A Baker's Dozen...

"Larry has been absorbed, as he wished, into that tumultuous conglomeration of humanity, distracted by so many conflicting interests, so lost in the world's confusion, so wishful of good, so cocksure on the outside, so diffident within, so kind, so hard, so trustful, and so cagey, so mean and so generous, which is the people of the United States." - from The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham *

In number there were a baker's dozen of us. We were all women, but that's pretty much the only commonality. Some had just obtained their high school diplomas, while others were worldly businesswomen in their mid-50's. Some of their bellies hung out, some of their tits hung out, some were so covered-up that they looked like schoolmarms.

One came in late and made me cry.

Sue-Ellen** was escorted into the conference room thirty minutes late, claiming she had gotten lost on the way - valid, considering this was the first day on the job. When it was Sue-Ellen's turn to introduce herself, she burst out in tears - her partner died a little while back and she could not run the business alone. Confounding all this was her mother's passing a few months ago. Sue-Ellen's tears became my tears and I took the pooled water away from my eyes with bare hands. Telepathy, or some sort of connection, if you will. Another woman, one of the schoolmarm variety, said, "We all have mothers and we understand why you're crying." I loved that. That was cool.

Sue-Ellen could not read the script we were given and I attributed her poor performance to sadness and I wanted her to make it to day two. I would give her a chance.

I read this way and that way for this person and that person, knowing that I'd have to sound like I could turn a profit. I passed. I made it to day two.

Sue-Ellen did not; she got the boot for causing the women on either side of her to become dizzy from inhaling the alcohol which seeped from her mouth and pores.

*Thanks to Maeve for recommending the past two novels I have written about :)

**Names have been changed to protect the identity of persons depicted in this narrative. It's so widely-read that I fear for her well-being.