4 Chapters…..posted every 48 hours.
JUST ONCE- CHAPTER 1- THE BROKEN VENDING MACHINE
It was a typical Tuesday at Building C of the State Office Complex. Several hundred government employees going about their business, keeping the State up and running. In the 8th floor Break Room the usual suspects sat eating lunch. Ted, Charlie, Stella, Barbara, John, Ruth and Ashley. An eclectic group for sure, but they all seemed to get along quite well. They had one rule at lunch- “no politics”- and it served them well.
One usual topic was TV from the night before. The shows people had watched and how they liked them. Apparently, there was a popular show which featured a humdinger of a catfight between two of the female stars. Ted and John had seen it, and Charlie made a mental note to use “On Demand” the minute he got home to catch it. Stella had also missed it, but Ruth and Barb had seen it and commented that it was a bit too violent for their tastes.
The only member of the group who had not offered a comment on the fight was Ashley. So John asked her if she had seen it.
“I did! I was totally enthralled by it. Let me confess something to you all. I’ve always wanted to fight another woman. Just once. I’ve never been in a fight in my life, not even in school. But I’ve always wondered how I would do if I fought. Would I be brave? Could I take the pain? Could I inflict pain? What would it be like to face a woman and beat her in a fair fight? Or worse, lose. I do have a recurring dream about it. I can never tell for sure who it is I’m fighting in the dream, but the fight is desperate and unforgiving. Just me and her. And I always wake up before it’s over. I’m 29. Getting too old to ever actually do it. But I do think about it. Weird, right?” And then she laughed.
“Just once.”
No one else laughed. There was complete silence in the Break Room. Everyone was too stunned by Ashley’s soliloquy to say a thing. The women swallowed hard and the men’s jaws dropped. Finally Ted broke the awkward silence.
“Ashley, promise me you’ll let me watch!” The laughter from the group broke the tension.
“Not on your life, Teddy,” replied Ashley. “What about you Stella? Ever think about fighting?”
“Ah, to be honest, no Ashley.”
“Me neither,” said Barbara.
“Yeah, I guess it is odd,” confessed Ashley.
Stella turned to Barbara and Ruth and said, “We better steer clear of Ashley or she’ll try to kick our ass!”
“Don’t worry gals, I’d go easy on you!” Everyone chuckled. And with lunchtime over, everyone headed back to their desks for the usual afternoon slog ’til quitting time.
However, no one talking at the table had noticed that there was one other woman in the room, who overheard the discussion from a distance. Her name was Emma and she worked one floor below, on the 7th.
The 8th floor buys the stuff the State needs. The 7th floor pays for it. Sometimes there are contentious meetings between the two floors regarding the cost and needs of the State. The annual softball game between the two departments is suppose to be for fun, but is taken quite seriously, so there is a bit of rivalry between the two floors.
On this day, a broken vending machine would change the destinies of two women in the most dramatic way. You see, the juice vending machine on the 7th floor was broken, so Emma had trekked up one flight to get her Snapple on the 8th floor. And for that reason, and that alone, Emma heard what Ashley had said.
Later that afternoon, Emma was on the 8th floor for a second time. She might go a month without ever being on 8, let alone twice in one day. But she was on an unusual mission that day. She headed straight to Ashley’s cubicle. For a moment Ashley was not even aware that Emma was standing there, and she was startled when she turned and saw her.
“Yikes! You scared me,” said Ashley.
“Sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt you if you were doing something important,” replied Emma.
“Nothing important at all. Just an order for 500 staplers! What’s up? Did we spend too much again?”
Emma was standing, but now she crouched down so that her head was below the level of the partition which defined Ashley’s cubicle. She wanted to make the conversation as private as possible so when she spoke it was in a whisper.
“This isn’t about business Ashley, it’s more personal.”
“Oh really?” Ashley had no clue what Emma had in mind.
Emma was surprised how nervous she was. She tried to lower her voice even further. “I happened to overhear what you said in the break room today and I was wondering if you were being serious?”
The comment hung like a low fog in that cubicle. There was a prolonged silence as both women starred each other. Ashley knew exactly what Emma was talking about, but wasn’t about to let on that she did.
“What are you referring to?”
Emma got in even closer to Ashley, and literally whispered in her ear, “That you would like to try fighting another woman sometime.” Emma pulled back and resumed standing. “Were you kidding?”
Ashley took a deep breath and tried to hide her nervousness. “Why are you asking, Emma?”
“I’m sorry Ashley, I should have never bothered you with this. Just forget I ever asked. I’m dumb.” Emma turned to leave.
Ashley stopped her. “Wait Emma, don’t go, come back. Please. Just answer a quick question for me. Have you had the same thoughts as I?”
Emma moved back into the cubicle and leaned over to whisper in Ashley’s ear once again. “Yes.”
“Then I guess we need to talk, don’t we?” Both women smiled.
“Yeah, privately!”
“Definitely, privately!”
“How bout we meet down in the courtyard after work to talk about it.”
“Deal.” And with that Emma went back to 7.
That afternoon at work was NOT productive for either woman. They sat at their computers but got little work done as they could hardly think about anything but the meeting to come. Each considered just heading straight home and abandoning the meeting in the courtyard. Did they really truly want to fight another woman? They really didn’t know, but heck, what harm could come from a little talk about it? They both glanced at the clock every few minutes, hoping 5 o’clock would come quicker.
The courtyard between buildings B and C was a pleasant place. It was a popular lunch spot in nice weather, with benches and picnic tables. Thankfully, it was always empty after work and would give the women a private spot to discuss the issue at hand.
The fact of the matter is that Ashley and Emma didn’t really like one another very much. There were some contentious meetings between the two regarding State business. On more than one occasion the women thought “she is a bitch” about the other after one of those meetings. It was probably for the best if they were actually going to fight that they didn’t care for each other. It wouldn’t be satisfying to fight a friend.
