"TALES OF GHOSTS"
about Love and Death from the Land of Mists
a collection of short stories
in the “Playing Another Reality” series
"BROKEN MIRROR"
8. A LETTER
MONDAY. Day No. 1
I couldn’t find a job for a long time, although I updated my CV on the relevant websites every three days. That evening, a certain Elena called me, introducing herself as the HR Manager of a foreign company. She said that they urgently needed an assistant of General Manager with good knowledge of Spanish language. We talked for about five minutes, and I was invited to their office the next morning.
TUESDAY. Day No. 2
I was a little worried, but, as it turned out, in vain, except for the fact that Elena almost never looked me in the eye, typing something on the computer during our conversation, and, in my opinion, was too indifferent. I was asked to start work the next day, on Wednesday. Such a hurry was somewhat surprising, but at the same time pleased, since I was promised a decent salary and a good social security package.
“Why do you have this vacancy open?” I asked cautiously.
“The girl who worked here before has gone,” Elena answered in a calm voice, still staring at the monitor screen. “By the way, for the sake of formality, I need to introduce you to the General Manager. The issue with him has already been discussed in absentia, your CV was enough for Mister Andreas, but still…”
He was sitting at a computer desk, a tall man of indeterminate years with gray hair. Nothing special.
“This is Katy. You chose her CV yesterday. I offered her to start tomorrow…”
“Okay, let it be tomorrow,” Mr. Andreas said indifferently, looking at me. “Show her everything there…”
He turned back to his computer, signaling that the audience was over, but when we were at the door, we heard his voice,
“Are you going tomorrow, Elena?”
“I’ll come to you later, and we’ll discuss it.”
WEDNESDAY. Day No. 3
I arrived at my new job at nine. Just a couple of minutes later, I noticed Elena appearing in a beautiful black dress.
“How are you? Is everything okay?” she asked and, without waiting for an answer, continued, “Mr. Andreas will be out today. I’ll introduce you to a small team of our administration and leave as well. And, highly likely, I won’t be available on the mobile. Whatever happens, leave it for tomorrow!”
There were really few employees in the Administration: the chief accountant Nana, the HR assistant Olga, the General Services manager Valery, the cleaning lady Nina, myself and two bosses, Elena and Mr. Andreas. In the morning everyone, except for the bosses, gathered in the kitchen to drink coffee.
“We have a five-cup coffee maker, join to be the fifth,” Nana offered. “Elmira used to drink coffee with us.”
“Elmira?” I asked, and the girls looked at each other.
“Elmira was Mister Andreas’ assistant before you,” said Valery, sighing, and lit a cigarette.
“Did she resigned on her own?” I asked, trying to keep the conversation going.
“She quit, yes,” Nana said dryly.
“Long ago?” I didn’t let up.
“On Monday,” Olga replied and lit a cigarette too.
“By the way,” Nina, the cleaning lady, spoke up, “today I came to the office at half past seven and heard the door to the meeting room constantly slamming. It made me feel somehow uncomfortable.”
“Wow! You have ghosts here!” I joked.
Olga looked at Nana intently. Valery sighed again.
“Don’t you believe in ghosts?” he asked.
“I don’t,” I confessed smiling.
THURSDAY. Day No. 4
In the morning I brought to Mr. Andreas his mail and coffee. He took his eyes off the computer.
“Elmira,” looking through me, he said, “I get a lot of letters, but I don’t read most of them. Therefore, I would like you to open all the envelopes yourself and, after reading the contents, immediately throw away the unnecessary ones. Okay?”
“Yes, I’ll try.”
He sometimes called me by her name. As I found out, Elmira had worked with him for about five years, and I wasn’t offended, letting him call me whatever he wanted. The main thing was to be paid on time.
FRIDAY. Day No. 5
That day all the employees were allowed to go home in the afternoon on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the company. In the evening they were going to a restaurant in the city center. However, I would feel out of place there, so before leaving work, I went to Mr. Andreas to apologize that I wouldn’t attend their party and asked his permission to come to the office the next day, on Saturday, to review the archive, because it contained too many documents.
“Yes, of course,” Mr. Andreas agreed indifferently and turned to his computer.
SATURDAY. Day No. 6
I was looking through the Shareholders Meeting Minutes folder, humming a song, when I heard the door to the meeting room slam. It was the third door of Mr. Andreas’ office room. The first one came out to me, to the reception, the second one led directly into the corridor, and the third, farthest, opened to the meeting room.
Soon I heard someone’s footsteps in the corridor and involuntarily shuddered, because I had arrived half an hour ago, when the door to our floor was sealed, and no one came here after my arrival!
I decided to see who had spent the night in the office after the corporate party. I went out into the corridor. Nobody! However, right in front of my eyes, the door to the kitchen got slowly closed, and I silently crept up to it. Through the gap in the doorway, I could see the light burning inside. I took a deep breath and fearlessly opened the door… no one!
“I wonder who forgot to turn off the lights here yesterday! Anyhow, since I’m in the kitchen, I can have some coffee!” I decided.
While the coffee was brewing, I opened the fridge to get the cream and froze. I saw a plastic bag signed ‘Elmira’ on one of the shelves.
I slammed the fridge door and sat down on the sofa, trying to collect my thoughts, when I heard someone’s breathing, and a quiet voice distinctly and even somehow plaintively said, “THE LETTER!”
I cringed feeling the sudden panic that gripped me. After a couple of seconds, the coffee boiled, and I got up to turn off the stove. Without even pouring myself half a cup, I turned off the light, returned to the waiting room, packed my things and left for home.
MONDAY. Day No. 8
“Well, did you come here on Saturday?” Olga asked me when the little company gathered in the kitchen before starting our working day.
“Yeah,” I nodded, unsure whether to talk about my glitches. “I saw Elmira’s grocery bag in the fridge.”
“Yes, we should throw it away already,” Nina agreed. “Or to ask Mr. Andreas, but it’s somehow embarrassing.”
“Why did she leave?” I asked, trying to find out anything about my predecessor.
“We don’t really know ourselves,” Nana replied thoughtfully.
“She was the soul of our company,” Valery sighed and lit a cigarette. “She used to read poetry to us in the morning.”
“Wow! Does she write poetry?” I exclaimed. “It’s a pity I didn’t catch her! However, I would hardly meet her here if she hadn’t left. How old is she?”
“Does it matter?” Olga asked.
“Where does she work now?” I didn’t let up.
“She doesn’t have to work anymore,” answered Valery.
“Does her husband support her?”
Everyone froze instantly. They obviously didn’t want to tell me about Elmira.
“Nina, you know,” I decided to fill the pause to keep the conversation going, “when I was here on Saturday, I heard the door in the meeting room slam, too. I heard footsteps, but there was no one in the office but me.”
Nina smiled, Nana hummed, Olga lit a cigarette.
“Could it be otherwise?” Valery said with a smile, and at the same moment, we heard a click in the kitchen, as if someone had turned off the light, although we were all sitting away from the wall on which the switch was located.
“We talk too much!” Nana burst out in pitch darkness.
***
“How are you doing, Katy?” Elena asked when she came to see me after lunch.
“Fine,” I lied.
“Did you go to work on Saturday? Nothing happened?” she asked in an enigmatic tone, fiddling nervously with her neckerchief.
“Yes, I went out for a while. What should have happened?” I was afraid that there had been someone in the office, and something had disappeared from Mr. Andreas’ office room.
“No, nothing. I just stopped by here on Sunday and… Anyway, never mind. Is big boss in?”
“Yes.”
Elena went to see Mr. Andreas, and when she came out, he called me in.
“How are you?” he asked sadly.
Every day he seemed to me more and more depressed. However, I had little time to judge whether he looked always like that, or it was just a temporary phenomenon.
“Everything is okay, Mr. Andreas.”
“Were you in the office on Saturday?”
“Yes.”
“Did you…” Mr. Andreas couldn’t find the right word.
I cringed, trying in vain to understand what they wanted to hear from me. Had anyone else been there on Saturday? And not just been, but stolen something valuable from the boss’ office? Then that someone had successfully chosen the day when officially it was only me to be inside, any suspicion would automatically fall on me, a completely new person in the company!
“Tell me, Katy, please, do you carefully read the mail that come to my name?”
“Yes, just like you said. I pass all the invoices to the chief accountant, to Valery all concerning…”
“Okay,” Mr. Andreas interrupted me, nodding his head thoughtfully, and suddenly, looking intently into my eyes, he asked, “Didn’t you receive any letter for me?”
“THE LETTER!” I suddenly remembered that plaintive voice in the kitchen on Saturday.
“Are you waiting for some important letter? Today Valery forgot to pick up the mail from the security office, but if you want, I’ll go down myself, or then tomorrow…”
“No, no, nothing urgent. It’s okay tomorrow!”
I had already opened the door to go out, when my boss called out to me.
“Katy, if you suddenly hear something, tell me, okay?”
I looked at the tense and even somewhat helpless expression on his face. He obviously didn’t say all. I couldn’t understand what was going on in that strange company.
TUESDAY. Day No. 9
I was late for work, but only for half an hour, since there had been a power outage at night, and I had an electronic alarm clock.
Approaching the kitchen, where everyone had already gathered (the smell of coffee greeted me at the front door to our floor), I heard them talking about Elmira. But as soon as I entered, everyone fell silent.
“I put the mail on your table,” said Valery. “There is all that came over the weekend, on Monday and today. By the way, didn’t the boss scold me yesterday?”
“No,” I replied, and my gaze fell on the open and already half-empty bottle of French cognac.
“Pour yourself into a cup,” having noticed my gaze, Nana offered.
“Are you celebrating something?” I asked, smiling. “Anyone’s birthday?”
Everyone kept silent, and I thought, “God, why are they ignoring me? What did I ask?”
“Nearly…” Nana replied finally and reached for a cigarette.
“Yes, in a certain sense one can say so,” Valery added quickly.
For the first time in my life, I realized how hard it was to join a team.
“How are you going with Mr. Andreas?” Olga asked. “I mean, he doesn’t hurt you, does he?”
“Why? I’m going well. Is he always that gloomy?”
“He used to be very cheerful, he told us jokes before,” replied Valery.
“Before?” I couldn’t help it.
“Well…” muttered Valery and lit a cigarette with a sigh.
“Don’t worry, everything will be fine,” Olga tried to encourage me and suddenly added, “Haven’t you heard anything else?”
“No,” I was confused, thinking that I got inside a madhouse.
“I’ve been the first to come in the office today,” Olga sighed.
“AND?” almost in unison asked her the others.
“It seemed to me that someone was looking for something in the papers on the table in the reception room. I thought it was Katy, but she’s late today!”
“So someone was rummaging around on my table? And who was it?” I asked, not without a sense of indignation.
“She was,” Valery stated with a sigh.
“Who do you mean?” I asked.
“Elmira, I guess,” clarified Nina, peeked into the kitchen. “She’s like that.”
“What kind of that? Elmira didn’t pick up her things, did she? Does she still come here? Why does the security let her in? Does she keep her pass?” I burst out without controlling myself anymore.
“Apparently, she is…” said Valery, clearly not finishing the sentence, meanwhile everyone was watching my reaction intently.
“Yes, she left a lot of things here,” Nina said timidly. “I put them in the closet, in the meeting room. I should remind Mr. Andreas, but it’s somehow embarrassing. What to do with all that?”
“So let Elmira come and get them!” I thought out aloud. “Can’t you call her?”
“Everyone can call her. It’s a problem to get through,” Valery muttered.
“If you want, I can remind Mr. Andreas of her things myself,” I suggested.
“Just not today,” Nana asked, finishing another cigarette.
“And have you, by chance, thrown away any LETTER?” suddenly, as if by the way, Olga asked.
“What letter?” I shuddered.
“No, nothing,” Nana responded instantly to close the topic. “She has heard in the morning…”
I started sorting through the mail. Opening another envelope addressed to the boss, I heard the voice of Elena entering the reception room.
“Listen, Katy, do you carefully sort the mail?”
I sighed heavily, losing my patience! Either I, or everyone else in that strange company, was out of mind!
“Yes, CAREFULLY. And why? Is there an important LETTER to come?”
“I don’t know, why are you so nervous?” Elena asked, looking away.
“If I do something wrong, tell me straight in the eye!” I tried not to cry out of despair.
“No, no, you’re doing everything right, don’t worry.”
“Everyone keeps telling me about some letter!” I could no longer remain silent.
“Who’s everyone?!” Elena was surprised.
“Mr. Andreas, you, Olga… She heard…”
“Olga, too? It’s interesting! Okay, I’ll go and ask her!” said Elena and left me alone with the mail.
I looked at the envelope I had already opened and pulled out a handwritten paper, “Shit! It’s probably personal, and I…” I got afraid and was about to immediately take the letter to my boss without reading it, but I remembered that he hadn’t arrived yet.
Curiosity got the better of me…
“Try to understand and forgive me. It’s a very hard day today, since the world has suddenly collapsed. You know what I mean, and it’s not worth mentioning here and now, because I’m not sure that my letter will be read by you only. It will arrive to you by regular mail (no Internet again!) if the neighbor remembers (I hope!) to send it tomorrow morning, and your new secretary doesn’t throw it in the trash bin without even opening the envelope.
There are some issues not everyone needs to know about.
I’m flipping through my memory, day by day. From the very beginning. The whole story. All was good. Exactly… WAS. Today the clock has gone backwards, and I will stop it myself. Perhaps, what happened is not such a big tragedy for you. Anyway, if not for the words that you said to me when we got acquainted (do you remember?), maybe today I would have been able to stay…
You know, there are some words, once uttered by someone even without malicious intent, that are forever imprinted in the heart and slowly devour the soul, until, sooner or later, there is nothing left of it at all. Several years have passed, and maybe you even repent of that words, but they have gradually grown in my soul, like metastases that no one can stop anymore.
Today my world has collapsed, and everything between us, starting tomorrow, is emptiness in both you and me. Therefore, I must put an end today, leave, so that tomorrow I don’t infect you with this terrible and incurable disease of emptiness. I wish you no harm. Now you are free, and everything will be fine with you. You’ll see! Let only bright memories about me remain with you!
I’ll be always somewhere nearby to help you from There if necessary, and I’ll come to say goodbye to everyone who was close to me, and even to those with whom I used to drink coffee and read my poems in the office kitchen in the morning.
If there, outside, where I’m going to, life still goes on…”
July 01, 2002