GlenM

Then, his brow began to wrinkle a bit, a look of puzzlement came across his face, and his mouth dropped into a small frown as he looked up at George.
“What is this you’ve written here, George? This doesn’t make sense.”
“Uh, what’s that, sir?” said George, feeling the color draining from his face.
“Right here.” George’s boss pointed his fat finger at a spot on the page, and he leaned the papers across the table towards George.
George looked down and scanned the page. He spotted the error and put his finger on it, and tried not to let his finger tremble.
“Ah, you see,” he started, “I’m thinking that maybe this-”
“What? No, not up there.” his boss interrupted, “Down here!” George’s boss was pointing to a paragraph farther down the page.
“Oh. Uh. Um. Yes, that’s the technology transfer assessment. I used quarterly summaries instead of annual accumulations. It looks unusual in the cost correction table, but the coefficients are easier to process when its merged with delta discrepencies.”
George’s boss sat back in his chair and thought for a moment.
“Brilliant!” he finally blurted out, “Another fine job, George.” He got up from the chair and took the report with him as he left the office.
George stood there, still facing the empty chair. He had sweat on his upper lip. He still felt all shaky about his Boss looking at the error. It took him a few minutes to collect himself again, to get his head thinking calmly again. What an incredibly stupid idea that was, he thought to himself. Not only did he feel as though he had barely gotten away with it, but the pressure was far more than liked to deal with in his job. Worse than that, now that his boss had let it go, he would have to make the change before it went…to the customer!
George’s alertness went from stunned shock to overload in a flash as he realized where his boss was heading. Once again, he found himself racing down the hall after his boss, trying to head him off before reaching the customer. Like before, George was too late to stop his boss before meeting the customer, but unlike before George did not stop when he rounded the corner, and came running right up to his boss as he spoke with the man in the dark coat.
“George!” his boss said, looked a bit startled. “I was just showing your report to Mr. Betts. George, I would like you to meet Mr. Eliot Betts. Mr. Betts, this is George Stapleton. He’s been preparing your reports for many years now. I’m surprised you haven’t met before now.”
George was still out of breath from the running and a bit embarrassed at looking so disheveled. “Good to meet you, Mr. Betts.” he stammered out, “Uh, about that report, I wanted to talk about the-”
“No need George.” his boss interrupted. “I was just pointing out the technology transfer assessment to Mr. Betts already.”
“Fine work, George.” said Betts slowly. He had the slightest of grins on his face as he said this, and stared at George with the most peculiar look, as though he were expecting George to say something funny.
“Uh, thank you, Mr. Betts. I’m glad it meets with your approval.”
“Oh yes, definitely. You can’t imagine how important these reports are to our company.” The grin was there again.
“That’s probably true. I guess that you need them for…?” George left the question hanging in the air, hoping Betts would answer, but George’s boss broke in.
“For business!” and he let out a big laugh. George and Betts each gave small chuckle, but George was certain that Betts looked as though he was pleased at not having to answer the question.
“Well, Mr. Betts, if you are satisfied with the report, we won’t detain you any further.” said George’s boss, stretching out his hand to Betts.
“Thank you again for your good work,” Betts said as he took George’s boss’s hand. “It was a pleasure meeting you George.” and he extending his hand to George.
“I’m glad we had a chance to meet, Mr. Betts.”
“As am I, George.” he said with the grin.
Betts turned and walked out the lobby door, and George and his boss headed back to their offices. George had forgotten all about the error he had put into the report. Apparently, it was not a concern to Betts. And there was something very peculiar about Betts’ behavior. Something about the funny grin. It was almost as if there was a joke running in his head and he was still going over the punchline.
George walked to the window as he thought. He looked out the window at the parking lot. His gaze drifted downward to the trashcan, and there stood Betts, looking up at him! George got a chill down his back when he realized Betts was looking directly at him. Betts stared up at him for a moment and then lifted his hand, holding up the report, and tossed it into the trashcan without breaking eye contact with George.
to be continued…