I'm sure you're wondering about who the second person relevant to the story is. After all, I did say that this story was about, "two former NRPL members." Worry not, for this second part of our story covers exactly that.
It was mentioned in the last chapter of our tale that Joseph had a standard patrol partner named Marianne, who had been out with an illness when we last followed our unsuspecting nymphomaniac. Well, it was three days later, and Marianne was returning to her post for the first time after recovering from the flu. It was not, as Joseph had suspected, her "monthly shame," that had kept her away from her patrols. She had incidentally had her period during those days, but Marianne had never once missed work because of that part of her biology. She was a devout puritan and believed whole-heartedly that her own challenges as a woman were her own to deal with and should never inconvenience anyone else. Truly, her perceptions of what was fair were twisted up in proper knots exactly as NRPL would have it.
But there were rules about coming to work when ill. NRPL made it clear that anyone afflicted with any non-standard state of being were to remain home until the illness had passed. The official explanation was that illnesses were demons seeking to corrupt and would use a corrupt individual as a conduit to also find others and infect them too. Marianne had her doubts about the truthiness of this. She had once accidently found an old, forbidden medical book and read a few pages before realizing what it was. It had said something about germs and how they could infect, and the explanation had made a lot of sense, especially when she considered that she had never felt particularly corrupted when sick, only stuffy and sleepy. But it was never wise to question NRPL decrees, and she had decided that truthful or not, there was probably a good reason that NRPL explained it as they did and that she should simply stay home whenever she was ill. Be it germs or demons, either way it just seemed polite to not risk giving them to others. So, at home alone, her flu had passed and, that morning, she had been cleared by the health screening questionnaire that everyone took each day before going to work.
Within the locker room she had changed into her Purple NRPL uniform (a purple turtleneck and a long purple dress that was as dysfunctional as it was ugly) while embarrassedly hovering in a corner. Though the locker rooms were separated into men's and women's rooms, she still found it incredibly embarrassing to have to strip down do her underwear in front of everyone else. The room was empty while she was there, but there was always the risk that someone would walk in before she was completely covered again.
The dressing ordeal handled, she then exited the changing room and made her way to the staff assignment area where she would meet up with Joseph and receive her assignment for the day. She was a little nervous about seeing Joseph again, knowing that he would likely be very uncomfortable given his usual assumption that she had been out and suffering from her period. She had always thought it was silly that he never caught on to the fact that she was never gone on a regular schedule or for a predictable number of days like would be the case if she was indeed taking time off for her menstrual cycle. But she never said anything, fearing it would be perceived as unbecoming to talk about such things or out of line to correct someone as well respected as Joseph always seemed to be.
But upon entering the staff room, she found Joseph staring blankly off into the distance. Certainly, there were plenty of people who did such things, but Joseph had never been one of them. He was always so alert, as though desperate to be the next one to identify an infraction or to volunteer for whatever additional assignments might be presented to the security group. This time, however, he clearly had something on his mind. Nobody else seemed to notice, but Marianne had always been more observant than most. Likely this had been a big contributor to her success among the Purple NRPLs.
Many who knew Marianne when she was a child would have been nothing short of shocked that such a meek child had found herself among the higher ranks of the Purple NRPLs. She was never authoritative and had a determination to avoid confrontation at all costs. It was true, that many of the classic markers that were looked for among recruits to the security forces were nowhere to be found in Marianne. But what she lacked in classic police officer traits she made up for with her accidental talent for investigating and questioning.
Marianne had always been a very observant person, often allowing her to figure out puzzles before many even knew there was a puzzle to solve. She was particularly proud of the fact that she had identified a teacher who had been secretly stealing communion wafers from the school lunchroom. Nobody had been taking proper inventory, but during a shift as a student assistant to the cooks, Marianne had decided to count the wafers and found that they were consistently a few short compared to the number of students and teachers being served. After a week of careful observation, she had noticed this teacher palming a few extras during each meal.
It was after discovering this that her knack for questioning people really shone in the same incident. In her own head she had simply been wanting to verify that she wasn't making a mistake when she asked the teacher about it. When he gave a dodgy answer, Marianne had simply stood and puzzled it over, trying to decide if she had mistaken who was taking the wafers or if they were even being taken at all. But her silence, when felt by the teacher's guilty conscious, had felt like an interrogation, the pressure to which he quickly broke and admitted to everything.
The teacher had been dismissed for multiple crimes after the incident. In his confession he had admitted to stealing the wafers to give to his dogs, fearing that their souls would not be welcome into heaven and doing anything he could to try and purify them to avoid such a tragedy. Marianne had been commended for her investigative acumen and given a special position as Security Inquisitor; a position created so that she could serve as a spy among students to report to the school security team. Marianne had been quite baffled by it all but was far too shy to question what all was happening.
Similar fortunes had plagued Marianne's career. Accidental successes seemed to constantly find her, elevating her higher and higher among the ranks to her increasing dread. At this point in her career, she was thoroughly convinced that she would eventually be discovered for the in incompetent person she believed herself to be. Unfortunately for Marianne, being a competent person is remarkably rare, making even her accidental success something laudable and worthy of recognition among the sea of mediocrity that was the modern-day workforce.
Unfortunately for Joseph, however, he was paired with the observant Marianne, meaning his days of being distracted without scrutiny were now over. And as she walked over to him, he suddenly snapped out of his reverie and was forced to act as casually as he could.
One might accurately guess that Joseph could not act whatsoever.
"Good morning, Joseph! Is everything alright?" Marianne sat down in the chair next to Joseph, offering him a look of friendly concern.
