Charlene was on her way to the main office for Boulevardez Construction, the main construction company in the Tri-State area. She had been told to come in her usual work attire, black jacket over a long sleeved white collar shirt and beige pants, for inspection duties and meetings and to see Mr. Vladim Newell and Mr. Felix Boulevardez at 5am sharp.
Could this have been about her last trip to Meteroville? The one where she and Linda ended up gang fighting against their doppelgangers from another dimension in order to stop an illegally purchased set of artificial lights set up to be a faux sky. It was all over the international news at this point. Some couldn’t tell which Charlene was which or which side to be on.
The only ones who knew the true context was Charlene, Linda, their doppelgangers, the Charlene from our dimension’s sisters who carried out the illegal purchase itself, the alternate Charlene’s husband Heinz, and doctors Priyanka and Eileen along with Linda’s Lawrence. Those last three were on Charlene’s side in the middle of that brawl.
She didn’t know which side her managers would be on, so just before she opened the door, out of view from the office door window, she had to rest her back to the wall and take slow, deep breaths. Who knows? This could be the last time she would open these doors.
She didn’t show any anxiety as she finally opened the doors into the plain blue office, facing the two managers, both sitting with professional, welcoming smiles. It seemed the two agreed on something. This was a rare thing.
“Mr Newell? Mr Boulevardez? You wanted to see me?”
“Yes Miss Fontaine, you can come in.” It was Vlad that spoke first. “Good morning Charlene. We have called you here for a promotion.”
“Hey dear!” Charlene didn't have time for her surprise to sink in, as a man burst into the room. His hair was short and dark, and his smile stood in sharp contrast to Vlad's own. Even his outfit was almost the same, his darker fitted shirt complimenting his wider figure better than Vlad's lighter one would have.
This man was Jack. One of Vlad’s two spouses, they both have the responsibility Vlad for work, since he said his hectic schedule didn’t allow him time in the mornings to look after himself.
“You left your lunch at home!” Jack said as he placed a plain plastic container with a tuna and cress sandwich inside it, cut into two triangles.
“Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something, you dolt? Don’t test me Jack. I’ve had enough twats irritating me here as is.”
Jack held his patience. He was clearly used to these threats. “I understand, but is that any excuse to take it out on your own husband?”
“Of course not, that said if you know how much coffee I had this morning, would you kindly take yourself out of my office?”
Taking the bite in his husband’s voice, Jack did so, rolling his eyes. He wasn’t regretting their marriage. He and their wife Maddie had known Vlad since they were in college and knew that Vlad wasn’t always like this, but if you spoke to anyone but Jack and Maddie, they wouldn’t agree. Vlad had either carried himself to be either grouchy, menacing or professional and polite to the point where some bystanders could probably assume he had ulterior motives.
Charlene had found her job very rewarding in terms of pay, not to mention the overseeing of big construction jobs and scouting allowed her to see various beautiful places around the Tri-State Area. Felix was a genuinely kind man to speak to and Vlad never treated Charlene with oppression or threatened her to work harder than she was capable, but then it was possible to be a manager that was competent as well as cunning. She might’ve been lucky that he didn’t picture her as one of his worst workers.
Regardless, she knew this was a usual occurrence in the office and so went quickly back to the meeting at hand.
“For as long as you’ve been here,” Vlad began “You have proven yourself to be a very resourceful and beneficial member of our company. You’ve made a big difference in the ecosystems and overall health of the environment in and around the Tri-State Area…”
“Which is why,” Felix continued “We are letting you be in charge of a renovation project over in Cliffside Park. They needed some tarmacing of their dirt roads, cutting back overgrown shrubs and trees and planting new ones.”
“We’ve had so many maintenance projects as well as construction contracts out of town that we need to have someone supervise the natural areas too. Make sure we don’t cause too much trouble.” Vlad finished.
Charlene smiled gratefully. “Of course sirs. And do you want me to be the main supervisor? As in the one manager?”
“That’s the idea, yes.” Felix said. “Your work shall begin at 2pm this afternoon. Your agenda will be on your desk and you can make the phone calls.”
“Yes sir.” Charlene said confidently as she stood up and exited the room.
As she got up from her chair, she saw Felix trip over from a set of wires under her chair.
“Oh god, are you ok Felix?” Charlene caught him from landing on his face on the chair.
“I’m fine, thank you. Just feeling drowsy from last night.”
“Honestly you’re too clumsy to go around sites like this. I know you have ideas above your budget but that doesn't excuse ignorance.”
“I’m not usually like this!” Felix retorted. “I wouldn’t be making these mistakes if you insisted on renovating Pruett Print’s offices. They didn’t even need it! Just some relaying tarmac on the staff parking lot.”
“It’s not overcompensating for jobs if you can notice the faults in others sh*t. If you can’t notice more money is in these decisions, I wonder why we co-manage at all. Sorry about him Charlene. He would forget his head if it wasn’t screwed on.”
Now it was Felix who brushed the incident off, he shut Vlad’s mouth with his hand. “Sorry about him Charlene. He would forget his heart if it wasn’t hung up by veins and arteries.”
“Whatever it is, sirs, can we settle this before we make a toxic work environment?” Charlene showed her paternal authority at this moment. Her managers picked themselves up. It was clear they picked the right person to supervise the project.
“Sorry Charlene.” They said in unison.
Meanwhile Trudy Avenuez had taken her family car to the park. She was at Cliffside Park with her friends Karen, Arianna, Jack, Akira and Maddie. They were all wearing baggy rain suits ready to go walking, hiking, ghyll scrambling and swimming together.
Akira Hirano was the asian doctor who Trudy had met after her daughter’s quinceañera. She was mainly a children’s doctor but worked on occasion with the adult patients.
Arianna is a slender, long haired brunette woman who came from the idle, independent country of Drusselstein. A warm hearted, mature woman who was into art, horse riding and exploring wildlife. She would know every twig and leaf should her friends get lost.
Jack and Maddie are both Vlad’s significant others but unlike their husband they were lifeguards. They were both 5ft 10in and more plus sized, though they had greying hair in common with their ever looming husband. Jack with his sideburns under a black crown and Maddie with the grey roots under ginger hair.
As for their personalities, they found it hard to read emotions which might make some think they were as insensitive as Vlad, but they don’t mean it, and any close friends know that. They’re both lovers of history which they studied frequently with Vlad and when they were playing games, be it board games or sports, they had a great competitive streak to them. It wasn’t on an intolerable level but one thing they took pride in, which helped them invest themselves in the war aspect of history, was their combat skills. Jack was a Navy cadet and Maddie had a job which required her to have good skills with martial arts. She didn’t quite like to talk about this too much, but the skills she gained from it was something she felt was worth living with.
Karen had way more jobs than Maddie and like Arianna had very good manners. A formal and friendly demeanour to her that helped her keep a long lasting job as an estate agent.
Today was one of her and Akira’s few days off throughout the year so she took to making the most of it by spending it in the great outdoors.
“Oh what a lovely day to be out in the untamed, American countryside.” Akira sighed relaxedly, “Not a cloud in the sky, the grass in the brightest of summer greens, and rivers deep enough to get up to your neck in.” She spun around like she was Julie Andrews taking it all in, while the others let her have fun for a bit. They were taking time with their walk anyway. They had the whole day to themselves. Akira’s children were staying behind at school for after-school clubs and Karen would meet her three adoptive children at the park entrance.
“I don’t even get some of what we’re going for today.” Jack said. “I mean what even is ghyll scrambling?”
“Isn’t this just canyoneering?” Maddie asked.
“Ghyll scrambling is much simpler than that.” Karen explained “With canyoneering, you are walking down a mountain, with the fast current and gravity ready to knock you forwards unbeknownst, and you have to be more skilled with the rope. Ghyll scrambling is going up an easy river.”
On the first stretch of the journey, it took twenty minutes before they got to their first big obstacle. A wide bog of mud, or what was two on either side of the footpath but had grown into one thanks to the rain running down from the mountain during storms.
“Hold on everyone,” Trudy warned “This isn’t just mud, this is an entire swamp. Looks like it’s as wide as the ocean.”
“This doesn’t look too deep.” Maddie reasoned after examining it herself.
“It isn’t.” Jack added “I’ve trudged through mud like this when I was in the military.”
“It’s deep enough, Jack. It’s me who has to clean all the mud off.”
“Well if that’s the case, how can we get across?” Akira asked.
Karen pointed to a tree branch that stretched across the mud. It bent up, down and every which way about three quarters of the way across the bog, with some mainly submerged in the mud but enough of it above the mud was good enough to use it as a step to get across the last stretch of the mud without getting too much mud in the soles.
“Oh yes,” Maddie cleared her throat. “I saw it too. I was just testing you.”
Karen rolled her eyes as she made the first move onto the branch. Everyone else watched her as carefully as Karen herself made her way along it. She didn’t rush, she kept her feet longways across the branch and her balance was to be admired.
“Alright everyone. I’ve got important news.”
“We’re getting a raise?” One worker jeered to which many others laughed.
Charlene rubbed her temples at this. “No, we’ve got a fair few visitors coming down this road soon enough so we must set up road safety signs and attend to the tarmacing job carefully. If I catch you slacking, it will give a lasting impression on the park keeper. Do I make myself clear?”
But still, no one took her seriously. Some people just got back to reading the papers, and leaving building supplies lying around. Charlene decided to go doing some work herself. She figured that if they weren’t going to do their job, they’d insist on getting back to work if they saw a skinny little person picking up big cement bags herself. Fredric tried of course but he and Charlene couldn’t do all the work themselves, no matter how much he tried.
“You’re taking too much at a time Fredric! Let someone else do it.”
“Nonsense, I am strong as an ox.”
God help us all is all that floated around Charlene’s mind as Fredric collapsed onto his stomach from the weight.
After two hours, only two miles of tarmac had been covered. Then Trudy and her party of hikers passed by and noticed the two workers.
“Hey Charlene! What a couple of grafters you two are.”
“Oh um… thanks Trudy. We’re doing our best but the others are barely doing anything. I haven’t been able to get them to.”
“I’m surprised they haven’t been fired.”Akira shook her head.
“Oh Vladim would have fired them long ago if he knew and he knows.” Charlene sighed, looking at the workers far off.
“Well if that’s the case they better help you two soon.” Karen replied “See you later, Captain.” Jack called as he and the rest of the hiking troup carried on their way.
The captain of the sinking ship was all Charlen felt like at the moment. Regardless, she got back to work, as a can of soda was thrown in her direction.
Back in the deeper reaches of the woods, the party had arrived at the deep rushing river. This stretch was specifically right in the middle of the way from the iconic waterfall and the mouth of the river.
“I’ll go first.” Arianna’s direction was heard as she went waist deep into the river.
Then Jack and Karen went after. Jack felt some nervous hand on his.
“Are you holding my hand Karen?” Jack asked “Are you afraid of falling, dear?”
“I wasn’t quite, I’m just staying close so I’m there for someone when they trip themselves. You take big strides so you could help me stay ahead.”
“And there you go with the protection,” Jack chuckled. “We’ve all got a good idea of the route. Arianna went over it at home. There’s no need to protect us. You go around with your children like you’re working for Her Majesty’s Secret Service or something.”
Given that she was the only Brit present, Karen didn’t take kindly to this.
Karen is indeed a protective parent. This came from her living in one of the rougher areas of Danville. Somewhere where it seemed a lot happened that ended up on the local news. Funny how she had such bad luck with homes as she is an estate agent.
“You said this was easier than canyoneering anyway. What’s the big deal?”
“That doesn’t mean you can just jump into it with no experience at all, Maddie.” Karen emphasised “Just don’t push each other into the water, slip on a wet rock or something.”
About fifteen minutes later, Karen found that she couldn’t move her left foot at all, she looked down and found that she got her foot stuck in between three rocks, she tried to wriggle it out but the rocks were too slippery.
Maddie came back and Jack followed. “Oh dear, try turning your leg anti-clockwise, then lean yourself into the rocks and bend the leg. Jackie learnt that from his time in the military.”
Karen tried it, listening carefully and going carefully about it. And eventually she succeeded.
Fredric at this point had finished several jobs on his own, all while trying to hide how truly tired he was. He did show it unintentionally when he put the tarmac bags down and slouched over to Charlene, who he noticed was holding a pad of yellow and pink sheets of paper and chatting enthusiastically on her phone.
“What are you doing Charlene?”
“I’m calling our investors to try increasing the pay. I looked into our contracts and concluded that the wage is barely minimum. No wonder some are lazy. I’ve called to request a pay rise.” And she held pink slips of paper in front of him.
So with this in mind, Charlene sent her idea towards Vlad on his phone. After five minutes he sent a voice call back. When Charlene picked up the call, she saw Vlad on screen with one of his discomforting looks and Felix at his side wondering just how this call will end.
“Charlene, what’s the big deal with the increase in pay? Our current salary is just enough for Boulevardez Construction! If you want to motivate your employees, no more benefits!”
“No Vlad. You always allowed me to pitch new ideas, and since I’m the manager of this project, I am doing what I believe is best for the employees. You said so yourself.”
“Of course I did Charlene. I trust you completely to do the right thing. Sorry for wasting your time.”
The group then started swimming in the huge lake.
Trudy tried to dip her toe in, slowly and shakingly, but with a squeal she jumped right back.
“Is it that cold?” asked Akira with a chuckle.
“It is a bit cold!” Trudy anxiously answered.
Karen tried herself, to see if she agreed and sure enough, she did too. She shivered and ended up wrapping her arm around Trudy from the warmth, Trudy did the same in return.
“It’s ok once you make the sudden jump in.” Maddie called having already swam a good few yards away from the shore.
She and Jack laughed affectionately at Karen, but Karen took it personally and Arianna could feel it.
“It’s ok Karen.” she soothed, “They don’t mean anything by it. You had the best interest of others at heart at the ghyll. Just imagine the water is-” but she didn’t have to give her persuasive guidance at all, because she was unaware that Karen was taking no notice. She jumped right into the water just to push Maddie and Jack’s heads under the water.
The sun was setting on the journey back home. Trudy and friends have dried off and changed into their regular clothes. Akira could sense some tension between Maddie, Jack and Karen. Karen held a good long grudge after the disagreements from earlier. The party were just down the main road to the exit but it wasn’t until they rounded the last bend to the final stretch when Jack saw the wall of brambles. The minivan crashed into it, leaving the tyres wedged in and popped.
“God this just had to happen when I’m at the wheel!” He groaned.
“I have a tyre pump in the trunk and spare tyres if it comes to that.” Maddie reassured Jack.
“But no clippers. How can we get the minivan out of this clump?” Jack asked.
No one had a clue how.
Suddenly the atmosphere changed drastically, for the worse.
Maddie and Jack showed the blank, wide eyed faces that showed a sudden realisation, before a broad grin came upon both of their faces. Narrow eyed and glancing at each other, proud of what they came up with, they both sent a chill down Karen’s spine and everyone else could feel it for good reason. The Newells were about to do something incredibly stupid.
Before anyone could stop them, they ran into the driver and shotgun seats, doors immediately locked. “Let’s force through it!” They called in unison.
They did just that, Jack shoved the gear stick to the top gear and full throttle was applied. The wheels spun into a blur and a deafening screech was heard probably for five yards beyond the dirt road. The vehicle didn’t seem to be moving, and yet the brambles covered the bonnet a fair bit more by the time the minivan stopped.
“Oh give it a rest you two! Are you going to try anything else or am I going to have to take you out?”
“Please!” Trudy put a hand in front of Karen, “Don’t go with the latter Karen, and that will be enough from you two as well. This petty competition was part of what got us into this situation in the first place.”
Karen, Jack and Maddie looked at each other, and they evidently knew Trudy was right. As the Newells got out and exchanged apologies with Karen, Trudy dialled a number for the tow truck.
“Hello? Towman? We’re at the Danville gate to Cliffside Park and our minivan is stuck 40 yards in. It’s stuck in brambles. Could you get someone to help?”
“Unfortunately they can’t do a thing.” Trudy admitted. “No one was available.”
And no one took that well.
Meanwhile Felix and Vlad had finished their day’s work and were on their way back to their offices.
As Felix was at the driver’s wheel, Vlad went and called Maddie. “Hello Maddie, I’m just calling to let you know I will be fifteen minutes late for dinner. There’s traffic on the main street.”
He waited for what felt like a minute for Maddie’s response on the landline but he didn’t get any.
“Maddie? Are you ok? As you’ve said before, it's not that late.”
Still no answer.
“Maddie, if this is a joke, this isn’t funny. Jack? Are you at least there?”
After two more minutes of radio silence, Vlad started getting worried.
“Neither of them are responding. I don’t get it, they’re always home.”
“Weren’t they going on that trek in Cliffside Park?” Felix asked.
“They were but that would’ve ended some time ago. Where could they be by now? Wherever they are, I must take care of them. Do you think they were wrestling with a bear or got their feet stuck in a tree or something? No matter, we need to go and check on them!”
And with this anxiety taken over him, he took the wheel, and took a u-turn out of the traffic, bumping over the pavement, sandwiched between two street lamps, and cutting in front of a car that beeped once he almost collided with it. Felix screamed for a good minute before recollecting himself as his business partner raced off to save the day.
Back at the site, Karen had already called her husband to tell him he’d have to take the children to where she was to get home.
“How long have we been here?” Maddie asked.
Arianna looked through the trees. “From the position of the sun, I’d say two hours.”
“That long already??” Jack stuttered, “Oh and Vlad is expecting us home by now. This is all our fault.” He held Maddie’s and and the two exchanged guilty glances with Karen.
“It is,” Karen agreed, before shrugging it off, “but no use in feeling- do you hear that?” She started scanning the woods around them, and her friends did the same, wondering what she was looking at. A silhouette of a slumped, slow moving lump quietly came to a stop, behind the pines from beyond the bramble bush. A smaller round figure emerged from behind it. It did look like someone coming out of a car but this human-like figure seemed to be crawling on the ground rather than walking. It seemed somewhat unnatural. Everyone was concerned, but Karen stayed protective.
“It’s alright, animals do come out this time of the day.”
“Karen’s right.” Arianna stated “It won’t harm you if you don’t harm it.”
Turns out it was a human, two in fact. It was just Felix in a nauseous state that came out of the hedgerows first, crawling with clear bruises on his elbows and shaking knees. Vlad came out next, a lot more stable on himself.
“It’s worse than I thought.” Karen hissed, narrowing her eyes. She was the only one that had this sentiment however because Maddie and Jack ran up to Vlad in a very warm hug, happy tears in their eyes.
“What happened?”
“Well our van got trapped in these brambles and Jack and I kinda made it worse by trying to force our way through them.”
“Ah well, so long as you all are fine, that’s the important thing. I can take you home. Come into our car.”
“And what about the minivan?” Trudy asked.
“Oh that cheap wagon? We can leave it behind to become a raccoon’s home.”
But Trudy gave nothing but an ungrateful scowl, and with his spouses and associates giving more disapproving looks, Vlad had to ditch his idea. He sighed.
“So what can we do?”
Vlad didn’t know how to fix it himself, he was not quite the one to work with forestry like cutting up firewood or hunting for wild berries, unlike his spouses, but as he was wracking his brain to think of a solution, he saw a few people from his own construction company come towards them.
It was the same party of lazy workers assigned to Charlene. They came to the minivan and greeted their managers.
“Stay back, everyone. We’ve got this handled.” Charlene stood back to see how they did. She would give them one more chance, as she does to those who did her bad once before. Vlad, Felix and Trudy exchanged cynical looks.
Half the workers held the vehicle steady as others got clippers out and, moving the branches about, managed to cut bunches away, moving great clumps of it behind the bushes on the side of the road. Next a pair took out some wooden planks and placed them underneath the front wheels.
This was in preparation for a stage where they moved the actual minivan. One got into the driver’s seat and drove in first gear, carefully, letting the rest of the workers push the vehicle from the front.
By the time they finished, a small crowd had formed, consisting of not just the stranded hikers, Vlad, Felix and Charlene but Karen’s children and husband.
“Well done Charlene.” Vlad congratulated, shaking Charlene’s hand.
“Really? You’re congratulating me? But I only got three people to work.”
“And reminded us to fire all of the rest. The particular people who we assigned with you are the worst workers we have. The best ones have been assigned to our other projects. Felix has gotten back to me about how they’ve complained multiple times about how they were working hard in spite of the working conditions and they truly appreciate you keeping their best interest at heart.
You did more than what was required as a leader and you more than deserve a rest. You can work from home for the weekend and have some time to spend resting or with your family.”
Charlene beamed with honour. She felt like she could cry, and Trudy and friends gathered around her for hugs and cheers. They then drove home and Felix drove Charlene home, Vlad going home in Trudy’s minivan.
When Karen and her family made it home, Karen and her husband Ben were at the dinner table, listening to the very enthusiastic ramblings from their children about how their day went.
“And just when the bunsen burner mark came off, Sally had to ‘help’ Richard with his homework when he knew algebra better than any of us!” Exclaimed Rebecca, the loudest one with dark brown hair and a sky blue top.
“It wasn’t algebra.” retorted Sally, the ginger girl wearing purple, “It was a very complicated fraction. Nothing to me of course. I am a fluent German speaker, a great mathematician and-”
“Now now Sally,” Karen said. With a simple hand on her shoulder, Sally sat still and looked up at her mother obediently. “You may be good at a lot of things but if you keep boasting about it, no one will want to talk to you.”
“Thank you mom.” said Richard, the only son, the plumpest and the youngest with tan skin, black hair, and a purple long sleeved shirt, “I bet you don’t get insecure at all. You’re good at as many things as Sally and so patient.”
Karen chuckled modestly. “Thank you, but nobody’s perfect Richard. Not even me.”
Late that night, when those three children were fast asleep, Charlene didn’t necessarily feel like she was in a new era of her life, but her little office felt different. A new file for project agreement forms and a new desk nameplate stating she was ‘environmental supervisor’ was a new responsibility that now fit her like a glove, especially in her mind. But it was getting late. Everyone else was going home and it was time for her to do the same.
Tomorrow was just another work day.
{End}
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