Chapter 15: Real Life Kicks In

Dexter and Eric had just finished posting a new article on the website. It was titled, ‘Taking Back Your Vacation.’ It was a simple article in the sense that it said a company didn’t have any right to know where an employee took his or her vacation and that it couldn’t require them to remain in contact with the company.

It wasn’t all that controversial except for one statement: “Any day of vacation spent working is not a day of vacation.” They wrote that a vacation was a break from working and not simply working from a different location. Employers who didn’t understand that distinction needed to have it taught forcefully to them.

After posting it, Eric said, “I wish I had thought about this back when I was working at the old company. I lost at least two vacations by sitting in my hotel room putting out fires back at the company. They even called on the weekends. It was like I wasn’t on vacation.”

“It sure ruined my trip to Hawaii,” Dexter said.

Eric said, “I remember you complaining about that.”

“At first I was pissed at everyone about that vacation. I mean, I felt like you and the other guys at our level should have stepped in to cover those calls for me. I guess it was when I was staying in the cabin after I was fired that I really thought about it logically. It wasn’t your job to fill in for me. All of those calls had been unnecessary,” Dexter said.

“What do you mean?” Eric asked.

“It was the policies that were at fault. Why was it necessary for me to sit in on every technical discussion during a crisis? It wasn’t necessary. Hell, most of the time it wasn’t even necessary for the project lead to sit in on the discussions. The technical folks could have fixed the problem without me and then forwarded what they had done to their project lead. I could have reviewed it when I returned home,” Dexter said.

“It was all about ‘Cover Your Ass’,” Eric said.

“Yeah,” Dexter said. “When did engineering change from fixing problems, to covering asses?”

“I don’t know. Even Mark didn’t get a vacation when you look at it this way,” Eric said.

“No one did,” Dexter said. “I took a lot of time off, after I was fired. I was tired -- physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Thinking about it now, I was dying. I really don’t think I could lived for another three years, if I had stayed at the company.”

Eric was looking thoughtful. He was still too close to those days, to have a perspective on what that lifestyle had been doing to him. He knew that he had been miserable. Changing companies hadn’t fixed that problem, though. He now knew that the problems were endemic across all of society. Every company was doing the same kinds of things to their employees.

Dexter was quiet for a moment and then said, “It was killing me.”

“I know what you mean,” Eric said.

“Things are better now,” Dexter said.

“We’re only putting in about four hours of work a day. I feel like I’m on vacation,” Eric said.

Dexter said, “Wait until that article has been on the web for a day. We’ll be so busy answering e-mail and updating the webpage that you won’t believe it.”

“So you’re saying that the work load is a little sporadic,” Eric said.

“We have a little control over the busy times, based on when we post articles,” Dexter said. He reached over and hit the refresh on his e-mail program. He pointed, “It’s been up for about five minutes and we’ve already got feedback.”

“Jesus,” Eric said.

The telephone rang. There was a number on the caller id that he didn’t recognize. Dexter answered it, “Hello.”

“Dexter, this is Mark.”

“What’s up?” Dexter asked wondering why Mark was using a strange telephone. He hoped this was an update on the lawsuit. The only reason Mark had to call was if he had made any progress on his lawsuit.

“I got a call from your son,” Mark answered.

“Whoopee,” Dexter said sarcastically.

Mark said, “Don’t be an asshole.”

“Why not?” Dexter asked. “My wonderful son and daughter are only worried about the child support.”

Eric had been staring at the wall trying to ignore the conversation. He knew enough about the divorce to understand the hostility in Dexter’s voice. It was obvious that Dexter was not happy about the call.

“Don’t be an asshole,” Mark growled.

“Okay. So what did my son want?” Dexter asked.

“Janet is in the hospital,” Mark said.

Dexter’s first reaction was a sense of panic. He felt that he had to rush over to the hospital to see how she was doing. He then imagined running into her boyfriend, there. It didn’t take much imagination to know how that meeting would go. He’d end up in jail. He decided there was no overwhelming reason for him to go to the hospital, and quite a few reasons not to go.

“Thanks for telling me,” Dexter said. He was curious why she was in the hospital, but he didn’t want to ask. Asking would be admitting that he cared about her. After being told in a text message that she wanted a divorce, he wasn’t going to let himself care about what happened to her.

“Aren’t you concerned?” Mark asked.

“No,” Dexter answered harshly.

“Aren’t you even curious why she’s in the hospital?” Mark asked.

“No,” Dexter answered. Too many more questions like that then he’d really start to feel guilty. Wanting to end the conversation, he said, “Thanks for calling. I’ll talk to you later.”

“God damn it! Don’t hang up. Do you want to go to jail?” Mark asked.

“Jail? What in the hell for?” Dexter asked.

He looked over at the door as if expecting the police to come barging in. He wondered if his wife had been a victim of violence and he was the leading suspect. He mentally went over the past twenty-four hours trying to see if he had any kind of alibi.

Eric turned to look at Dexter wondering who was in jail. From what he heard, he assumed that Dexter’s son had been arrested for something.

“How about child endangerment for one?” Mark asked.

“What are you talking about?” Dexter asked.

“Your children are minors. With your wife in the hospital, they are without adult supervision. You might be separated from your wife, but you are still legally responsible for their safety. If anything happens to them...” Mark said letting the consequences go unstated.

“Shit,” Dexter said bitterly.

He sat there with a frown on his face wondering what he was supposed to do. He didn’t want to move back to the house. He had left that behind him. Unfortunately, he didn’t have room for the kids in his apartment.

“I don’t have room here for them,” Dexter said.

“You’ll have to move back to your old house, until your wife gets out of the hospital,” Mark said.