In Only The first Four Hours Of The Day

I had to give her credit, she did seem to be willing to earn the rent reduction, but my first hint that this wasn’t going to work out was when Miss Carver told me that she had a slight problem with turning on the computer monitor. I just thought that she probably left her monitor on, where I wanted then turned off nightly.

I went around her desk and at first just saw a dark screen. So I bent down and felt for the power button under the right hand corner. One press later the monitor turned on and Miss Carver started clapping. When she stopped I started explaining her duties.

“So it’s one of the most basic jobs here, when the phone rings you answer it and if the person on the other end wants an appointment you look on the schedule page to see when I’m available!” I showed her how to bring the schedule page up. Wrote a fake appointment that I
erased afterwards and turned the receptionist role over to her.

Everything seemed to go well for the first two and a half hours. Robin handled a few calls, made a few appointments for next week and most importantly didn’t seem to mind getting me a cup of coffee when I asked her to. At a quarter to twelve I told her she could take her lunch since that was my most idle time. She went and came back in forty-five minutes, so I took my lunch. Leaving the office in what I thought were capable hands.

I was just finishing my sandwich and fries at the local deli when my phone went off. Robin was calling and talking so fast that I had a hard time understanding her.

“Miss Carver…!, Miss Carver….!” Then I screamed into my phone that I swear everyone between
here and the border could clearly hear me. “ROBIN, CALM DOWN, I’M ON MY WAY BACK!”

I cleaned up my mess then started back thinking that what could she possibly do that I couldn’t correct. I should have figured out it was something serious when I got to the building and found the fire department, a few police officers and the building manager all standing just passed the elevator on my floor. I came out as if nothing was really wrong when the building manager spotted me.

“Mr. Cartier, I have no idea who you have working for you as a receptionist but somehow she reported a fire in your office that has knocked out every computer building wide!”

“Is it safe to enter my office?”

“Yes, the firemen are just waiting for their captain to declare the fire out and the police are here just to calmly escort people off the floor, but your receptionist is still in your office!”

I moved around him and went into my office where the scent of smoke was still hanging in the air. The inner door to my private office was just hanging by one hinge, clear signs of repeated blows from an axe very visible. And there she was standing there with shock on her face biting her left fist as I approached her.

“Miss Carver just what the hell happened here?”