With the advent of social networking and late flu season, I recall with a smile a great little company I worked for many years ago. Bob, Nancy, and I–and sporadically a manager if he could survive us (we drove two of them out of their minds)–worked in the advertising department. This was separated from Sales by a doorway where the V.P. of Marketing, the sales manager, and a few secretaries had their offices. Mary was from Sales, but she was located in our area and rightfully one of ‘us.’ We kept putting the separating door up on its hinges every morning and every night, the V.P. would have someone take it down. Obviously, since we put it up in the morning and maintenance worked at night, we were the ultimate victors.
During one Christmas season one of our outside sales staff was stricken with Hepatitis and aside from the seriousness of that bad fortune, it became the talk of the office and suddenly everybody on the other side of the door was loudly proclaiming their worry since they were at the vice president’s party (to which we were obviously not invited), making lab appointments and taking off to their doctors for the next week.
We, of course, felt badly. Not for them as much as for ourselves since we stuck out like sore thumbs for not being possibly afflicted. So we made up our own cover. For two days we anxiously discussed our concern and upcoming test results for syphilis.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology