Christmas Day was fast approaching and though there wasn't much snow on the ground, the people in the malls made up for it. Every mall in the city was packed and for as much as the atmosphere was happy and festive, there was the occasional place where the fight over an item would escalate to the point where both parties lost the item and found themselves on the sidewalk outside the mall. At Evergreen Mall, this was the responsibility of Theo, the security guard for the mall.
Theo had worked at Evergreen Mall ever since it was first opened, many years ago. He started as a nightwatchman and eventually worked his way up to head of security. Not bad for a little boy who had all his teachers say he'd never amount to much and didn't go past grade 8! If you would watch Theo outside of his job, you probably would be distracted with something far more interesting. He really wasn't noticeable in any way, he lived in a tiny apartment about a block from the mall and it was easy to miss him in the rush of life. Theo had dated a girl back when he was in his twenties, but obviously, that turned out different and since then, he very much kept to himself.
This season had been particularly difficult - it seemed that more and more people were shoplifting and getting smarter at it. More than once he had been taking care of an incident with a conflict, only to hear a shout from behind him and some punk kid running down the hall with something grasped in his hand. And, as much as he would try, he could no longer catch the hoodlum. Theo knew this was not a good thing.
On December 23, he arrived for work to find a note tacked on his locker, requesting a visit to the mall manager that day. That's interesting, Theo thought. Christmas wishes, likely. Mr. Merton had always been nice to him so it was probably something to do with the well wishes of the season.
He donned his jacket and made sure everything was in place before making his way to the office. Opening the door, he was greeted by the smiling face of Shelly, the admin assistant to the manager.
"Hi Mr. Smithers, are you here to see Mr. Merton?" she asked cheerfully.
"Good morning, Shelly. Yes, I had a note on my locker to come in today, so here I am. Is it a good time or should I come back?" Theo asked.
"No, he should be free right away. It's the start of the day, so nothing much has got going yet. If you can wait a minute or two, I'm sure he can see you," she said. She picked up the phone and had a quick conversation. Turning back to Theo, "Have a seat - he'll see you in 5 minutes."
"Thank you very much, Shelly," Theo said and found a chair to sit on.
Right on time, the door opened and a hearty man with a jovial demeanor walked out and came over to Theo, offering his hand. "Well, well, Theo; thank you for coming in. Come, come ... join me in my office," he shook Theo's hand and ushered him into his inner sanctum, closing the door behind him. "Have a seat, Theo," he indicated a leather chair in front of the desk.
Theo sat down cautiously, making sure that everything was in its place. "What can I do for you, Mr. Morton, sir?"
Merton sighed. "Theo, this is not easy for me to say."
Theo froze. The room froze. Everything stopped.
"Theo, you have worked here longer than I have. You are much a a part of Evergreen Mall as the mall itself. Everyone here knows you and loves you and you have done so much for the mall through the years you've been here. The fact is that, well, the commercial world is changing. As you know, we've had to install security cameras in every corner of the mall. We are going to have to go in a new direction with security and I tried to hold it off as long as I could, but the fact is that things will be changing around here in the new year. Theo, I'm afraid we will have to lay you off at the end of the year."
Theo didn't ear much after "you have worked here ..." but those last words did sink in.
No comments:
Post a Comment