The unthinkable had happened.
I was in the Tashman Technologies conference room with CEO, Byrdman, and Christina. CEO delivered the bad news to Byrdman- that due to budget cuts, he had to be let go. Byrdman got red in the face, but he somehow took the news well. I was sitting next to him, and felt his pain on the inside, it was of shock and betrayal, after all CEO and Byrdman truly are best friends.
Byrdman made a comment about the recent death of Bernie, one of our teleporter operators. [In real life, Bernie was a family friend that died last Saturday.] For some reason, Byrdman implied Christina was at fault because Bernie’s production was not replaced. So CEO fired Christina, too.
There was shock and tension in the air. My first thought: I could understand CEO firing technical workers, indexers, operators, qualified personnel, or middle management, but to fire two members of his inner circle clique is beyond anything rational. He trusts them with his life.
Moving on, everyone’s responsibilities increased, Ramalani and Charlie Brown remained, and Big D was now helping me with client quotes.
I was at a school cafeteria with Charlie Brown, Ramalani, and CEO, eating hot lunch. There were elementary school kids running around. CEO opened a clothes gift box and threw me a pink polo shirt, and said, “Here ya go, kid. I don’t want you running off, I’m losing everybody.” I just kind of looked at the shirt, and froze. “Well, whatever you need, I’ll give you,” he assured me. I felt shocked that he finally realized I was valuable.
I was in a Ruby Tuesday’s men’s restroom when Big D and M & M walked in. Big D was asking me about a quote she just gave, and I knew it was wrong, but she didn’t want to hear it. So instead, I humored her. She was telling me she had problems with Excel.
I drove back to work (my mother was in the car) and I was trying to explain to her the events of Byrdman and Christina’s shocking dismissal, and how it tied into Bernie’s death. [I spent hours going from dream to dream trying to save the answer in my brain, but the truth didn't stay with me when I woke up.]
When I got to the office, Big D was panicking, as usual. CEO also disagreed with her quote, and doubled it. My Excel wasn’t working, so Son of Thor came and fixed my network connection. Son of Thor also gave me a dirty look and made a cold comment to me because he didn’t know my password to log in my computer, and as IT he looked embarrassed in front of Big D’s female customer who was in my office.
In other news, Christina was trying to make a comeback….
