Year of the Wolfe - Month of the Snow Moon - 7

I was about to leave my cubicle and start down to the warehouse when I heard a clattering in the hallway. Z'beatrice shoved her head in my door and said, "Howdy!" A totally unsuitable salutation for a young woman.

Apparently, after seeing my cart she has decided to spend the day with me and keep me company as we venture down to the warehouse. She is fascinated with the idea of "cages". I have told her that this is simply the term that the Zetti Homeland Historical Society uses for storage spaces.

I had to find another flashlight for her and for some reason she threw a two life jackets and two pairs of goggles on the cart. She said she just felt like it. There is room but certainly no need for them.

I locked my office door and we started off down the hallway.

"It's really quiet down here, isn't it?" she said.

"Well, technically, there aren't isn't any other staff that have offices down here." I replied.

"Then, why on earth are you down here? Why not have a nice bright sunny office upstairs?

"Unfortunately, often the parcels and packages that Sir Zetti Corkey sends are not suitable for opening upstairs. They need to be labeled, sorted and stored down here and it makes more sense to just be closer to the cages. Also, my job is to inventory all the cages with his fieldwork finds and those are all down here."

" Well, who else helps you?"

"Just me." I replied proudly.

"Well, that isn't right. There is this huge building and I passed some quite plush offices upstairs and tea carts and quite fancy digs and it didn't seem like anybody was doing anything of any merit, up there."

"Tut, tut, let's just not talk about things that are none of our business. I'm aware of the staff in the main building but they are paid employees and I am just a volunteer. It's quite different."

"It isn't right." she muttered.

"Time to turn on your flashlight. The light bulbs in this end of the hallway are not always on." I told her."

"Not surprised, am I." she sneered. "It looks creepy down there." she whispered.

I felt her take my hand. A pleasant surprise and rather nice.

I asked her if she wanted to help push the cart with me. She seemed to feel safer walking next to me, hands on the cart.

It's rather dark since we turned that last corner.