by Eric Douglas
*****
“Mr. Parker?” the man said quietly as he poked his head in the room.
“Yes, Rolly?” Parker replied to hulking man leaning through his door. Parker had sent the man, along with a couple other workers from the cleaning crew out to scare the environmentalist the night before. He was expecting this follow up report.
“Mr. Parker, we found that environmental girl you asked us to shake up last night, just like you told us to,” Rolly began, hesitantly. He was nervous and stumbling over his words. They hadn’t done well the previous night and he didn’t want to tell the boss.
“Why am I getting the feeling I’m not going to like the way this story goes?” Parker asked.
“Mr. Parker, we was doing just like you told us to do. We were scarin’ the woman real good, and then this guy jumps in and turns the tables on us,” Rolly began explaining.
“What do you mean, ‘turns the tables’ on you? There were three of you, weren’t there? And you said it was only one guy? Right? So what was the problem?” Parker asked, nearly spitting out his words as he grew agitated. He always spoke faster and more aggressively when he got angry.
“Well, sir, there was really two of them, because when we was dealing with the new guy, the girl got in her licks as well,” Rolly tried to explain.
“So you went out to scare off this woman and she ended up scaring you? What do I pay you men for?” Parker yelled, on the verge of losing his temper completely.
“Sir, I’m a welder and the other guys are pipe fitters and machinists. We ain’t no fighters,” Rolly said, trying to be reasonable.
“Rolly, get out of my sight and get back to work. If you don’t, I might just change my mind and you might not get paid to do anything,” Parker growled. “Now, go.”
Parker watched Rolly retreat from his office and stared at the closed door for a few moments.
“Great. I sent these guys out to scare one woman, and all they accomplished was to let her know that someone was watching her. They might have scared her, or it could have just made her mad enough to keep digging even further,” Parker said to himself, shaking his head. “We shall see.”