by Amalie Coles
Chapter 3
Asking for four weeks off less than two months before my trip wouldn’t be easy. Yet I had to stay positive to remain sane. So I woke up the following Monday feeling as cheerful as ever. Having put on my favourite fluffy robe over a nightgown, I went to the kitchen and turned on the coffee machine. Then I went straight to the washroom and began rehearsing my speech in front of a mirror. I would tell my supervisor about my unexpected trip and apologize for the late notice. Quite possibly, his reaction would not be so bad, and he would grant me my time off right away. Jason came in and greeted me with a warm embrace.
“May I use the sink?” he asked.
“No,” I replied jokingly.
By the time we got out of the bathroom, the coffee was already boiling. If we came out a minute later, it would’ve already made a huge mess on our countertop. After a quick breakfast, we slipped into our jackets, packed our lunch bags, and walked out.
“See you later, honey,” I told Jason downstairs while exiting the elevator.
“Have a great day and take it easy.”
“I’ll try.” Once again, I wanted to be optimistic.
Our condo was located right on the subway line, making it very easy to commute. Every morning, I had around forty minutes of free time before starting work. Unless the train was extremely crowded or there were delays, riding on the subway was quite enjoyable. I spent this ride fantasizing about Ashkelon and its hidden treasures. One of my former university classmates at the U of T had discovered a three-thousand-year-old statue while excavating in Turkey, and I hoped something similar would turn up in Ashkelon. My daydreaming was over as soon as the train operator announced my station, which was Warden. I quickly got out of the train and ran to the bus platform. Two stops later, I was already at my workplace.
“Good morning,” I said to Dave, my supervisor. “How was your weekend?”
“Good morning.” He seemed a little bit annoyed.
Probably the traffic, I thought to myself.
Dave commuted from Oshawa to Scarborough every day. Sometimes, he would get stuck on the highway and arrive thirty minutes late because of some stupid accident or construction. For this exact reason, Jason and I agreed to never buy a house in the suburbs. Well, he kind of thought about Brampton and Richmond Hill in the beginning, but I successfully convinced him to change his mind. In the end, we agreed that even after children entered the picture, we would stay within Toronto.
I sat down in my cubicle peering at the Outlook screen. I had three customer complaints to resolve and forty orders to enter into the system. One of the complaints involved an order for a client from British Columbia, and judging from the email, the lady was very unhappy. She had planned to use the order as a gift for her employees during an annual end-of-the-year party, but a wrong package arrived a few days before the event.
“Rebecca, did you find the invoice?” Dave asked me out of nowhere as I was going through the emails.
“Oh, right, yes! Thanks for reminding me. I’m going to look for it now.”
Marianne, the receptionist, walked in holding a piece of paper. “Hey, were you looking for this one?” she asked.
“Let me see.” I took a closer look at the sheet. “Yes! That’s the invoice. How did you find it?” It was probably resting on her desk the entire time.
“I was going through the archive boxes and found it by accident.”
“Hmm, I’m surprised it ended up there.” I tried playing along.
“Well, no one else does archives besides you,” Dave said in a low voice.
All right, maybe it was my fault, but seriously, anyone could’ve made this mistake. I had three piles of different documents to sort through in less than two hours. Why were my boss and my coworker looking at me as if I had committed a murder?
I decided to hold off the conversation until after lunch, when everyone normally became more relaxed. However, I couldn’t concentrate on anything except for those four weeks I had to request. The situation did not improve in the afternoon when Dave announced he was going to an important meeting. In the meantime, I had my nose tucked into countless orders that had to be processed, invoiced, and taken to the shipping and receiving department. Then I spent my last hour arranging documents in a numeric order and filing them away. Suddenly, I saw my supervisor walking with his keys and realized he was already leaving for the day.
“Dave, I have something important to tell you,” I began.
“Can it wait until tomorrow? I really have to go now.”
“OK, see you tomorrow then.”
So he left without finding out about my unexpected vacation, while I still had fifty more documents to file.
I was frustrated beyond words. How could I’ve missed my chance to talk? What if all the tickets were sold by the time the vacation was officially scheduled? There was an endless list of possibilities of something going wrong.
***
“You worry too much,” Jason told me while I was preparing the dinner.
“No, I don’t!” I cried.
“Mondays are always crap days. Trust me; it will get better by Wednesday.”
“I hope so.”
At night, I tossed and turned and even got up several times. I fell asleep shortly before the sunrise only to wake up an hour and a half later. I tried hard to mask my lack of sleep under a few layers of makeup but still looked terrible. When it comes to stress, hair can be a woman’s worst enemy, and mine looked like dry straw flying all over the place.
“You look unwell,” Jason said during breakfast. “Maybe you should call in sick.”
“Are you kidding me? I can’t postpone the news any longer.”
“OK, just be careful on the streets.”
“I’ll try.”
I was too stressed to appreciate Jason’s attentiveness. Nor could I enjoy the time on the subway, for I kept imagining the worst. Either I would be denied my time off or lose my job.
“Hi, Rebecca,” Dave said while passing by my cubicle. “Did you have something to say yesterday?”
“Yes. I was wondering if I could schedule some vacation time,” I said, my heart thumping.
“For which dates?”
“From June thirtieth until July twenty-fifth.”
“Four weeks?” He looked surprised. “That’s quite a long time to be gone during one of our busiest times.”
“I believe I have accrued enough days over the past few years.”
“Why didn’t you schedule these weeks ahead of time?”
For a split second, I wondered if disclosing the truth about my scholarship and the excavation dig was a good idea. People at my work knew almost nothing about my interests. However, lying about some made-up emergency was out of question. So I chose to go with the truth.
“I won a scholarship that will allow me to participate in an excavation dig,” I said. “It will take place in Israel. I only found out this weekend.”
He listened quietly, making me feel even tenser.
“If those dates are a problem for the company, I will cancel the trip and stay here,” I added, trying to salvage the situation. “I just wanted to check if there was a slightest chance I could still go.”
“I’m afraid I’ll have to speak to our senior manager.”
“When can I expect the answer?”
“By the end of this week. I’m sure we’ll find a solution.” He gave me a faint smile.
“Thanks, Dave.”
Although I felt a bit relieved, my ordeal didn’t stop. Around ten o’clock, I decided to take a short break and went to the bathroom, where I met Ashley, the most annoying coworker.
“You don’t look like yourself,” she noted poignantly.
“I just had a bad sleep last night,” I replied while fixing my hair in the mirror.
“Are you pregnant?” she asked boldly.
“Nope.”
“Maybe you just don’t know yet.”
“I’m positive I’m not.”
; “Ha! Never say never.”
I fought an urge to threaten her with a lawsuit. If this wasn’t an invasion of privacy, then I didn’t know what it was. Instead of confronting her, I quietly returned to my desk and continued working. More orders were piled up on my desk, waiting to be entered, and more emails had to be answered.
In the afternoon, the database broke, and I got stuck in the middle of an important order. The moment I tried switching to filing, the system went back to normal. Then Diego phoned my extension and asked me something about an item from forty orders ago. As soon I got to the current order, my phone rang again. This time, it was the angry customer from British Columbia asking about the two hundred notebooks and pens she had ordered for the party. The mayhem continued for the entire day, and by the end of it, I was completely wiped out.
I left the office unable to think about anything except for a cup of warm latte and some good sleep. Even my vacation didn’t matter anymore. I decided that if they didn’t allow me to take the time off, I would just quit. When I got home, the first thing I did was log into my Gmail account. Having looked at the scholarship letter, I typed up a short reply, specifying my acceptance of the funding. Then I filled out the waiver, downloaded a void cheque from my bank’s web page, and scanned everything into the computer. The only thing left was a medical assessment form, which I would have to take to my doctor.
I was about to hit the “send” button when I heard Jason walk in.
“Hey, how was your day?” he asked, tossing the keys on the work desk.
I immediately poured out everything that was on my mind, including my plan to quit.
“Come on, Becky, you just had a bad day. Don’t make any drastic decisions.”
“So you want me to be tied to that job?” I flared up.
“Of course not! I’m all up for you to find something better. You just need to hang in there for a little longer.”
“How much longer? A month? A year? A lifetime?”
“Fine, if you want to quit, go ahead.” He looked frustrated, too.
“Maybe you are right.” I sighed. “I had a terrible day, and I’m tired like crazy.”
In the end, we both decided it would be best to wait for the answer before sending any forms. Feeling completely drained, I went straight to bed after dinner.
***
“Hey, Becky. We need to talk,” Dave said as soon as he saw me next day. He didn’t look upset, which I took as a good sign.
“Sure,” I said, feeling a bit nervous.
“I spoke with the senior manager.” Chills went down my spine. Maybe that was it, and I was going to be fired.
“She said those four weeks shouldn’t be a problem.” The moment these words came out, I became overwhelmed with relief.
“Thank you!” I exclaimed, unable to hide my excitement.
“But next time, please let us know ahead of time,” he added.
“Definitely.” At this moment, I was ready to promise almost anything.
“And by the way, congratulations on your scholarship!”
“Thanks.”
As soon as Dave left, I sent text messages to Jason and Erin. Both replied with smiles. I later received a message from Erin who suggested meeting at the Eaton Centre for shopping. We still had to find a present for our father. I agreed wholeheartedly, and we arranged to meet at five-thirty.
“Rebecca, did you finish the orders from yesterday?” someone asked me. I bolted up and quickly hid my cell phone. Diego was standing next to my desk, looking angry. For a split second, I wondered how long he’d been standing there and whether he saw me texting.
“Ah, almost done. Just a few left.” I tried to hide my nervousness.
“I need to have them by lunch,” he commanded. “Otherwise, our clients won’t get their products in time.”
“They’ll be ready very soon,” I lied. There was no way I would finish one hundred orders in three hours, so I had to keep it cool and pretend to be in control.
As soon as he left, I started typing feverishly. With a clear mind and a lightened heart, I worked fast and was able to finish everything thirty minutes past the lunch hour. As soon as I put the order dockets on Diego’s desk, I felt a huge load fall off my shoulders.
At three-thirty, I started getting restless. The day was almost over, and in a few hours, I would be having fun with my sister. At last, it was a quarter after four, so there were only fifteen minutes left. At four twenty-five, my phone rang.
It was Glenn, one of the sales representatives, with whom I had never managed to get along. The moment I picked up the phone, she started accusing me of entering an invoice incorrectly, which meant she wouldn’t get her commission. It was frustrating that no matter how hard I tried to avoid those mistakes, they would still turn up and always at the very last minute. Instead of running to the door at four-thirty, I had to stay a few minutes late and redo the invoice.
“Why aren’t you going home?” Ashley asked me while passing my cubicle.
“Something urgent came up,” I replied while nervously retyping the invoice. “Have to stay.”
“Just go. We aren’t even getting paid for the extra time.”
“I will go in a few minutes,” I mumbled, trying to concentrate.
Suddenly, the system froze. “Dammit!” I screamed.
“What?” She turned around.
“The system isn’t working.”
“It only means you should go home.”
I looked at my watch and noticed it was already quarter to five. “Maybe you are right. I’ll just go home,” I said in frustration. The invoice could surely wait until the next day. Thus, I left feeling dissatisfied with my day again. The feeling of accomplishment simply didn’t exist at my job.
Forty minutes later, I was at the Eaton Center, waiting for Erin to arrive. Soon I spotted her walking towards me with a huge Starbucks cup in her hand. She was wearing a short Danier jacket over a cashmere sweater and a pair of skinny jeans. Her five-inch pumps, however, were replaced with running shoes. She always kept a spare pair in her car just in case she decided to go on a spontaneous shopping spree.
“Hello, stranger!” I said.
“Hi, Becky.” She gave me a hug.
We decided to check out the latest products at Future Shop and to look for summer clothes. Since the electronic store was open till later, we agreed to hit the mall first. Erin went straight to designer stores hunting for sales. Somehow, she always managed to find Armani tops and Gucci bags for half price. I opted for Gap and Old Navy, as I didn’t need anything fancy. So I picked a few pairs of shorts, cargo pants, and a bunch of long-sleeved shirts that would protect me from the sun.
“You should try this.” She showed me a leopard-print shirt by Marciano. “You want to look good for your man.”
“Are you kidding me? It’s two hundred dollars!”
“It’s seventy percent off, and it will look great on you.”
“Where am I going to wear it? To the field?” I laughed.
“Think of what you’ll wear when your hubby arrives.”
“I’m sure after three weeks, he’ll be happy to see me in almost anything.”
“Then you might want to wear nothing at all.”
We giggled.
“We’ll probably go shopping in Tel Aviv,” I added.
“Eh, lucky you! I wish I were in the faculty of archaeology.”
“I’m no longer a part of any faculty. I’m just an ordinary office worker trying to take off some time.”
“I’m still jealous.”
After our first round of purchases, Erin suggested going to Bikini Village, where we tried on a dozen bathing suits. She picked two pink bikinis, while I landed on a traditional one-piece bathing suit, which she deemed “old fashioned.”
“I don’t need too much attention in a foreign place.”
“Well, I guess you are right,” she said. “We don’t want you to get abducted by the Bedouins.”
“Stop it, Erin
! Israel is the safest place in the Middle East, and the Bedouins are friendly.” I recalled a few stories from my ex-classmates from school about their Birthright trips, which often included spending a night in a Bedouin tent, smoking shisha, and sleeping under the stars.
“As you say, Becky.” At least Erin used her TV only for Netflix and Popcorn Time, so I didn’t have to try hard to convince her.
After shopping, we stopped at the food court and ordered chicken souvlaki from Jimmy the Greek. We talked about the impending dinner with our parents, and for the first time, I began to wonder how they would feel about my trip.
“Mom will probably be unhappy,” I admitted. “She wasn’t thrilled the last time we went.”
“Ah, don’t worry. It will pass. If you are too nervous, I can always help you.”
“But how?”
“I can call her and tell her everything myself.”
“Oh, please don’t do that!” I didn’t want my parents to learn the news from someone else.
“OK, I won’t. I just wanted to offer my help.”
“Thanks, Erin. I’ll sort it out by myself.”
“Anyway, let’s hurry up. We still have to buy a present for Dad.”
After a careful inventory of the newest products at Future Shop, we decided to buy a new GPS, which our parents could use on their next road trip. Then we went straight to Erin’s car. I was willing to take the subway home, but she insisted on giving me a ride.
“You are not going on the subway with all those bags,” she said in her bossy tone.
When we arrived at my place, Jason was already at home, idling on the couch.
“Hey, Erin! Good to see you.” He offered my sister a friendly hug.
“Hey, how was your day?” I asked my husband.
“It was great, thanks. Look what I got for you!” He showed me a brimmed hat and pair of gardening gloves. “You will need these on your dig.”
“Oh, how nice!” Erin exclaimed. “You’ve got such a great husband.”
“I know.” I couldn’t help but smile. I could bet she no longer thought I had made a mistake.
“Want some tea?” Jason asked.
“Sure,” Erin and I replied in unison.