Chapter Sixteen
/* These chapters do not stand alone. In order to make sense of the following it helps to at least dimly remember the goings-on of the previous nine parts. Six weeks until race day and then I'll have to tie up some loose ends with an epilogue. */
Mailgirl Twenty-two woke early Tuesday morning. Even without checking the time on her MMU she knew it was early because the grille across her sleeping niche hadn't retracted yet. She watched Mailgirl Seventeen exit the dormitory through the door into the lounge -- either Seventeen or her partner on the breakfast run must have made enough noise to bring her to consciousness.
Twenty-two stretched out as much as she could in the cramped space -- the sleeping niches were fine for the shorter women, but at 5' 10" she couldn't completely straighten out even on the diagonal. It had been a hard week. She was in the best shape of her life following just over a year of racing about the five floors of the SG&T headquarters building, but the last week had been over the top. A week ago Saturday she had seriously overachieved in the training session, then a severe cropping on Monday, running on the treadmill on Thursday followed by six of the best with the paddle for exceeding twenty-five demerits, and then another training session two days ago. She hadn't been as stupid as the previous Saturday, but dashing from office to office didn't fully prepare you for running repeat 3k loops. That was Megan's thing, not hers.
And thinking of her sister, she had given off some strange vibes Saturday morning. There had only been three men joining Megan and the mailgirls in their second session: Ken Jensen who had been chatting up Megan the previous week, Mr Stevens from Auditing, and Brendan who had come with Sara (the ex-Mailgirl Five) and her fiance the first time. Megan had been rather obviously not running with Ken or Brendan and was doing her 'not into boyfriends' manner which Twenty-two remembered from Megan's high school days. It wasn't her totally freaked 'they all saw me on my knees eating dog food in the nude' that she sported for months after returning to work as a financial analyst; no, it was definitely the 'attracted to boys, but what do I do' mode. Maybe she'd just ask Megan if she had sex the next time she saw her.
Richard from Chicago had not been at Sunday's training session. She'd enjoyed flirting with him the week before, but that had led to her Monday punishment. Mistress V said that he had been counseled about his behavior so mayhaps his absence wasn't surprising. She wondered how long his resolve to avoid her would last. It looked at though Megan had moved on from him and she was the other Brooks sister on offer.
Her MMU buzzed and the grille slid open so it was time for another soul-baring, well skin-baring, performance as Mailgirl Twenty-two.
Megan strode into the SG&T building, her head still whirling from the events of the past few days. She'd politely send Brendan home after brunch on Saturday, then spent much of the day responding to texts from Lin Chang. Not only had Dr Rodriguez surprised her daughter with her visit, but first contact was made in the company of the college president. Maria seemed to handle the reunion well as far as Megan could tell from Lin's texts, but after nearly two years as a mailgirl what would faze her. Sunday morning had been another relaxing, long run with Ken Jensen and they'd met other runners in the park where they'd met before heading out on the Rock Creek Trail. Sunday evening had been a reassuring virtual therapy session on the phone with Sarah where Megan rambled on about Mistress V's revelations, Maria's mom, and Brendan. After serving as Sarah's confidant / shoulder to cry on for the year after she met Sam it was the taller brunette's turn to provide some emotional stability. Monday she ran a holiday 5k put on by the Montgomery Road Runners, finishing third woman despite treating it as a training run and a chance to meet other runners.
Following the long weekend, it was time to face down Ms Barnes. She had been absent again on Friday which Megan appreciated as that had given her more time to process the introduction of Dr Rodriguez into the frame. And Mrs Soames.
Once at her desk the first thing she brought up on her screen was the Mailgirl App which was a clear sign of a screwed sense of priorities. She knew that it was at the top of the startup list for many of her male colleagues, and yes, a few of the women as well, but still she wanted, needed to focus on finance, not naked women. The only punishments listed for today were the traditional six of the best for exceeding twenty-five demerits and those were Mailgirls Eight and Nineteen. She brought up the statuses of the runners: Twenty-three was "off duty", Fourteen was "off-campus" and the others all "on-duty." Twelve was at Auditing, the others were en-route, none to Human Capital. Megan knew of employees who held onto outgoing deliveries until they judged their favorite mailgirl was most likely to do the pick-up. Rank and file didn't have the ability to specify mailgirls, that was generally reserved for executives.
Her calendar app popped a notice up onto her screen that she had an appointment in Human Capital in ten minutes.
Might as well get all the mailgirl crap out of the way first thing so that I can get to work.
Megan walked up to the third floor and made her way back to Human Capital. Miss Bradley announced her arrival and said, "You can go right in."
Ms Barnes rose to her feet as Megan entered, "I've had more than enough of you, Ms Brooks. You have access to the Mailgirls Lounge and Dormitory for the sole purpose of training mailgirls for the Corporate Challenge Race. That does not entitle you to lead tours for any curious individual or to question the bank's treatment of mailgirls. You leave personnel matters to Human Capital and Human Resources and stick to your desk. As you have been officially assigned to work with these mailgirls Human Capital will have input into your next performance review and it will not be positive.
"Your qualifications to train these mailgirls to race are that you ran track in college and that you continue to run. But, as you have pointed out many times this takes you away from the job that the bank pays you for. I will propose to Mr Soames that Mailgirl Twenty-three take over training the others. She also ran collegiately and did quite well. It's the obvious answer. Do yourself a favor and tell your friend Mr Starnes that you want this to happen."
Megan considered the proposal for half a beat before the image of Maria's bottom came to her mind. "Ms Barnes, I did not seek out this project, but I am going to carry it through to completion. Mailgirl Twenty-three needs to be focusing on her own recovery and learning to be the best SG&T mailgirl that she can be."
"Then I have no choice but to lay your misbehavior before Mr Soames and have you removed."
"Did Security tell you who I escorted into the Mailgirls Lounge?"
"A Dr Rodriguez. I supposed you
e going to say you took him to examine Mailgirl Twenty-three. The Medical Center has kept a careful eye on her, you needn't have interfered."
"Well, actually Dr Rodriguez said that her sister was the psychiatrist and perhaps she could help Twenty-three. No, Dr Rodriguez has a doctorate in Electrical Engineering, but more importantly is a newly appointed member of SG&T's Board of Directors. She is also a sorority sister of Mrs Soames and when she wanted to speak privately to me she shooed Mr Soames out of his own office."
"It doesn't matter; you exceeded your authority when you took a visitor, especially a distinguished visitor into those spaces."
"Oh, and I should also mention that Dr Rodriguez is the name she goes by professionally. She is also the elder Mrs. Maria Hyland. She invited Mr Fforde, me and my date to dinner and the symphony Friday night and was then planning to attend Convocation at Hood on Saturday. Professor Chang sent me multiple texts on Saturday alerting me that Maria's mother was on campus in the company of the college president. While I didn't bring up the stripes across Maria's ass and I doubt that she bared her buttocks to her mother, I suspect that Professor Chang was less reticent.
"If there is nothing more, I need to post the training schedule for this week and then get back to work. There will be no exceptionally harsh treatment of the women in training and Mailgirl Fourteen will return to work without incident Friday morning." Megan turned and walked out.
Once back at her desk Megan called Bob Starnes and alerted him to Ms Barnes' proposal and the potential influence of Dr Rodriguez. She then drew up the schedule for treadmill training. Due to the short week -- even most of the mailgirls had gotten the holiday off, a stay-cation for them -- Megan decided on Twenty-two and Twelve on Wednesday, then Four and Fifteen Thursday morning, and that left just Three since Fourteen wouldn't be back until Friday morning. She decided that Three could pair with Twenty-three Thursday afternoon; Felicity would know enough not to overdo it. And now, time to do real work.
After an uneventful (and mailgirl free) rest of the day Megan was about to shut down and head home when she received a request for a meeting with Mr Fforde in ten minutes. She resolutely logged out and walked up to the Legal Department. The middle-aged (not a mailgirl candidate) secretary waved her on to an office back in the corner. Mr Fforde sat behind his desk watching Mailgirl Twenty-three on her knees in front of him scanning a sheaf of papers.
"Nothing obvious appears to be missing, though if they absconded with some t-shirts I wouldn't necessarily pick that out from a listing."
"It is traditional to confiscate mailgirls' lingerie, some firms have been known to repackage panties and sell them. Aside from that, the San Francisco office agrees. They did a physical inventory and checked that against the listing you signed off on two years ago. The paralegal who went through your boxes did note that the violin was badly out of tune, but otherwise playable. He wasn't impressed by the climate control in their storage facility.
