“All I Want for Christmas…”

Last Episode: Ernie resurfaced, but Ben had trouble recognising him. Ernie’s story put the wind up Ben. He was now on a mission to catch up with Jemima, hoping she could help him with this thing called compliance. Tina is still nowhere to be found, and Ben starts to lose interest. He’s got Jemima now, or has he...?

******

Ben was more depressed than ever. He had only moved to dumb old Laxo to be near Tina. Now, he faced a life with those two blockheads, Mr T and Gleney. He had decided he did not like or trust them.

What’s worse is that he had to endure this dinner with them so that they could bond...Life sucked.

His old mate and long-time confidant Ernie was off with the fairies somewhere. In hiding because he had decided to blow his own whistle on Fartbender and was now in a heap of trouble. He could not stop looking over his shoulder for fear someone would bop him on the head.

Tina had left him for dead. Not even a phone call, nada! nicht! zilch! zero! He deserved more than that, he thought to himself. Her trip to China had ruined her; she was fine before she went there!

The only saving grace was that he had managed to get in touch with Jemima. She was happy to hear from him and seemed pleased that Ben had asked her out to dinner. “Strictly business,” he had told her, but not even Ben found that believable. She was very good-looking, and seeing as Tina had done a runner and wiped him off her whiteboard, he was a free agent.

He sat in his cubicle, thoughts racing. He stared at Paula Promo, the marketing admin assistant, as she played with her pen. Out of the blue comes this voice, “Ben, Ben, Ben!”

“What the ...?” He was going crazy, he thought to himself. “Ben, Ben, Ben,” came this deep voice again. Stone the crows and butter my backside! “Who the hell are you,” responded Ben. Paula turned around, thinking Ben was talking to her. “Sorry,” he said as she gave him one of those ‘whatever’ looks!

Paula didn't report to Mr T or Gleney; in fact, Ben didn't know who she reported to. Come to think of it, he didn’t really know what she did.

“Ben, I am Calvernicus the Caretaker of Compliance. You can call me CC,” said the deep dark voice.

“Whatever,” thought Ben, not really believing this was real. What is with that damn pen? thought Ben, getting rather agitated, watching it.

"Click, click, click," it was driving him crazy.

Now the voices, and listening to some imaginary voice. That was it; he was going crazy. I’ve got to stop drinking.

Next Episode: Episode 9: “Orchestral Movements in the Dark.”

Till next time,

Calvin