“Would
you care to retract that comment, Miss Hunter?”
“Oh
shit!” Naomi spun around and there in the doorway was Shannon himself. Mr.
Shannon Charles, Head of the Organic Chemistry Division of PVT Chemical
Industries—and everyone in the room’s boss. Her head spun, her cheeks blanched
and her gut churned, but Naomi knew what she’d said was correct. Incredibly
stupid to say at work, but nonetheless accurate.
Pulling
her shoulders back, and her spine ramrod straight, Naomi took a deep breath,
and then, very deliberately, threw her job away. “No, sir. I will not retract
what I said. As you know perfectly well, I am one of only three people in the
state qualified to sign off on the tests we do, and these new samples will not
be accurate enough to pass the annual audit unless we spend several days doing
trial tests and calibrating the machines properly. Our reputation for accuracy
will be in the toilet.” Like my job.
Shannon
pulled his cell phone from his blazer pocket and clicked through his address
book. “Julie, make up Miss Hunter’s pay sheet right now. She’s leaving us.” He
clicked again and said, “John, get to the lunchroom now.”
No
one in the room moved in the brief few minutes it took for John from Security
to arrive. “Yes sir?” His hand was on his weapon as if he expected to have to
break up a fight or apprehend a criminal.
“Miss
Hunter is leaving us. Escort her to her desk and make sure she takes only her
own possessions, then take her to Julie’s office to get a printout of her
salary entitlements and sign for them. That is all.”
A
few more gasps came from around the room, but Naomi marched through the door,
head up, looking neither to the right nor the left as she set a fast pace to
the Organic Chemistry Laboratory where her little office was. There she
collected a large, empty cardboard box, and packed her things by simply
upending her desk drawers into the box, dropping the few personal items from
the top of her desk into it, then balancing her potted plant and purse on the
top of everything else.
Anger
was burning through her at her own insanity at voicing the comment, and at the
rightness of it. She snagged her jacket off the back of her chair, remembered
to collect her log book, lab coat and safety goggles from the lab itself, then
nodded to John who had stood well back from her, totally silent.
“Is
that it, Naomi? None of your stuff in the bathroom or on anyone else’s desk?”
he asked carefully.
“No.
I could delete my personal files off the computer but Shannon might say I took
proprietary information. This way you are witness that I didn’t touch it and I
don’t care if anyone reads my emails anyway,” she replied, shrugging. Besides,
her personal files were on her flash drive so it wasn’t a big deal.
John
nodded. “I’ll carry the box for you. You take the plant.”
When
they reached Julie’s office the paperwork was ready, waiting for her sign.
Julie’s face was alive with curiosity but Naomi simply said, “Goodbye” and
“Thank you”. She knew Julie would be on the phone to Alison as soon as she’d
left.
John
walked her to her car, loaded the box into the trunk for her, and she could see
him still standing there, watching her leave, as she exited the gate and turned
onto the highway. She drove for a couple of miles toward her home, then pulled
off into a side road, switched off the engine, folded her arms across the
steering wheel, and burst into shattering sobs as the anger and tension,
exploded from her body.
