Wilson bounded into my office with all the energy of a dog with a new toy. His exuberance was enough to distract me from comparing Amazon’s new credit card offer against the Visa we were presently using. The APR on the Amazon card seemed a bit wonky and I welcomed the opportunity to kick the can down the road and not make a decision.
“Have you heard the great news?” he asked
I was napping peacefully, a fine Saturday afternoon respite on the couch, filled with images of white sand beaches and soft ocean breezes when the noise startled me.
Thunk.
And again. Thunk.
Maybe it was part of the dream. Maybe there was some work going on at the resort behind me in la la land.
Thunk.
The labor action had been threatened for weeks, and the deadline for a walkout by members of the International Brotherhood of the Unrecognized and Marginalized had arrived. Thankfully membership in the local chapter of I-Bum numbered in the low to mid-single digits. But a walkout is a walkout and this one was being taken seriously by Roz and upper management.
Wilson was as relaxed as I had ever seen him after his big decision to join The Great Resignation. He had enjoyed Thanksgiving, and of course Black Friday, which despite its diminished status was still close to a major holiday for the man.
“Maybe there’s something I’m missing,” I said, as we finished lunch. “You don’t have a job, correct?”
“Correct,” he said.
“And you haven’t told me otherwise, but you don’t seem to have anything lined up at the moment.”
It was a big decision and one I needed some help with, so I called Wilson.
“Can you come in here for a minute?” I asked.
“Is it important?” he asked, sounding preoccupied.
“Yes.”
Seconds later Wilson walked into my office. He sighed for dramatic effect, like your kids do when they want to let you know just how put out they are about something. Then he plopped down in one of the chairs in front of my desk.
Wilson was standing in my office practicing his yo-yo, one of the seemingly endless array of new “hobbies” he had taken up during the pandemic. I was busy reading about a rogue goat terrorizing a small town in Scotland. I was hoping to find video that would allow me to waste more of the morning.
Our best efforts at corporate time mismanagement ended abruptly when a blood-curdling shriek came from down the hall. It was followed in short order by another, this one sending a chill pulsing up my spine.