by Dave Conifer
“Who’s that? Oh, you mean that man who lives in the same house with me? He doesn’t say much at all about anything. Anything except work, that is. I haven’t brought any of this up with him.”
“Probably better that way. You think too much.”
“And he hates the caveman. I mean Mr. Manteo. Or Rob, whatever. Although if he had it his way we’d hire him permanently anyway because he works so cheap.”
“We should go out again,” Kristie suggested. “The four of us. Sounds like you could use it.”
“I could go for that. Steve sure could use a night out,” Jane said. “He’s getting hammered at work again. He thought everything was under control but the project he’s running started springing leaks and he’s getting into trouble for it.”
~~~
Steve looked up just as Cindy appeared in the doorway. “I heard you were looking for me,” his top programmer told him.
“Yeah. Come on in, and shove that door closed, will you?”
“What’s up?” she asked after closing the door and perching on the corner of his desk. “You look like you haven’t slept in weeks.”
“Jaishri wants a fresh set of Napa tables by close of business but I don’t think we’re going to make it. My programs don’t run. None of them.”
“I thought you had it all fixed up already. Isn’t that what you were working on last week?”
“That’s just it. After you called me I thought I had them straightened out. They were running. But all of a sudden four or five programs are bombing again. And the ones bombing are all mine. The rest are fine. I was up all night at home working on it. Every time I thought I had them fixed I found something different. It was like a chain reaction. When I fixed one thing it exposed another problem. I quit at about three-thirty because there just didn’t seem to be any hope. I checked just now and they’re still bombing out. I can’t understand what the hell’s going on. They’re all my programs.”
“Too bad. Nobody to yell at.”
“This is serious, Cindy. I’m fucked if I can’t get these tables to Jaishri today, but there’s no way I can debug all these programs in time.”
“Who said it isn’t serious? Maybe I can help.”
“I was going to ask you to. Whatever you’re working on, just drop it for now,” he told her.
“So what’s different all of a sudden? Did you get new data? Maybe there’s something coming down the pike in the data that the programs didn’t expect.”
“Maybe, but I doubt it,” Steve countered. “I copied these from old studies. These programs are tried and true. They’ve seen it all by now. There shouldn’t be anything they can’t handle here.”
“That’s the first thing I’ll check anyway,” Cindy said. “You never know.”
“You’re right about the data. We did just get a shitload. They loaded it last night. Maybe that’s it. I hope so, I guess.”
“Do you have a list of programs and outputs for me?”
He shoved a dog-eared printout at her. “The ones with the check marks are okay. The rest of them are crashing.”
She studied the printout and looked up. “There aren’t many check marks, boss.”
“I know. Fuck!” He picked up a coffee mug and pumped it like he was about to throw it at the wall but changed his mind before letting go. “Fuck!”
“It’ll be okay. It’s probably the same problem that’s screwing them all up. As soon as we find it they’ll all run.”
“If it was that easy I’d have found it already. It seems like these are living, breathing errors that know how to hide. Then they pop out when I think it’s fixed. I’m fucked.”
“When did this start? This morning?”
“A few days ago. Maybe a week.”
“So maybe it’s not just the new data,” Cindy said.
“I know. That’s what scares me. What do you think will happen? You’ve been here longer than I have, Cindy.”
“Says the guy who blew right past me on the org chart two years ago.”
“Am I in trouble if this doesn’t get fixed?”
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” she told him. “You might have a bad week. Then it’ll get fixed one way or another and everybody will forget about it. You might get a slap on the wrist, is all. Whatever they do, they won’t fire you. Just take whatever comes like a man and don’t complain and everybody’ll forget about it.”
~~~
“Damnit, Allie, stop playing and eat your goddamned dinner!” Steve shouted after watching Allie push a pile of carrots back and forth across her plate with a spoon. Allie burst into tears, climbed out of her chair and buried her face in her mother’s lap.
“It’s okay,” Jane mouthed at Steve as she stroked Allie’s hair.
“No it’s not!” Steve shot back. “She’s too old for this!” He slammed his fork onto his plate and stomped out of the room. “How’s it going?” Jane heard him ask Manteo as he passed. She couldn’t hear the answer but she already knew Manteo would be finishing the foyer job before he left that night. She wondered if Steve had forgotten he was out there.
Jane stacked the dirty dishes to carry over to the sink. “Sit down and eat some carrots while I start the dishes,” she told Allie. “Just a few bites. It won’t hurt.”
Allie grabbed onto Jane’s leg instead. Just then Manteo walked in. “Eat up those carrots, honey,” he said. “Just like your mom said. You don’t want to make them feel sad, do you? Carrots have feelings, you know.”
Allie smiled at him through her tears as she returned to her chair and picked up her spoon.
“Thanks,” Jane said.
“Floor’s done. I’ll pack my tools and head out now.”
“I hate to tell you this, Mr. Manteo, but I’m afraid we don’t have your money. Steve’s having a hard time at work and he didn’t have time to stop off on the way home.”
His expression didn’t change. “No matter. I still gotta’ finish the deck,” he said. “I’ll get it then.” He paused. “I could tell something ain’t right with him.”
“You mean with my husband?”
“Yup.”
“He’s having a lot of trouble at work. That makes things pretty miserable around here.”
“Pay me whenever you can,” he told her.
“Thanks, Mr. Manteo.”
“Rob.”
“I don’t know if I can get used to that.”
“What about paintin’ the rooms? Do you still want a price on that?”
“I’ll make sure Steve’s still on board and tell you next time I see you. I’m thinking yes.”
“Okay, Miss Hav’lock. I’ll pack up and see myself out.”
“Rob?”
“Yeah?”
“Call me Jane.”
~~~
“Rob? Call me Jane,” Steve mimicked later as they were undressing for bed. “What the hell’s going on here? I’m about to get crucified at work, life’s going down the shitter but you’re making nice with the ape who sanded the deck?”
“What’s so bad about being nice to him? It’s the least I can do. Didn’t you say yourself that he’s practically working for free?”
“Whatever. You treat him better than you treat me. It just pisses me off. I’m dying here. Can’t you give me a little support?”
“I try but whenever I do you just snap at me.”
He sighed as he threw himself onto the bed. Nobody spoke for a few minutes as Jane put on pajamas and prepared to go to sleep. She knew there was nothing she could say to help.
“I’m sorry for what I said,” he told her after the lights were out. “I shouldn’t take it out on you.”
“It’s all right,” she said, rolling over and laying her hand softly on his cheek. “I know what you’re going through. It’s Allie that I worry about. She takes it pretty hard when you yell at her.”
“I’ll make it up to her. Probably not tomorrow, though. I have a feeling Mr. Ramos will call me into his office first thing in the morning and
it isn’t going to be pretty.”
“I wish I could help.”
“I know. It’ll be fine. But I might end up working alongside the caveman pretty soon the way things are going lately.”
~~~
The next morning Steve’s boss did just what Steve had predicted. Javier Ramos was in charge of all cardiovascular drug projects at Regal and he had the job because he was good at making the proverbial trains run on time. When statistician Jaishri Mehta had reluctantly reported to him that she hadn’t received all the Napagliptin materials soon enough to meet the FDA deadline, everybody knew there was going to be hell to pay. Steve hadn’t even booted up his computer in his office when he was summoned by Ramos’s administrative assistant.
“I’m not going to mince words,” he said, speaking with the clipped accent of somebody who’d grown up in Puerto Rico before moving to the mainland. “I understand that the Napa team didn’t deliver the adverse event tables yesterday. You’re in charge of programming on that team. What happened? Who didn’t get this done?”
“It’s a long story. They were actually my programs that held us back. I had them all set but yesterday they wouldn’t run. We’re still checking it out. I wish I had a better answer.”
“You? Why are you writing programs?” Ramos demanded.
“We were shorthanded. I decided I could just use my programs from another study since all the AE work is the same. I’ll get them straightened out today. I’m sure it’s something simple.”
“Even then it’s too late for this shipment. We told the FDA they’d get them by lunchtime and we’re going to ship whatever is done. Even that is later than they wanted it. I’ll have to smooth this over with them.”
“I’m sorry about that. It’s completely my fault.”
“I’m getting that impression. We’re running out of time here. I’m going to have Ming Li get involved in fixing these programs. Send Ming all the program names as soon as you get back to your desk and copy me on all your communications between the two of you. And make sure you’re available any time for any questions. We’re relying on Ming to get this fixed by the end of the day. If that happens I’ll call the FDA people and get down on my knees.”
“Yes sir,” Steve answered. He cleared his throat. “I know I already said it but I’m sorry I let everybody down. I just wish I knew what happened.”
~~~
Manteo finished sanding the deck the next afternoon. He was swabbing it clean with a mop when Jane arrived. This time she went straight into the house without stopping to talk. Steve had texted her at work several times to tell her it was going badly, even worse than expected, but she’d been too busy to answer. She wanted to get inside and check for any more messages and then call him back. When she saw there were no more texts, and he didn’t answer his phone, she typed up a new text and sent it so he’d know she was thinking about him. By the time that was done she was late for picking up Allie at the day care. When she was home again, Manteo had a paint roller in his hand and looked like he was ready to begin staining.
“Did you start yet?” she called to him.
“Just about to,” he yelled back.
“Perfect timing! I picked up lunch. Are you hungry? Want to eat first?”
He leaned the roller against the side of the house and walked over to the patio table, which he’d moved from the deck to the lawn earlier. Allie was already devouring her chicken nuggets but she looked up with a ketchup-smeared face and smiled, wide enough for everyone to see that she hadn’t swallowed yet. “Looks like Chipper’s again,” he observed.
“I got you a salad and an ice water,” Jane said. “Just like last time. I hope that’s okay.”
He nodded and sat down. “Did you get another car, Allie?” he asked. Jane noted that this was the first time he’d called her by name.
“The same one,” she said, not hiding her disappointment. “I wanted the tiger.”
“Next week,” Jane explained with a shrug. Manteo grunted as he pulled the lid from his salad as carefully as he had done at Chipper’s. “I thought we better keep you fed so you’ll keep coming back.”
“That’s my problem, not yours,” he said.
“I tried to drop some lunch off for Steve at work but nobody could find him. He’s having a terrible day. I feel so bad for him.”
“What happened?”
“Well, he writes computer programs. They’re really complicated. The ones he fixed just last week stopped working yesterday. Or something like that. He couldn’t figure out why. They worked fine until then and nothing changed.”
“I’d rather work with my hands.”
“He got reamed out this morning and his boss brought somebody else in to clean up the mess. She found it pretty quick. Steve said they weren’t exactly errors, whatever that means. That’s why he couldn’t find it last night. But it was just that parts of it didn’t do what it was supposed to. He’s been getting yelled at all day for it and he has no idea why he ever wrote it that way in the first place.”
“Mommy, can I be done?” Allie asked.
“You didn’t even eat your fries,” Jane scolded.
“Better off not eating those anyway,” Manteo said.
“About six or seven of his programs had the same problems. At least he was consistent. Sorry, I know I’m rambling. I hardly understand what he does at all. It must be complete gibberish to you.”
“Hmm,” was all he said as he stabbed at a cherry tomato with the plastic fork. After three tries he picked it up with his fingers and popped it into his mouth.
“So when do you find time to go to the gym?” she asked. “And how do you have the energy?”
“I make time,” he said as he crunched on his salad.
“You’re so big. Do you take anything?”
“Maybe,” he allowed.
“I kind of suspected,” she said. “You are so big. But why? Why risk your health? I mean, are you doing anything risky?” When he clenched his jaw without answering she quickly added “I know it’s not my business. Sorry for prying. I keep doing that with you.”
He shrugged as he finished chewing. “I just don’t want to talk about it right now.” He finished his lunch with three hardy scoops and dropped the fork onto the tray. “I do it because I have to keep a promise,” he said as he reached for the soda she’d plunked down at his elbow.
“But who would make you promise to do something dangerous? What are you taking?”
“Thanks for lunch.” He walked back to the deck, poured stain from a plastic jug into a tray and started rolling it onto the deck without so much as a glance her way. More and more she understood him less and less.
Chapter 5
After sending the information to Ming Li as soon as Ramos was done with him, Steve sat at his desk all that day doing nothing except watch for phone calls and emails. He didn’t know Li well enough to call and volunteer to help. In fact, he didn’t even know if Li was a man or a woman. All he knew was that he or she was at least two levels below him on the org chart. It burned him up that Ramos had him reporting to a subordinate.
Throughout the morning he texted Jane at work, explaining what he was going through, but she never replied. Phone calls and emails to Cindy, who might be able to shed some light on what was happening, also went unanswered. Too upset for anything else, he spent his lunch hour wandering around the lush Regal Pharmaceutical campus with his hands in his pockets. When his phone warbled and vibrated he yanked it out of his pocket, only to find a bland “Hope things get better” text from his wife.
On the way back to his office he swung by Cindy’s cubicle but nothing was going on there except for the Regal screensaver on her computer. The phone mail light on her phone was flickering. Was that his? He’d left that message almost four hours ago.
There were no messages of any sort waiting at his desk either. He flipped through the paperwork for the next studies that he would assign teams to, but every fifteen seconds or so his eyes made a circuit tour
of his phone, his doorway and the email box on his computer screen.
~~~
When Jane and Allie returned from running errands it was after three. Manteo’s truck was still parked on the street so they knew he hadn’t finished the deck yet. They settled into their afternoon routines a few hours later than usual. Allie pulled out a box of crayons and a stack of scrap paper and got busy. Jane logged onto Facebook and caught up with her friends. She laughed at the pictures Valerie Durham had posted of Steve and Eddie clowning around on the karaoke stage the last time they’d gone out together. She called Allie over to see. “Daddy’s smiling!” she said. “Yay!”
“Yeah,” Jane answered. “That’s nice, isn’t it? We have to do that again sometime. Soon.”
Both returned to what they’d been doing and were quietly absorbed in their own worlds until Jane remembered Manteo and looked up from the screen. He’d probably been working for hours without any downtime. Thinking he might need a break, Jane grabbed a cold Mountain Dew and headed out the back door, with Allie close behind. Several cans of stain and a wet roller were there but Manteo wasn’t. “Maybe he needed something from his truck,” she told her daughter. “Let’s look out front.”
As soon as they reached the driveway she saw Manteo in the passenger seat of his truck. For all I know he was there when we pulled in, she thought. “There he is!” Allie squealed. Without waiting for her mother she ran ahead but stopped before she reached the truck. That’s when Jane heard it. Allie must have heard it too.
Manteo, still as a statue, was shrieking at the top of his lungs. The closed windows muffled the agonizing cries, giving them an eerie, distant sound. When she came closer she could see his jaw muscles working with each scream so there was no doubt where it was coming from. Allie turned and ran back toward Jane as the awful sounds continued. When he began slamming his fists on the dashboard Jane had seen enough.
“Go inside, Allie,” Jane commanded between screams. “Go inside right now and close the door.” Allie didn’t need to be told again. With her face contorted and obviously on the verge of tears she put her head down and marched to the house without even looking at her mother. Jane waited until Allie was safely inside before deciding what to do. By then the screams had turned to deep moans but still Manteo didn’t move.