Page 62 of A Light in the Dark
I had bad news for him, and it involved a fabric store in Stonecreek that had a variety of thin rabbit wool fabrics available for sale. When he invited me over to play games, Iwould begin my plan to provide him with a suit made of his bane, but as I wasn’t completely evil, I would line it with Shifter Five’s silk, allowing him to wear it without actually itching.
It would make a good excuse to take Madeline out into the city to see what there was to see—and who had an unhealthy interest in the refugee.
EIGHTEEN
Two of them cried, Valerie.
On Tuesday,chaos struck work as people seemed to remember there were fiscal benefits to be had from hiring refugees. The flood of refugee paperwork went to my desk, as I refused to expose Madeline to the city’s greed.
She’d been traumatized enough.
As my boss wanted the same information as the Hunters, I took notes on a piece of paper, photographed it, emailed the picture to myself at work, and forwarded it to him. My ability to take photos was new, and he’d gotten a good laugh over my reluctance to join the modern world. He appreciated the digital records rather than me adding to the explosion of paperwork in his office and offered to have the company cover the cost of the phone.
I declined on grounds of planning to use it for primarily play and that the bonus more than covered the toy.
To keep Madeline uninvolved with the refugee documents, I sent her on a mission to introduce herself to the keyaccountants scattered throughout the building. As I wanted the accountants able and ready to work with just Madeline, I sent her alone with instructions to call me if she needed backup.
On my lunch break, I sent a copy of the photos to Roger and asked him to confirm that he’d received them. Once they were safely in his hands, I deleted everything from my message history.
Then, aware Madeline had a lot of adjusting to do, I waited for the woman to return from the wild goose chase I’d sent her on, hammering out other work to pass the time.
An hour before the end of the day, she returned, her eyes wide. “Two of them cried, Valerie.”
I could think of a few reasons why the accountants might start crying. “They’ll survive, probably, especially when they receive their next batch of organized files.”
Madeline pulled up her chair, sat, and stared at the mountain of papers taking over my desk, the floor, and the desk Mr. Accor had brought in for the woman. “I told them we will be organizing them by date and making sure any that are time sensitive are delivered first. That’s it. The one woman hugged me while literally sobbing.”
“They are still convinced that my ability to organize based on time sensitivity is a fluke. It probably sank in that they were actually going to be able to work efficiently and make their deadlines. That’s my job. I make their job easier. You’ll make their job even easier, and they aren’t ready to handle such good fortune. Give them a few weeks, and they’ll stop crying every time they see you. When the main tax season starts, they’ll start crying when they see you for completely different reasons.”
“Nobody told me we were the harbingers of tears for accountants.”
I grinned at her. “You’ll get used to it. Now that you’ve met the people we will work with most often, you’ll have an easier time figuring out how to handle the paperwork.” I sighed over the explosion of papers in our area of the office. “When you think about it, we have the largest office in this place.” Technically, it was an open workspace, but due to the volume of paper that moved through the area, Madeline and I would enjoy having the room to ourselves.
It was near the reception, we could easily access all the offices on our floor, and if we needed to deliver paperwork to a different floor, we were close to the elevator.
“I hadn’t understood that last week, but seeing the mess that has arrived today, I think I get it. We don’t have to deal with this all before we go home, do we?”
“We don’t. We’ll lock the doors to the room and keep everything in here so nobody disturbs it once we leave.”
“Oh, good. It might take days to dig out from this!”
Aware Madeline would work extra hours if given the chance, I decided it was time to move forward with taking her on an outing. “Do you have any plans for tonight?”
“I don’t. They put me up in the hotel right down the street, but I haven’t had a chance to check out anything nearby. I’m worried about going out alone.”
I couldn’t blame her for that, especially if there were any rumors about missing refugees going around the refugee population still living in the city. “I need to go to the fabric store after work. Do you want to come with me?”
Madeline grinned at me. “Really?”
“Really. We can get whatever you need to start sewing. Have you been paid yet?”
“I got paid my hiring bonus on Saturday. Mr. Accor said he wanted to make sure that was handled promptly so I can start getting settled while he has my new house situated. I thought the housewasthe hiring bonus.”
“It’s part of it. But you need money to pay your property taxes, groceries, and so on, and this company gives a welcome bonus to help their employees get settled before their first check.” I’d been shocked when I’d received a cash stipend for groceries and anything I needed before my first pay. I expected she’d been given extra.
I hadn’t needed any of the money, but I had appreciated it.
Madeline had lost everything but her life during Earth’s fall.
