“This office has gone potty,” Sue said, breaking the silence. “First those obnoxious Post-it notes and now this.”
“What’s obnoxious about wanting a communal area to be kept tidy?” Krish said.
Sue started to laugh then. “So it was you then? You’re the one leaving those notes? Well, that’s rich, isn’t it?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Krish stared at Sue as though he wanted to strangle her.
“You’re the one stinking the office up every day. But you want everything to be clean.”
Helen sighed. “Guys, please. These are such trivial issues. I’m sure we can sort them out. How about you and Krish take different lunchtimes and one of you eats on the other side of the room? How’s that?”
Sue shrugged. It seemed to be an acceptance.
“Krish?” Helen gave him what she hoped was her best manager face. Someone had to sort out these issues if Martin wasn’t going to. They couldn’t keep working in this terrible atmosphere.
“Fine. Whatever.”
Relief, and pride, flooded through her body like warm sunlight on skin. One problem solved for today. She did feel for the three of them. Not only had they watched most of their friends be made redundant, but they hadn’t had a pay rise or promotion for years, and now they’d seen the two superiors in the office bitch mercilessly about them.
Martin stumbled back into the meeting room and half collapsed into a chair. The man needed to go home, that was clear, but he had to sign off on their rescheduling before it went higher up. She tapped her fingernails on the table anxiously.
“Kevin says he never came down here,” Martin said. “Which means we still don’t know what happened. He also said he’s leaving early today. The rest of the team are on-site, and he’s on his own. So no one break any computers, okay?” He paused. “One of you lied. Penny? Was it you? I find that quite disappointing.”
“You know what I find disappointing?” Sue’s chin was lifted up high, and her teeth were clenched. “Being called a hag by my boss.”
Martin raised his hands in surrender. “I appreciate that, Sue. And I have apologised.”
Sue let out a long, sarcastic pfffff sound. “Have you apologised directly to Penny for calling her overweight?”
“Yes, you’re quite right. Penny, I am sorry for the hurtful language I used.”
Even to Helen’s ears that apology sounded half-hearted. The man couldn’t say I’m sorry and leave it at that. It had to be I’m sorry you were… or I’m sorry for the… Penny stood up and walked out of the room. Helen didn’t blame her.
“Maybe we should all just get back to our desks,” Martin said. “Perhaps we can get out of here at five.”
19
4:45 p.m
Sue was two hundred pages into her e-book when she noticed the time. She still had those duplicated students to worry about, but she couldn’t bring herself to speak up and tell Penny what she’d done. Her body was tense with a sense of low-level, creeping panic that had been building from the morning. She pushed her fingers through the blinds, surprised by how dark it was outside. Then she gasped.
“The river… the banks are burst.” She stood, pushing the blinds completely aside. “The road’s covered in water.”
Krish swore under his breath and rushed to her side. “Fuck. The roads will be closed now. Penny, get the radio on.”
Sue stepped away from the window and put her hands on her hips. How was she going to get home now? The buses wouldn’t be running. No taxi driver would want to collect her from right by the river. She couldn’t walk through all that water to get home. What if the river swept her away? What if she ended up with pneumonia?
Helen stepped over, her arms folded across her chest. She hovered close to the desks as Penny got the radio working.
…roads affected by the flooding. There is no traffic moving from the city centre to… It then listed off a dozen suburbs, including Sue’s. The realisation hit her.
“I can’t get home,” she said.
“None of us can,” Helen said. “It sounds like we might all be stuck here for a while.”
“No,” Krish said. “No, that can’t happen. I can’t stay here.”
“Where have you got to be, Krish?” Sue said. She felt dark. Cruel. She wanted to kick him where it hurt because she knew his secret and she was sick of keeping it. “Meeting someone?”
He paled. “Only my wife and kids. Jas gets overwhelmed in the evenings.”
Sue smiled sardonically. She’d overheard things at the Christmas party. She wished she’d thrown it in his face when he was telling her to fuck off earlier.
“Well, you could make a break for it if you want,” Helen said. “We can finish up here. But it looks like you’d be walking home. That’s a long way for you, isn’t it?”
Krish’s eyes widened. “Oh shit. My car. It’s in the carpark. I need to check on it.”
“Okay,” Helen said. “I’ll warn Martin about the river breaking. He’s probably missed it too. What a day.”
As soon as both Krish and Helen were gone, Sue limped over to Penny’s desk. “I have a confession.”
Penny lifted her narrow chin to meet her gaze. She clicked the mouse and paused the radio. “What is it?”
“I’ve messed up,” Sue said. She wasn’t sure why, because it was ridiculous, but she felt like crying again. Honestly, who cried about silly work issues? Derek would be laughing at her. “I think I might have duplicated the whole year on the system.”
For a horrible moment Sue thought Penny was going to laugh. The corners of her mouth twitched up and down as though she had a nervous tic or someone was controlling her like a marionette doll. She found it quite disturbing to watch, but Penny was an odd girl and it was probably something to do with her nerves.
“Okay,” Penny said. “Let me take a look.”
Sue backed away so that Penny could go round to her desk. The seat dipped a bit as the girl sat down. Sue did not condone the nasty things said in that chat between Martin and Helen, but they were right about Penny’s weight. She hadn’t noticed it until that moment, but Penny had packed on the pounds recently. Dangerously quickly. Sue had done the same after Derek died. Suddenly her heart lurched for the girl. She saw her in a completely different light. Something bad had happened to Penny. She was sure of it.
“Oh, this is going to take a while,” Penny said. “You can duplicate students in batches, but you can’t delete them in batches. We’re going to have to do this one by one.”
“Well, I suppose we’re going to be here for a while,” Sue said. “At least this gives us something to do.”
Penny nodded.
“Do you think you’ll be able to get home later?” Sue asked. “I need to wait until the buses start running again.”
“Were you here in 2016?” Penny asked.
“No, I was working on the student helpdesk.”
“The river burst its banks that year, and some people had to sleep in the office. Martin was one of them, I think,” she said. “It took them all night to pump the water out of the street. Martin’s car got washed down the road to the pub.”