~~**~~
The Mailbags
“We what?” Lloyd Trosst spun on his heels and stared at his operations supervisor. “How bad did we…”
“At least 8,000 pieces.”
Lloyd nodded and stepped around her into the backroom. He exhaled as he counted bag after bag against the wall. He lost count as he hit five thousand pieces.
“Do you want me to…”
Lloyd held up his hand and silenced the ops supervisor. The veins in his neck started to bulge as his face became redder. He breathed deeply and in a low whisper he started counting to ten. The redness started to fade as he neared ten. Lloyd faced the mail bags again and started counting. “8,000 pieces.” He looked at the floor for a moment and then began speaking without looking at Janice, his ops supervisor. “Bring Jake in here.”
Janice nodded and scurried out of the backroom. Lloyd could hear her voice as she called for Jake. There was a slight tremble that grew each time she called for him. Her voice faded as Lloyd picked up the call ticket on the first bag. He read the call code out loud and then mentally repeated the number to himself. As far as the he knew the code was correct, so why were there eight thousand pieces of mail in his backroom.
Lloyd moved over to the next stack and repeated the inspection of the call ticket. He found the same correct code on the bag and after inspecting the remaining sacks he was relieved to find they all contained the same code. He stretched his shoulders as he stood back up. He could feel the tension in his back as he rolled his arms in a circular motion. As he finished working his shoulders his eye caught the new regulations poster against the receiving door. His eyes glazed over as he looked at the tiny print. He had just sent an email to his staff concerning the new regs. His department had failed the last three audits and they were scheduled for another one tomorrow morning at 8 o’clock. After eighteen years on the job Lloyd knew how much was riding on this audit. His district supervisor had even sent in an advisor to coach his team through this because of their performance as of late.
He took a moment to look around the backroom and was pleased to see how hard everyone had worked. The place was in ship shape condition, except for the eight thousand pieces of mail that sat on the floor undelivered. The redness started to return as Lloyd stared at the biggest audit violation he had ever seen. His attention was brought back to the door as Janice walked in with Jake trailing behind. Janice nodded in Lloyd’s direction and then headed right to the bags and immediately began inspecting the call codes.
“What’s up, chief?” Jake stopped in his tracks as he saw the bags Janice was inspecting.
Lloyd caught the look on Jake’s face and he started to get hot again. “I take it you don’t know why there are 8,000 pieces of mail in my backroom?”
Jake ran over to the bags and grabbed the first call ticket. “No. I put those tickets on myself.” Jake read the first call code aloud. “A-1-3-5-7-8.” He moved over to the second bag and realized his mistake. “I didn’t correct the codes on this batch. The new reg’s say today would be a ‘B’ delivery. These tickets should have read B-1-3-5-7-8.”
Janice stopped reading the tickets and looked over to Lloyd. “Is that correct?”
Lloyd paused and thought to himself. He mentally ran through the pages and pages of new regs on delivery codes. “Dammit.” Lloyd started pacing. “Any other day this wouldn’t matter. This is only first class traffic and we could overlook a day if it wasn’t for this damn audit.” Lloyd ended his pacing by kicking the closest mail bag. “Damn, damn, dammit.”
Jake crossed the backroom and sank into the receiving chair. “Sorry, chief. I thought I had corrected the mistake on all the bags, but you called me away to finish the express and international load.”
Lloyd wasn’t even listening. “This mail has to disappear. If we can just make it through tomorrow morning we will have a whole quarter to learn these damn regs.” Lloyd started pacing until he noticed what time it was. “Jake did Sue leave?”
Jake scratched his head. “Yeah. She said we were ready for this audit. Boy, was she wrong. Not much of an advisor if you ask me.”
“Never mind that. Janice disable the backroom camera. Jake grab my keys from my desk and pull my wagon up to the loading bay.”
Jake looked over at Janice and then back at Lloyd. He blinked a few times and found his body was frozen in place.
“Just do it.” Lloyd barked. “Both of you, now!”
Both Janice and Jake dashed out of the backroom. Lloyd headed over to the bags and started loading them onto the receiving cart. As he finished putting them onto his cart he could hear his station wagon backing into the loading bay. He looked up and noticed the red light was still operational on the camera, so he waited. In a few moments he watched the camera light go off and the camera shut down. He turned and punched the code into receiving door and almost hit Jake as he threw the door open.
“Get the hatch open and start loading.” Lloyd turned and called to Janice, “Watch the front and close off the back room.” Lloyd grabbed the first sack and started towards the wagon. As he placed the fifth bag into the wagon and realized he wasn’t going to be able to fit it all in one trip.
“Is this really a good idea chief?”
Lloyd looked at him. “Not really Jake, but do you want a job after tomorrow morning?”
Jake nodded and dumped the last bag into the wagon. Jake started to close the hatch as Lloyd jumped into the driver’s seat. From the window he called out, “I’ll be right back.”
Lloyd felt his breath return to normal as he turned onto Main Street. He knew how much trouble this could get him into, but he only needed twenty four hours to correct the situation. He checked his dash and realized he was going to be late for dinner again. He put a little pressure on the gas pedal and headed for home.
Lloyd took the last turn and sped up. He could almost smell his wife’s cooking when he noticed the flashing blue and red lights in his mirror. Lloyd pulled over. As he waited for the cop, he looked in the mirror and realized he had put the mail on his back seat. He put his head on the steering wheel and as he realized he was going to jail.
The Deer, Amanda & other Short Stories Page 5