Page 38 of Miles. Alton & The 9:04
After five years, he knew a few things about Mae Weston.She was a straight shooter who treated everyone fairly.He'd dropped the ball.In her words, she gave him a timeline.Six months.Six months have taken a toll.Something was afoul and he had missed it.He looked at the woman in his office who'd come to register a complaint against Ms.Weston, who didn't bother to offer a greeting to the lady in his office.
Clyde knew Mae Weston professionally, like the back of his hand.Based on her reaction to the lady in his office, Ms.Weston didn't know the woman.If she had known her, she would have greeted her by name.Not only did Ms.Weston not greet the woman, she didn’t acknowledge her being in the room, which was a high-flying red flag with a white dot in the center of a target.Therefore, Clyde concluded, the woman in his office was there to bear false witness against Ms.Weston.He walked to the bullpen where Mae's team worked.His voice bellowed through the group.
“What in the ledger paper is happening in this department?”Clyde shouted.
“Ms.Weston quit,” Rosemary said, looking forlorn.
“Can anyone give me a reason as to what has been happening in this department with a team that Ms.Weston hand-selected, trained, and fought for your cushy salaries?”he asked.
No one would make eye contact with him.That was red flag number two.Rosemary, her assistant, seemed to be the only person emotionally invested in Mae's departure.
“Fine,” he said.“This afternoon, I will work on moving you all back to the accounting pool.Your responsibilities can be handled from there.”
“What?”Holly Chambers called out, “She quit, not us!”
“I'm sure her leaving had nothing to do with the way you've treated her over the past six months,” he said.He didn't get a chance to say anything more as the CEO and COO barreled into the department.
The CEO spoke first.“I heard Ms.Weston quit!”
The COO asked, “Is it true?Did she quit?No notice?What is going on down here?”
Clyde Walker wanted to know the same thing.He looked around the room at the team that had changed the image of the railroad's commitment to the community.These people were up to something, and he didn't like it.
Clyde said the obvious, “Ms.Weston was being bullied and we missed all the clues.This team, who should have had her back, dog piled on her, and now we've lost her.”
The CEO turned to look at Rosemary.“Is this true?”
“Pretty much,” Rosemary said.“Someone even scratched up her car.”
Clyde's anger grew.“Rosemary, get security up here.I want all the footage from that time frame of the parking deck, and when we find who did it, I want them gone.”
The COO, obviously flustered, asked, “Can we get her back?”
“Back to what?This team?These people?I wouldn't want to come back here,” Clyde said.“How I’m feeling right now...I don’t even want these people on my team.My disappointment right now is just...”
The CEO spoke, “Gentlemen, my office now.”
The three men walked past Laura Fishburn, who'd followed Clyde from his office.He pointed at the woman, “You!What do you do here?”
“I work in marketing,” she stuttered.
“Go back to doing that and don't come back to this floor again with your nonsense,” Clyde told her in front of everyone.
Mae Weston was far more respected by the people who ran the company than her team realized.At the end of the day, each member of her team was reassigned to the accounting department.The cushy exclusive access they’d had on the upper-level floors was no more, and they were relegated to return to the accounting pool.Many failed to understand what had happened and blamed the shifts in their statuses on Mae, refusing to take accountability for how they treated their team leader and boss.
In the meantime, Mae sat on her couch, looking at her plants.A smile came to her face when she went to her closet, took out her biggest suitcase, and packed her casual clothes and two date night dresses.In boxes, she loaded up her plants and took them to her car.By eleven a.m., she was on the road and would be in Alton at least by four.
The idea of breaking into Thom's house to make him dinner made her laugh. In a few days, she would call her parents, but right now, she was content.It felt good to leave that job.A weightlessness filled her spirit as she pointed the nose of the Audi and began to drive south.
