by J. C. Phelps
I waited while he put the information in. He had a baffled look on his face.
“Is there a problem?” I asked.
“This doesn’t seem to want to work Miss Stanton,” he said. “I better go get my supervisor. Please stay here, I’ll be right back.” He left the room.
I got up and quietly shut the door and ran around to the other side of the desk. I had the file right in front of me but there was no floppy disk drive on this computer. Shit, shit, shit. I didn’t have much time so I quickly set up a Hotmail account. I labeled it [email protected] and used the password “firstfederal.” I was going to e-mail it to myself. I hoped it wasn’t a huge file. It must not have been because it didn’t take long to get it to go through. I barely got sat back down before the officer and his supervisor came back to the room.
“Ms. Stanton, there seems to be a problem. The account number you gave us does not exist. We have called the other bank and they do have an account for a Mr. Stanton but there is not an authorization to transfer funds,” the supervisor explained.
“I see,” I said, putting a mad look on my face. “May I use your phone?”
“Of course,” the supervisor said and handed me the phone. He punched the nine and said, “There, now you can make an outside call.”
I dialed my house and said to the answering machine, “Daddy, they say you didn’t authorize the transaction.” I waited for a second trying to look more and more frustrated. Then I said, “Well, you could have told me that before I came down here and made a fool of myself. I’ll talk to you later. Bye.” And I hung up the phone.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “My dad already transferred me money into a different account at his bank. I’m really sorry that I wasted your time.”
“No problem. But Miss, if this wasn’t a misunderstanding you could be in some trouble. You should make sure your father knows his bank will be calling him to let him know of the attempted activity,” the supervisor said.
“I’d hope so,” I said and walked out the door.
I had a hard time not running from inside the bank. I walked a little faster than normal. I wanted to get into my car and speed away. I did pretty well until I got a couple blocks away in my car. Somehow, my foot wanted to plant itself to the floorboard with the accelerator underneath it.
When I reached my house my nerves had settled a bit. I went in the bedroom, made sure the door was shut tight and changed out of the suit and back into a t-shirt and jeans. I hung the suit back on the clothes hanger and neatly spread the black plastic bag over the outfit, just as I had received it. I made sure I had the floppy disk and drove back to the office.
Gabriella wasn’t at her desk and Mr. White’s door was closed. I went to it and knocked lightly.
“Come in,” Mr. White replied.
I opened the door and stepped in. I began to walk to the couch to set the outfit down.
“Close the door behind you please,” he said. I saw a playful look cross his face.
While I was doing that he asked, “Do you have some questions on your instructions?”
“No. I think I have the file,” I said.
If I hadn’t been watching for the surprised look I wouldn’t have seen it. It was apparent on his face for less than a second.
“Bring it here please,” he said putting out his hand.
“It’s not here but you should be able to access it from your computer.” I walked to the couch and laid the outfit down.
“Those were not your instructions,” he said.
“I understand, but the computer at the bank didn’t have a floppy drive.” I handed him the empty disk. Our hands touched and we both hesitated for a moment.
He reached over and put the disk in his computer’s floppy drive and motioned me over.
“Get me the file please.”
I leaned in slightly to turn on his computer and the heat of his body made me a little shaky.
I looked toward him when the computer asked for the password and he just looked back at me. ‘Fine,’ I thought and typed in his password. I logged onto the Internet and looked up the Hotmail address I had created at the bank. As I was doing this all I could think was, please be there, please be there. I got logged on, typed in the password and started to download the file onto the floppy disk.
“Fairly impressive, Ms. Stanton,” he said making me jump.
I looked to him and he had a smile on his face. It was a complete smile, not a sly grin that I had seen before. It was a wonderful smile and made me melt.
The phone rang and he picked it up. “Yes?” he said. “Yes, she’s here. Really? Yes I have it in my possession.” Then he hung up.
“That was Mr. Black. He lost you coming back from the bank. Seems you have a lead foot.” His smile was still there.
“Thank you for a job well done. Welcome aboard, Ms. Grey. Please have a seat while I finish this up,” he said, still smiling. He picked up the phone and dialed.
I chose to sit on the couch. His call was to the bank manger reporting our success and finishing up all the little details. I didn’t pay all that much attention to his conversation because I was trying to get used to my new name.
Mr. Black walked into the office just as Mr. White ended his conversation with the bank. He hovered in the door while Mr. White told me what lay ahead of me.
“From now on you will be at my beckon call. Do you understand that?” he said, all trace of the smile gone from his face.
I automatically picked up on the change and answered appropriately, “Yes, sir.”
“I will give you jobs as I feel you become suited for them. You have the benefit of some good training, but it’s not thorough enough.” he added.
“Mr. Black will get you started.”
*****
Chapter Seven
Mr. Black ushered me out of the office building to his waiting SUV. Again he opened the door for me. I climbed in and waited for him. As soon as he got behind the wheel he handed me a cell phone.
“Call your Dad. Tell him you will be gone on company business. No loose ends,” he said.
I did as I was told and we left the garage for parts unknown. We stopped for gas just as we were leaving town and he filled both tanks. He returned with a plastic grocery bag and set it in the back seat.
“There’s water in the bag, but pace yourself, it’s a long trip,” he explained.
I assumed that meant we weren’t going to be stopping for a potty break any time soon. I didn’t have any idea where we were going or why. Talk about being on a “need to know basis.” If I were driving I’d need to know.
“Do you want me to drive the first shift?” I asked.
“Nope,” he said.
I thought I would have gotten a little more info than that. He could have said, “No, no need for shifts.” I guess that would have been too much information for my brain to handle. Oh shut up and quit whining I told myself. No need to pick on the Neanderthal man.
I actually didn’t mind Mr. Black. He was a man of few words but he seemed very polite, a little intimidating, but polite. He had opened the car door to let me in and shut it behind me both times I had ridden with him. I think if I waited to get out of the vehicle when we stopped he would come open my door without a second thought. I know some women find that offensive nowadays, but I found it charming and endearing. It demonstrated respect.
We had been driving for a few hours and not a word had been said. Mr. Black apparently didn’t want to listen to the radio either. I had tried to turn it on and he had smacked my hand away. I was getting bored. It was getting dark and I had a tough time seeing any scenery.
“Get some shut-eye. It’ll be a while before you get another chance.”
The sound of his voice in the quiet vehicle made me jump a bit. I lowered the seat back and closed my eyes. I lay there and listened to the song of the tires on the road for a long time. I couldn’t fall asleep. The seat wasn’t really too uncomfortable, it was my mind doing aerobics.
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I must have dozed off because the next thing I remembered was the door to the SUV swinging open and Mr. Black ordered, “Up. Out.”
I immediately and instinctively followed orders. Mr. Black pointed at the ground in front of me. “Put it on.”
There lying at my feet was a green canvas backpack and a pair of hiking boots. I also found a green army-type jacket to wear. I put the boots on and felt the tenderness in my shoulder. I pulled the jacket on and snatched up the backpack and immediately regretted it. That thing was HEAVY and didn’t help my shoulder any. I guessed it weighed at least fifty pounds.
I shrugged it on and noticed the sun hadn’t been up for too long. There was a mist hanging close to the ground and the sky had a pinkish hue. We weren’t even on a road. No road to be seen. Somehow Mr. Black had gotten this big SUV through the close trees.
“Keep up,” he said and marched off into the woods.
I was in decent shape and didn’t have much trouble keeping up for the first few hours. I was enjoying the scenery and occasional wildlife sighting. Then slowly my shoulder started aching, my feet hurt and my back was killing me. I slowed a bit and was falling behind when Mr. Black yelled, “I won’t wait. Keep up or fail.” I seriously considered stopping a few hours later. I was silently crying as I plodded on behind Mr. Black. Tears were rolling down my face but I didn’t dare make a sound. I was exhausted and almost passed out more than once. We must have traveled at least ten miles when we came upon a stream.
Mr. Black stopped and said, “We’ll take a brief, rest here.” He reached for his canteen in the side pocket of his backpack and said, “You better drink some water, but not too much, you’ll get sick.”
I reached around to take my pack off and he said, “Leave it on, you won’t be able to pick it back up.” He came over and took my canteen out of my pack and handed it to me.
“Remember, not too much,” he repeated and then began to dig in the pack again. He handed me Vaseline, foot powder and a pair of socks.
“Change your socks, Vaseline between your toes and foot powder in your socks and shoes,” he said.
I sat down and went to work changing my socks and following the rest of his directions.
“I’ll be back with lunch,” he said and disappeared into the woods. I hoped he’d be gone for a couple of hours. Maybe he would run back to Sal’s and bring me a club sandwich. Hey, if you’re going to dream, dream big. Maybe he was running to a payphone to order in pizza. Pizza sounded good. I had my shoes back on and Mr. Black wasn’t back yet. Thank goodness for small favors.
“Lunch.” I woke up to Mr. Black’s voice. I had been using my pack to lean on and had my legs stretched straight out in front of me. My mouth had been wide open and was dried out.
Mr. Black had built a fire and had something on a stick, holding it over the flame. It looked to be a mammal or reptile of some sort. It had no head or tail, but it had four juicy looking legs.
I thought I had been in pain from Leonard’s punch the other night, but I literally fell to my knees while trying to stand up. I was on my second attempt when Mr. Black appeared at my side. He extended his hand and helped me up. He had been harsh all day so this change in attitude was a bit surprising.
“You’ve done good today. I’ve not met many men that can do what you just did and not complain,” he said by way of explanation.
He went back to the fire and pulled some meat off the creature and handed it to me. I did my best to wipe the ashes and burned pieces off but ended up just shoving it all in my mouth.
“Pace yourself,” he said. It was hot, so I spit it back into my hand and started to eat more like a lady. There was a bit of a wild taste to the meat but it was pretty good. I wondered what it was but thought better of asking. After I was full I would ask what I had just ate. I wasn’t a picky eater, but I had found the idea of some foods made me gag. I would rather not eat a reptile, but if this was a lizard of some kind I may have to change my mind.
Between us we picked the bones clean in about five minutes. Mr. Black put out the fire and said, “Let’s get a move on, we have a long way to go.”
“What did we eat?” I asked while I stood.
“Squirrel,” he replied.
Poor thing, I thought. Squirrels were cute little things. I pictured one sitting on a log, his tail twitching like they constantly do. Didn’t taste all that bad though.
Once we started moving again it was a new kind of pain. I ached everywhere, but it was a dull ache. I no longer checked out the scenery or occasional wildlife sighting. I watched the back of Mr. Blacks hiking boots go up and down. I concentrated on his footfalls and matched them step for step. I counted them, lost my place and started over again.
Mr. Black stopped and I stopped. I noticed that it was almost dark. Maybe we were going to stop for the night. Don’t get your hopes up, it’s probably just dinner break I told myself.
He took his backpack off and started to remove the bedroll that was fastened to the bottom. I stood there and watched him, not fully comprehending what was going on. He rolled it out on the ground and then came up to me and took the pack off my back and did the same with my bedroll.
“Help me find some firewood,” he said when he was done.
He got up and went one direction and I went the other. I came back with an armload of dead twigs and he had already gotten the fire started.
“Is this enough?” I asked, my voice hoarse.
“Yeah. Get some rest. We’ll eat in the morning.” With that I laid down and promptly fell asleep.
“Breakfast.” Mr. Black nudged me with his boot.
I sat straight up and looked around. Where was I? Shit, now I remember. Damn, I thought maybe I was in hell. No such luck.
“What time is it?” I asked him.
“Time for breakfast,” he said. Smartass, I thought. I wasn’t in the best of moods this morning or evening or whenever it was. It was as dark as it could get. The only light available came from the fire and the eerie eyes in the distance.
“What’s out there?” I asked.
“Don’t know for sure. Maybe wolves. Most likely deer,” he said.
Great, wolves. I ate the jerky he handed to me and sipped on my water. All the while I kept my attention on the eyes around us.
We sat in silence and waited for the sun to come around to our side of the world again. Slowly the mist formed on the ground and the brightest stars started to fade. Eventually the sky turned from a black to a bluish gray. Then the first hints of pink and orange began to show on the clouds. Mr. Black had put the fire out sometime between black and gray so we could fully appreciate the sunrise.
“On your feet,” he said before the sun was visible. I felt cheated. I stood and all the aches of the previous day came back. I had a little trouble lifting the pack but managed to get it up alone. I had to use one arm because the bruised shoulder hurt too much. I couldn’t make that arm move without breaking into a sweat. I had to do some special maneuvering. I leaned down and put my injured arm under the strap and then turned around and hiked the whole thing up on my other arm. Then I adjusted the strap for the bad arm.
Mr. Black was already marching away through a particularly thick stand of trees. Once inside the stand I couldn’t see more than a few feet in front or to either side of me. I managed to catch up to Mr. Black with no problem. His pace was a lot less brisk this morning, more of a casual stroll.
I strolled along behind him and before long we came to the edge of the thickly placed trees. Not more than one hundred feet away stood a small cabin. Was this our destination? I hoped so. I loved the outdoors, but I was too tired to enjoy it. A nice bed, or lumpy bed for that matter, would be wonderful.
We strolled up to the door and Mr. Black went in. I stood on the porch and thought about it. We had been hiking less than fifteen minutes. We could have been here last night. I wouldn’t have had to sleep on the ground. I could have gotten an extra fifteen minutes of sleep. My anger was building as I thou
ght about how close we had been to the cabin all along.
“Why didn’t we just hike to the cabin last night?” I asked with a hint of frustration in my voice.
“I like to camp,” he said.
“You like to camp?” I replied with my eyebrows raised.
“We made good time yesterday but the program calls for a night in the woods,” he said.
I decided it would be best not to pursue this line of questioning much longer. Mr. Black was, after all, at least three times my size. I didn’t want to provoke him because I didn’t know exactly what he might do. He had me guessing. One minute he could be a major hard ass, the next he was helping me out.
I walked into the cabin and looked around. It was about the size of my place, maybe a bit bigger. It looked as if it had been used recently. The outside of the cabin led me to believe the place hadn’t seen people in years. The inside was different. It was by no means elaborate, just the basics. A refrigerator and stove in the kitchen. A wooden table that was big enough to seat six comfortably. Two recliners, a couch and books in a bookshelf along one wall but no TV. There were five bedrooms, each with a single bed and not much else. And one bathroom with a toilet, sink and shower.
Mr. Black had taken off his pack and set it on the floor next to the table. I did the same and asked him, “What now?” I was eyeing the bathroom. I’d love to have a shower and then maybe a nap.
“Get cleaned up,” he tipped his head in the direction of the bathroom. “When you come out I want to take a look at that shoulder,” he added.
“I’m fine,” I said walking toward the bathroom. I didn’t like to admit to any kind of fault or liability I might have. As far as I was concerned I was darn close to perfect. Besides, the only way he could inspect the area was if I had no shirt on and being without my shirt in front of Mr. Black made me nervous.
“All the same, I will take a look,” he replied in a voice that made me believe he would see my shoulder if he had to hold me down to do it.
“You’ve got fifteen minutes,” he added as I shut the door behind me.