“Fuck you and fuck them, William. They all hate me, and it’s all your fault.”
“I’m not sure that’s an accurate appraisal, but if it makes you feel better, run with it. Don’t let reality spoil it for you.”
“I wouldn’t have hired any of those Cretans from East Texas. They’re your people. Not mine.”
He was deluded. All I wanted to do was go into the Commons and explain to people what I believed needed to be done. I didn’t want to litigate things with him, again. I told him on numerous occasions how he had to make relationships with his (not my) employees, and I wouldn’t stand in his way or make things difficult for him. It was his job to make or break things, and, well, he broke the hell out of them.
Titouan was hilariously fuming by that point. Almost to the level of six-year-old didn’t get his toy at Wal-Mart fuming. I thought he’d stomp his feet at any moment, so I gloriously waited him out. I wanted to hear the unadulterated, unfiltered reason why he was standing outside. It almost made the power being out worth it.
He finally couldn’t hold it in any longer. “I let them know even though the power was out, there were things that needed to be done. They didn’t like what I said, so they threatened to kick my ass if I didn’t leave.”
“You really think now is the best time for all of that?”
“They don’t have anything better to do.”
A sardonic laugh quietly escaped my lips before I could stop it. I quickly covered it up with a derisive sigh which wasn’t much better, but I doubt he even noticed. “Here’s the deal. I’m going to go tell everyone what’s going on, and you’re going to go in with me, but you aren’t going to say a damn word. You fucked that up. I won’t let you make things worse than they already are because you have a gigantic chip on your shoulder. Got it?”
He didn’t say a word to me. He gave me this weird shake of the head. It wasn’t an okay I got it head shake. It was a big fat I hate your fucking guts palsy of a head shake, but to his credit, he at least didn’t argue with me.
The Commons had a gray haze and an acrid smell to it. There were too many kerosene heaters in too small of a space, but even then it was not comfortably warm. For whatever reason, the Commons had the thinnest walls of any living space on the patch. Most of the other buildings, especially the bunkrooms, had walls bordering on a foot thick. The walls in the Commons were less by a quarter inch or more. Compounding things, it had two large windows. It was the best we could do, given all the shittier options.
Titouan and I weaved through elbows and knees on our way to the front of the room. I heard some grumbling because of Titouan’s re-entrance, but no one did anything stupid. Not all the complaints were Titouan related. People were frustrated and cold, and if they were anything like I was, they were also getting hungry. With no way to cook food, it was only going to get worse. I was hoping I could give a pep talk, but it became pretty clear that nothing I could say, barring flipping a switch to turn the power back on, would make people feel better, so I decided to be honest and direct. I needed to be the one doing the talking. No Titouan allowed.
I turned to face him and said, “Remember, stay quiet. I’ll handle this.”
Titouan’s eyes said what his mouth didn’t: fuck you.
I was relieved when I saw Avery walk in, more so that Jack was with him. He’d shut him down if he started talking too much. The last thing we needed was Avery crying nuke attack while I was trying to calm people. I started thinking about the double whammy of Titouan insulting people in the front of the room, and Avery nuke talking in the back. As cold as it was, I was sweating.
With as many faces as I could see, I knew there were two times as many I couldn’t. But the ones I could see didn’t look happy. By simple extrapolation, I knew that added up to a bunch of unhappy people. Considering they were sitting in a room lit by a few lamps, heated by fewer heaters, and the air freshened with ass and kerosene, not to mention being essentially stranded in one of the most inhospitable places on the planet without electricity, running water, the ability to cook food, and having all their electric devices fail at the same time, who could blame them? I sure as hell couldn’t. Titouan—as I think everyone should know by this point, but sometimes you have to emphasize and reemphasize the bad bits to make sure it was crystal clear—wasn’t exactly the cherry on top.
The one wild card was how long it would take Miley to find out that contact was lost with the Patch. He was a micromanager to be sure, but he also had to have his long weekends for hunting. Some people called Miley’s headquarters in Barrow Little Africa because it had so many stuffed animals from the African continent. That time of the year, he was gone most weekends on some safari or hunting expedition in some far-flung place we plebes couldn’t even imagine affording. Even if he wouldn’t find out for a couple days, those two days were longer than I was willing to wait for help. We were going as soon as possible.
Talking loudly enough I didn’t think I sounded like I was screaming, I said, “I’ve decided that I along with a few other people are going to Barrow for help. There is nothing we can do to get the power back up, and every communication device I’m aware of is down. If anyone has a working satellite phone, please speak now.” I paused for a moment, but there was only silence. I continued. “Jack is going to stay and make sure everyone is as comfortable as possible. He’s in charge. Any questions?”
There was a smattering of questions, most of which were impossible to answer because we simply didn’t know. One person asked about how healthy it was for them to breathe all the smoke and gasses coming from the kerosene heaters. I didn’t know the answer, but if I had to guess, I’d say it wasn’t. I ho hummed around how it wouldn’t hurt them if they didn’t have to breathe it very long. Another person asked if it could’ve been corporate sabotage. I was honestly a bit flabbergasted by that one. Maybe Jack was right, but even if that were the case, it didn’t explain why everything failed at once.
One man furiously asked what would cause his laptop and watch to die at the same time. Apparently, he was using his tablet when it died for no reason – this wasn’t the guy watching porn, for sake of accuracy. There was a chorus of people yelling similar questions. I told them the honest truth. We didn’t know. I made sure to tell them my personal stuff was damaged too. I’m not sure why, but them knowing I was affected too seemed to have a calming effect on some of the angrier ones.
I wasn’t used to dealing with angry employees. Most of these people were my good friends, but even friends weren’t immune to being cold, irritated, and afraid. It was a bad deal, but I tried to be as calm and level-headed as possible.
After the last question was asked, I walked back through the crowd and talked to several people one on one. I felt the hot stare of Titouan behind me. That told me I needed to move him to the back of the room and away from people as quickly as possible. He was going with us to Barrow. It was pretty damn obvious he couldn’t be allowed to stay at the Patch while I was gone.
Along with Titouan, I decided Sam and Tom would be good to have in case of emergencies. They both were good mechanics, and we’d almost surely need them, assuming we could get the Shining started. Avery would have to come so he could explain the technical details of what had happened. Hopefully, I could get him to omit some of the fruity details. Tish would round out the rest of the crew. While she wasn’t technically a nurse yet, she was interning with our RN. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have her along in case something happened on the way, and it helped she knew Barrow better than any of the rest of us put together.[JF1]