Page 11 of A Light in the Dark
Gathering the fatality reports, I headed for my boss’s office, as he preferred to handle such matters personally. Taking a deep breath to soothe my nerves, I knocked on his door, which had been left cracked open.
“Enter,” Mr. Accor ordered.
I stepped into his office, ignored the mountains of paperwork with a pathway between them, and picked my way to his desk, wondering when he’d get around to asking me to tame the insanity. “I have today’s fatality reports from our clients, sir.”
The older man had the decency to wince. “I see. How bad is it this year?”
“Six refugees, two transients, and two city natives perished, I’m afraid.” Once close enough I could hand over the stack without having to stretch, I offered the sheets. “One firm lost two employees, as they were married and theirhome washed out. Two other deaths were due to properties washing out.”
“And the refugees?”
“It appears they had not understood the dire nature of our flooding.”
“How regrettable.” Mr. Accor took the sheets, flipped through them, and nodded. “I’ll handle this promptly. The tax implications of refugee deaths are quite complicated, so we’ll need extra time to work on this. Thank you for bringing this to my direct attention. How is the influx?”
“It’ll take me a week to get through it,” I predicted. “It might take longer depending on what happens in the next batch. I don’t have everything in from everybody, and at first look, I don’t think we have everything from the clients that have sent us information.”
“Even worse than normal, then. How did your street fare?”
“We lost all our steps, but that’s where our damage seems to have ended. The businesses on the other side of the street have quite a lot of cleanup ahead of them, but the residential side has been dealt with, including the installation of our new steps.”
My boss chuckled. “As usual, you’re ahead of the curve. We have six employees out because their steps haven’t been fixed yet, and it might be a few days until they have reliable ways of getting out of their homes.”
I grimaced; my first year, I’d made that sort of mistake, failing to have a ladder of any sort to get in and out of my home. “I bought a rope ladder for this year. It was an excellent investment. It’s a little harder to climb, but it’s a lot easier to deal with.”
“I’m going to have to try that next year. Mine’s a pain in the ass.”
When my boss cursed, his day had gone from bad to worse, and I wondered what had been going on that hadn’t crossed my desk. “Is there anything I can help with?”
The man narrowed his eyes and looked me over. “Actually, yes. One of our clients has a dead fax machine, and they have a box of papers they’d like us to work through this week. They’re a half mile from us up the hill. Would you mind fetching it for me?”
At a half mile up the hill, the client was likely one of the marketing firms that had a tendency to lose papers if they didn’t fax things right away. I’d passed their offices numerous times, but I hadn’t met any of the employees. As a box of papers couldn’t weigh any more than some of the stones I’d hauled around, I nodded. “If you call and warn them, I’ll head over now and pick up the box. I haven’t taken lunch yet, so I can fetch the box, get it situated at my desk, take my lunch, and then start on it when I’m back.”
“As always, you’re a lifesaver, Valerie. I’ll let them know you’re swinging by. Just watch your footing on the hill. They’ve been slow about the street cleaning this year, and they’ve been washing down a lot of debris in the streets. Cars are barred on our stretch for another week.”
As I didn’t own a car and tended to walk everywhere, I hadn’t paid any attention to the street situation beyond a longer than normal runoff period. My house had been as cheap as it was due to the lack of parking.
Garages cost a great deal to proof against the floods, requiring strong magic. Joel’s place had a garage on the other side of his property, although I’d never seen his vehicle.
Those farther up the hill tended to have cars, and they could afford to proof their garages against the hazards of the yearly floods. The places nearest to the levees and dams tended to abandon ship in the weeks leading up to the release of the waters, a wise move all things considered.
“Is your car in the lot here?” I asked.
Mr. Accor expected the question, as he loved his car second only to his wife and kids.
“It is, and we didn’t get any leaking this year. The extra shoring worked out well.”
“That’s great. I’ll go get the box now. Leave a message at my desk if you need anything before then, sir. I’ll check for any notes before I head out to lunch.”
“I shouldn’t, but thank you. Enjoy the fresh air.”
I would until I needed to haul a heavy box, but I wouldn’t tell him that. “I’ll be back soon.”
One box turned into three,but one of the client’s employees provided a dolly for my use while apologizing profusely. I lost an extra ten minutes assuring the frazzled woman, a refugee if I judged by her accent and the darker tone of her skin, that everything was fine. Few citizens of Stonecreek had her shade of skin, although there were some families living in the outskirts who’d originally come from one of the desert city-states with similar tones.
I took care to smooth feathers over with the refugee’s boss, who’d come to make certain the papers were on route to their proper destination.
The refugee’s boss, someone I’d met at our firm once, was an old traditionalist I loathed on a good day, cost me twenty minutes, as he gushed on and on and on about how they were doing their part to welcome Earth’s survivors into Stonecreek. I recognized the show for what it was. I’d heard the bastard complain about how refugees would be coming for their jobs and wealth during his visit to my company.
