White Walker (2 page)

An office romance between co-workers was one thing.
But a romance between a manager and a member of his team was
strictly forbidden. There were no two ways about it. He had worked
too hard and too long to get where he was to throw it all away over
a woman. She would have to quit her job or they would have to quit
seeing one another.

“Have you ever thought about what it would be like
to get married, settle down, and have a family?” Judy asked as she
kept her gaze fixed straight ahead.

“Sure, but that’s in the future.”

Judy sighed.

“What is wrong with you today? You have been like
this all week.”

“I’m late!”

Teddy glanced at his watch and noted that they still
had fifteen minutes before the shift started.

“We’ve got plenty of time yet.”

“You’re such an idiot,” she said as she flung open
her door and slipped down from the cab. He felt like he had just
missed some important clue and he watched her cross the parking lot
to the front door of the building. As she crossed the lot he became
aware of several small snow devils, miniature whirlwinds of snow
that seemed to move with a sentient purpose, swirling behind her.
When she slipped inside they dissipated, collapsing into the
swirling sheets of snow that danced before him.

Shutting off his truck, he followed her. His uncle
had always said women were nearly impossible to comprehend, an
observation Teddy was slowly coming to appreciate.

With his head down, and his hands stuffed into the
pockets of his heavy coat, he ran across the lot towards the front
door of the building that housed the call center. Reaching the
sidewalk that ran the length of the front, stopped and turned to
look back at the sheets of falling snow. The wind whipped the
snowflakes to and fro, shifting direction almost instantly. A
rhythmic display that reminded him of a flock of birds gathering to
head south for the winter and how they flew as a group with one
mind. Twisting and turning in an instinctive dance as they prepared
for their long journey to warmer climes. Once again he spotted
three swirling snow devils that skittered back and forth to his
right, weaving in and out of one another’s path.

He was mesmerized by the almost hypnotic precision
as the snow swirled around him, taking on a life of its own. Slowly
he became aware of a pattern. The snowflakes were no longer
aimlessly darting back and forth as they were driven about by the
shifting wind. They all began flowing in one direction, following a
clockwise pattern as they were drawn into a vortex swirling around
a very tight axis that slowly formed a snowy funnel.

The swirling column of snow measured a mere five
feet across at its widest point, narrowing to a tip that danced
across the surface of the ground as the body of the vortex
undulated above it like a snake. It grew taller, taking on
substance and form, towering above him. Teddy was forced to tilt
his head back as far as he could in order to watch as the funnel
rose towards the muted sky above.

His earlier feelings of unease returned, stronger
than before. While fascinating to watch, the action of the snow had
an unsettled effect on him. A moaning cry drew his attention and he
looked up to see the wide mouth of the funnel as its body nearly
doubled over upon itself, and the black eye at the center of the
funnel gazed down upon him. It was an image he was familiar with.
One he had seen before in the past. Then it came to him: the
sandworms from the movie
Dune
.

Teddy turned and swiped his id card through the
reader next to the door. After the beep signaling that the door was
unlocked, he yanked it open as that inhuman roar reached a
crescendo, filling the world around him with a shrieking cry of
agonized anger as he slipped into the safety of the building. He
stood at the door for a moment, watching the storm, that towering
funnel having dissipated, and then he turned to vanish into the
building’s depths.

Teddy sat on the edge of his seat as he waited for
Marie, the general manager, to return to her sparsely furnished
office. Aside from a desk whose surface was neat and tidy, the only
other piece of furniture was a narrow bookcase beneath several
framed diplomas occupying the wall to his right. The bookcase
contained, from what he could see without being too obvious,
several first editions of some well known classics. A reader
himself, his curiosity as to their authenticity was stirred. But
that wasn’t why he was here. In his various dealings with Marie she
had never struck him as someone willing to strike up a conversation
over anything outside of work.

Behind the desk was a window and his gaze kept being
drawn to the storm outside as the sound of the wind battering
itself against the wall filled the office with a low roar. He
shuddered when a swirling snow devil danced across the width of the
window. He felt a chill as an errant breeze wafted through the
office. He’d rather be at home with his feet up, safely encased in
his apartment, yet his responsibility as a supervisor had forced
him to be here.

His job was his responsibility; he’d made a promise,
not only to his employer, but also to Judy, the only real family he
had. He knew to get ahead you had to exchange a portion of your
life for the means to provide for your loved ones. To give them a
sense of security. But sometimes the line between your job and your
life became blurred, as it had for his mother and father. A pair of
workaholics whose greatest contribution to the world was their
eagerness to put aside promises made to family to fulfill the needs
of their employer.

His childhood had been one of constant
disappointment. Family vacations promised yet never taken. His
daily needs entrusted to a parade of strangers as both of his
parents worked towards their own success. Never once considering
that to Teddy their presence in his life would have meant more than
all the toys in the world.

He’d never lacked for anything, and always had the
latest and the best toys, making his friends jealous. But they had
something he would never know. They had known the loving touch of a
father’s hand, the caress of a mother’s lips upon his cheek, a cool
hand on his fevered brow. His parents were at work when he woke up
in the morning, and still away when he went to sleep. Several times
he had tried to wait up for them, only to fall asleep on the couch
long before they arrived.

When he was twelve, the two strangers that were his
parents died in an accident and the money they had given up their
lives to put back for his future was siphoned off by a succession
of semi-relatives who crawled out of the woodwork after their
deaths. From the so-called aunt in Arlington, Texas who insisted
that he come live with her, to his father’s half-brother who didn’t
even try to hide the fact that he was pulling one over on Teddy’s
dead parents. Each in their turn fed at the trough of a trust fund
that was supposed to protect the money. Only it didn’t. It had been
put together by the relative of a friend of a friend who didn’t
really know what he was doing. But the price had been right.

That had been his parents’ biggest flaw. When it
came to Teddy himself they spared no expense, but in every other
aspect of their lives they always went with the lowest bidder.

At eighteen, broke and alone, he promised himself he
would not be like his parents. That he would cherish those closest
to him. From this desire he’d developed a simple plan. Spend the
first ten years of his working life dedicated to only the job. No
personal life, no emotional attachments outside of work, nothing
but a worker drone programmed to serve. Save every penny he could
with an eye towards an early retirement that would give him the
means to build a real family.

But as the saying went.
The best laid plans of
mice and men often go awry.
Judy had proven to be the
proverbial monkey wrench thrown into his works. They had been
together for a little more than a year now, and even though they
did everything they could to keep their relationship under wraps,
word had leaked to their teammates.

“Sorry about that, Ted,” Marie said as she lumbered
into her office. He pushed himself to his feet. Marie was a big
woman, nearly six foot tall, thick, big-boned, what many would have
referred to as farm-bred. The sheer weight of her responsibility
was etched in the severe lines that creased her face. She handed
him a slip of paper that contained fifteen names.

“We need contact information updated today for the
people on that list.”

“If anyone else shows up, do you want me to send
them home?” Teddy said.

“I’ve thought about that, but if they’re already
here we might as well get some work out of them. In the future,
though, I’d rather not open the center for such a small group. Just
the cost of having the lights on can’t be offset by anything they
accomplish. Not to mention the need to reroute a steady flow of
work from our other centers.” That was Marie, all business.

“Will you be staying?”

“I’ve got a few reports to finish, then I’m going
home. My husband will be here to pick me up shortly.”

Teddy was surprised to learn Marie had a husband.
There had been speculation as to her sexual preference when she
first arrived and she did nothing to dispel any of the rumors that
had a tendency to circulate in such a situation.

“Then I’ll get with whoever is here to set up for
the night,” Teddy said as he turned to leave.

“Not so fast. There’s one final matter we need to
discuss.” Marie pulled out her chair and sat down, the chair
creaking in protest.

Teddy’s heart sank. He knew what was coming and had
been trying to avoid this topic for several days now. But he also
knew they’d eventually catch up with him.

“What would that be?” he asked, purposefully playing
dumb.

Marie shook her head with a slight smile that seemed
out of place on her face. “Before I took my position here, I
supervised a team at the Dallas center. Just like you, I worked my
way up through the ranks and when I first assumed my duties as a
supervisor, my boyfriend at the time worked on the same team that I
was taking over.

I was in the same position you find yourself in
right now. It’s no secret you and Judy are an item. I’m sure you
are familiar with the company’s policy on fraternization. It used
to be we could just transfer her to a different team and it
wouldn’t be a problem, but corporate has been cracking down lately
and to be perfectly honest I am not going to jeopardize my own
career for anyone else.”

“I’ll talk to her today.”

“When I return to work I expect either yours or her
resignation on my desk. I like you, Ted, I feel you’re going to
make a great supervisor, but I will replace you with the next in
line if you can’t do what needs to be done.”

Until this moment no one he had spoken to, or
interviewed with, had been quite this blunt about what needed to be
done. Everyone knew about him and Judy, and even though they had
tried to keep their relationship under wraps, it had never been a
real secret they were together. Even with all that in mind, his
anger was stirred by Marie’s frank statement.

Of course I understand what has to be done. But
would it hurt to give her a little more notice?
His response
remained unspoken. A part of him wanted to stand up right then and
hand that cold bitch the keys to the building and walk out. Instead
he nodded his understanding and pushed himself to his feet.

Sometimes you did what you had to, not what you
wanted.

“I know how you feel, Ted. I had to go through the
same thing.”

Ted simply nodded, thinking to himself that she
couldn’t possibly know what he was going through right now.

“Will there be anything else?”

“That about covers it,” Marie said, dismissing Teddy
by opening the file folder on her desk. He stood over her for a
moment more, unacknowledged by Marie who focused on the papers
lying in front of her, and then he spun around on his heel and left
her office.

As Teddy left Marie’s office, Walter, her husband,
pulled into the call center parking lot. The wind screamed around
the Ford F-350 super duty, rocking it from side to side, as he
carefully guided the truck through the snow piling up around him.
He didn’t really like driving this beast of a truck but was
comforted by its ability to plow through even the highest
snowdrifts he had so far encountered. He would have preferred his
Altima, but knew it would never have gotten him as far as Marie’s
truck had. And she was counting on him to pick her up so she
wouldn’t be stuck at work.

They had been together for over ten years now,
having met at a call center in Dallas where Walter had been a
supervisor. But that job hadn’t lasted too long, not after he met
Marie, who had been brought in to turn that particular center
around and make it profitable once again. At the time he had been
seeing a young girl who worked on a different team, but when Marie
arrived, it was love at first sight.

Wrapped in the warm interior of the truck as the
storm raged outside, with Metallica on the radio, he pulled up to
the front door as Marie darted out and came around to the driver’s
side.

“I’ll drive,” Marie said as she opened the door.
Walter was more than willing to comply and slid from behind the
wheel, climbing over the console between the seats to settle into
the passenger seat as Marie got in behind the wheel.

“Did you have any trouble getting here?” Marie
said.

“Are you kidding? With this tank?” Walter said as he
leaned across the console to give Marie a small peck on the cheek.
“I made lasagna this morning. I know how much you like it.”

“You’re too good for me,” Marie said as she dropped
the shift lever into drive and eased away from the curb.