Читать книгу Brainstorm - Sheldon J.D. Cohen - Страница 8

Monday morning George arrived early for work. On his way downstairs to the basement he rushed by his boss, Andy Simpson, Not until he was halfway down did he hear Andy shouting, “Where are you going?”

“Downstairs.”

“For what?”

“I gotta finish my work.”

“We finished down there, don’t you remember?” Final inspection was last week.”

“Gotta frame in the doors,” said George.

“What? You already did that.”

“No I didn’t,” he said with one hand on the banister.

Andy thought that George must have gone mad, and he motioned for him to come up, but George continued down.

Now Andy was exasperated. “We worked on it together,” he shouted.

“You’re full of crap.”

Before Andy could respond, George’s expression changed from anger to bewilderment.

“All right,” said Andy. “Go take a look.”

George spun on his heels and took the steps two at a time until he reached the bottom stair. There he froze. All the doorframes were finished. In fact, everything on the lower level was finished. Why could he not recall working on it? He forced himself to remember, but his mind was blank. He paced the floor, feeling more confused then ever. He went back upstairs, where Andy was waiting for him at the top of the landing.

“Well?”

No answer.

“Never mind,” said Andy. “We’ve got work upstairs.”

George bit his tongue, fighting to hold his temper. The whole thing had been a set up, he thought, a plot to get rid of me. He felt confused and uncertain. So much was at stake. He knew he was in trouble, but somehow he would have to fake it. Andy was ordering him back to work, but why? So he could mess up and give him the excuse to fire him? His only recourse was to continue work, but he could not afford to make any mistakes. His work had to be free from defects. It had to be perfect.