to undergo more training, and if you still are unable to significantly raise your revenue, you may find your probation extended. If your paychecks consistently need to be fortified, you may not pass probation.
Feel free to seek help if you have questions about any of the procedures or techniques necessary to do your job adequately. And also, feel free to see me with any questions or concerns regarding the above described situation.
We hired you because we believed you could do the job. Hopefully, you will prove that our faith in your abilities was not misguided. Good luck.
Damn the earth under my feet! Federally mandated minimum wage? What in the name of the false gods was that? The notion of a minimum wage seemed inconceivable. The last time my actions had earned money was when the sale of a Gaugin provided a net profit of almost four million dollars. How could I be concerned with pebbles when I had been accustomed to lifting boulders?
I was so stunned that Kern's approach escaped my attention.
"Hey, Count." He slapped the paper as I read it. "A fortune, ain't it? Don't spend it all in one place."
Quickly, the piece of paper was folded and secreted within the back pocket of my blue denim trousers. Yes, I had resorted to wearing such attire. It seemed that to blend in, it would be prudent to dress as these slovenly young people do.
"Perhaps not a fortune." That was all I could bear to say; there would be no force in Hades that would open myself to any abuse from the likes of this fellow. Hastily, I turned on my heel and strode to my cab.
And it was not a bad shift, having booked $80 with $15 in tips. At shift's end, Nicole sat across from me, struggling to get the numbers on her waybill to balance. She looked up at me, eyes shimmering.
My stomach sank. I do not want this. I do not need this. I do not want to even think about anything to do with this.
She smiled warmly, her perfect white teeth almost sparkling. "Al, how's it going. Haven't seen you since training."
"Busy," was my terse reply.
"You have a nice shift? Damn!" She looked down at the tangled mess of charge slips and slapped the adding machine.
"It was adequate. Yourself?" Though not really interested, it seemed the polite thing to ask.
"Not too bad." She rummaged through the crumpled piles of currency. How can people be so sloppy with their money? My cash always was always very neatly folded and sorted by denomination. "Not bad for a Tuesday."
Suddenly, Iwas curious. "How much did you book, if you do not mind me asking?"
She shrugged. "I don't mind. Like I said, it was okay. Coulda been better, coulda been worse. Not quite one-twenty, but the other night I pulled in one-sixty, with nearly forty on the side."
One-fifteen had been my best effort thus far.
Suddenly, warning bells started ringing inside my skull. My revenueshould have been higher. Somehow, there was a flaw in my work, though the thought still rankled me about the concept of minimum wage, as if just under is inadequate, while just over would be perfectly fine. How simplistically arbitrary!
Maybe Kern was to blame. Maybe he did a poor job in training me. "Nicole," I asked, "out of curiosity, who was it who trained you?"
"Kern." She nodded. "He was very thorough. I'm happy I got him. I've heard bad things about one or two of the other trainers, but I think Kern did a good job. Why?"
"No reason." Yes, yet another lie, but I did not want to discuss my failings with these children. My waybill was complete, and all I desired was to get home, listen to some Rossini and try to determine if this scrabbling for spare change was really what was most desirable at this time and under these circumstances.
As I rose to depart, Nicole's gaze locked upon me. "I was wondering...." She folded her waybill and tucked it into an envelope. "Doing anything? Wanna go get a drink or something?"
A drink. What irony. "I am sorry, but I think not." Too harsh. She looked hurt. "Please forgive me." I softened my voice. "I am just preoccupied, but I do not think I would be interested in a drink at this time."
She shrugged, her self-esteem still seemingly intact. "Okay, maybe some other time." Nicole smiled warmly, obviously taking seriously the notion of "some other time." Being polite can be such a burden.
Chapter 6
Marked