.

“So were you two in the back making out?” Cody said.
Several of the members of the small group laughed nervously in
response. It was a knee-jerk reaction stemming more out of fear of
Cody and a desire to not make waves. They might have known Norman
better than Cody, but Cody had a reputation for being aggressive.
At a little over six foot tall he looked like he was all arms and
legs, skinny as a rail, but with a disposition that left many of
his co-workers a little afraid of him.

He was your typical twenty-two-year-old who had
discovered that it was legal to drink, but had yet to figure out
that getting drunk the night before he was scheduled to work was
not conducive to a productive day. He had been caught several times
napping at his desk, hung over from the night before, with an irate
customer being ignored on his phone. It was said he was on his last
warning. One more fuck up and he was out.

Yet it wasn’t his fault, not according to Cody; it
was always this guy, or that guy’s fault, old friends had shown up,
someone had been mean to him on the phone that day, one of his
co-workers had said something mean to him. He had not yet learned
to take responsibility for his own actions, so it wasn’t any wonder
he still hadn’t learned the art of discretionary behavior.

“I spoke with corporate just a little bit ago,”
Teddy said and the group tightened around him to hear what he had
to say. “They attempted to contact everyone to cancel work. Those
of you who are here missed the call for one reason or another.”
Several members of the group checked their cell phones for missed
calls.

“I didn’t get a call,” Jasmine said, looking up from
her cell phone.

“You were busy,” Cody said, pantomiming a sexual act
by moving his fist back and forth next to his mouth while he pushed
out the opposite cheek with his tongue.

“In your dreams, little boy,” Jasmine shot back.

“Watch your mouth, asshole,” David said as he
stepped forward.

“Hold it,” Teddy shouted as he held up his hand and
stepped between Cody and David. Turning to Cody, he said, “Remember
what we talked about.”

Cody immediately backed down, dropping his head and
stuffing his hands into his pockets.

“I didn’t get a call, either,” David said as he
stepped back to stand next to Jasmine. They were opposites in every
respect. Where Jasmine was dark and exotic, while David was blonde
with a fair complexion, and an open face that screamed momma’s boy.
They made an odd pair who were in an on and off relationship.
Currently it was on, the position of Jasmine’s arm around David’s
waist a strong indication of that fact. But that could change in an
instant.

Teddy shrugged. “Not much I can do about missed
calls. I’m just relaying what they told me. If anybody wants to
leave, you can without being charged a missed day, but since we’re
here we might as well work, give the road crews a chance to clean
up the mess outside. Corporate will route calls to us on an as
needed basis. I’ll take care of assigning each call as it
arrives.”

“What if the electric goes out?” Leslie asked. Short
and skinny with long brown hair, she had only been on the team for
a month, so she hadn’t had enough time to get to know everyone.

“We’ll deal with that when it happens,” Teddy
said.

All eyes looked up at the ceiling as thunder rumbled
from the sky beyond and the lights flickered momentarily.

“Good night to stay inside,” Kevin said. Several of
the others nodded in agreement. He was the oldest member of the
group, as well as the most dedicated, and had been working for the
company the longest. He was the friendly type, always asking how
everything was going as he exuded an aura of caring that went
beyond being a mere acquaintance.

A call center environment left little time for
personal interaction while on the job, unlike a production setting
where assembly line workers could communicate freely with one
another while they worked. The nature of the call center’s
business, interacting with assorted customers on the phone, left
little time for the employees to get to know one another unless
they did so outside of work.

As everyone moved to their respective workstations
in preparation for another day of work, the storm grew even
stronger. The wind howled with a fierce voice, pushing the sheets
of falling snow about like a swirling blanket, battering itself
against the walls of the building that housed the small group as
the depth of the snow on the roof increased with every passing
hour.

It never failed. Any time he had to work, someone
always showed up the night before and got him to drinking. Last
night it had been his cousin Stephanie and her new boyfriend,
Chuck. He’d promised himself after the last meeting he had with
Teddy that he wouldn’t do that anymore, that he’d not go out and
get drunk until he knew for sure he was off the following day. He’d
tried to beg off but Stephanie had persisted. They only had a few
more days before Chuck had to return to his unit and she wanted to
show him a good time.

As he made his way to his cubicle, the churning in
the pit of his stomach intensified. He was gonna hurl. His
breakfast was resting uneasily in the sea of vodka he’d dumped into
his gut the night before. He immediately made a u-turn and raced
from the main floor down the short hallway to the men’s room on the
right. He didn’t see the figure through the window, standing in the
snow on the bank behind the building, watching the building from
beneath the shadowy brow of his hat.

He saw nothing at all, focused as he was on the
burning at the back of his throat that told him if he didn’t hurry,
he was gonna make a mess. If he had updated his contact information
like he should have, he’d be lying in bed right now, nursing his
hangover instead of spending the morning digging out his truck so
he could come to work. Being on your last warning sucked. Being
hung over and on your last warning was even worse than that.

Reaching the stall, he dropped to his knees in front
of the toilet just as the first hot stream of vomit was ejected
from his mouth. It felt like his fucking guts were being sucked out
of him and he panted weakly between each bout.

“Are you okay?” a familiar voice asked from the
doorway. It was Judy.

Talk about jumping from the frying pan into the
fire. A couple of months earlier he and Judy had spent the night
together after she had gotten into an argument with Teddy. It was
one of those drunken evenings; he’d had nothing better to do, so
what more excuse did he need to go out and get drunk.

Judy had come to his apartment crying about the
argument she’d had with Teddy. Outwardly Cody had been sympathetic
to her problem. But that was only an act. He’d discovered over the
few short years he’d been living alone that girls on the rebound
from a bad relationship, or those who had just stormed out of their
boyfriend’s after an argument, were the easiest to get into bed.
Judy had been no different.

After a few
I understands
, and
that
bastard
, mixed in with a healthy dose of vodka in a glass of
orange juice, Judy’s defenses had come down and she spent the
night.

“I’ll be all right,” he said between dry heaves. He
was pretty sure he’d just cleaned his system out. He’d recognized
the two sausage biscuits he’d had that morning, as well as the
chili he’d eaten the night before. His mom had stopped by for a
visit, and that had primed him for a night of drinking. So it
hadn’t been too hard for Stephanie to convince him to show them the
nightlife.

Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he
crossed to the row of sinks on the opposite wall. After splashing
some cold water on his face, he looked at Judy. “Does he know?”

“I haven’t told him yet,” she said.

“Why?” Cody splashed some more cold water on his
face.

“It just hasn’t come up yet.”

“What? You have to wait for it to come up? You can’t
just tell him?”

“It’s complicated.”

“No shit. Does he know what happened?”

“Are you still working here?”

“Good point. But you need to tell him, the sooner
the better.”

“But what if he gets mad?”

“Don’t tell him everything. You’ve been fucking him,
right?” She nodded. “Then he doesn’t need to know what happened
between us.”

“But what if it looks like you?”

“That doesn’t mean a damn thing. I don’t know how
you women can tell the difference anyway. A baby is a baby.”

“I’ll know.”

“Then you’re gonna have to leave him.”

“But I don’t want to. I love him.”

“That’s not what you said two months ago.”

“That was then, this is now.”

Cody approached Judy and placed his hands on her
shoulders. “I understand. I might be a drunken ass half the
time.”

“Only half the time?”

“Funny. But I do know this. He’s the best thing in
the world for you and your baby right now. He has a future. What do
I have? I’m a drunk on his last warning. I seriously doubt I’ll
make it past the end of this month.”

“But what if he finds out?”

“Who’s gonna tell him?”

Judy shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“I’m not gonna say anything, so your secret is safe
with me. The only other person who knows is you.”

“Knows what?” Teddy asked from the doorway. “And
what are you doing in the ladies’ room, Cody?”

Cody looked around at the row of stalls along the
wall, sinks opposite, each with a mirror above. There were no
urinals.
Of course not, dumb ass, this was the ladies room
.
In his haste to make it to the bathroom he’d gone through the wrong
door.

“I’m sorry, had to puke, couldn’t make it to the
men’s room.”

“Well, you better clear out. Calls are starting to
come in so I’ll need you in the rotation.”

“Right,” Cody said before exiting the bathroom.

Teddy waited for the door to close before he turned
to Judy. “We’ve gotta talk.”

“I’ve been trying to talk to you for the past
week.”

The door swung open and Liz walked in. She was a
tall redhead with a
who gives a shit
attitude.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize there was a meeting
planned for in here. Do you mind if I use the facilities?”

“Yeah, sorry, go ahead,” Teddy said before he turned
to Judy. “Let’s talk in the break room.”

Judy followed Teddy into the hall where he stopped
and turned to confront her.

“What was all that about back there?” he said.

“What?”

“You and Cody? What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” she said as she shook her head. “I had to
go, he was in one of the stalls sick. I asked him if he was all
right.”

“You’re sure? He’s not bothering you or anything, is
he?”

“No, of course not. I just asked if he was
okay.”

Teddy looked at her for a moment, as if he were
deciding whether he should believer her or pursue the issue
further. “What did he mean by the only other person who knows is
you?”

Judy shrugged as she looked around to make sure no
one else was within earshot. “He and Liz are seeing one another,”
she whispered in a conspiratorial tone as she leaned in close.
“They don’t want anyone else to know.”

“Is that all?”

“That’s everything. He doesn’t want Liz to get into
any trouble because of his own problems.”

“I thought it was something else.”

“What? Did you think it had something to do between
him and me?”

“No, nothing like that.”

“Are you jealous?”

“No, not at all. I mean he’s a fun guy, right? Me,
I’m an old stick in the mud.”

“He’s fun only if you like waking up with a hangover
every morning.”

“Are you sure there’s nothing else?”

“Absolutely,” she said with a smile, even though it
pained her to lie to Teddy like she was. She wasn’t ready yet to
share her news.

“Come on, let’s sit down and talk,” Teddy said,
motioning for her to follow him.

As Judy followed Teddy into the break room she knew
all too well what he wanted to talk to her about. She had known for
quite some time that it would come to this. Changes were afoot, not
only in her life, but in her body, and her emotions were like a
roller coaster running at top speed, threatening to derail at the
next turn.

I will not cry
, she promised herself,
at
least not in front of him.

They had been together for a little more than a year
and over that time she had come to love him. She honestly enjoyed
having him in her life. In fact she had been looking forward to
spending the rest of her life at his side. Fantasizing about
getting married and raising a family with him. A young boy and girl
inhabited her dreams, brother and sister, the brother older, of
course, to protect his younger sister.

Like Teddy she had been an only child growing up and
didn’t want to subject any child of her own to the life of
loneliness an only child endured. Unlike Teddy, her parents had
been a constant part of her life. They still lived in the house she
grew up in and she promised herself she would visit them this
weekend. Soon she would have to give them the news and she was
worried about how they would react. At least they liked Teddy. Or
they had the couple of times they’d had dinner with them.