Chapter 24

Friday Morning. New impressions

Kimberly woke up in David's office with a crick in her neck, and a feeling of being dirty. Someone had thrown a large warm blanket over her while she was at the desk.

I need a shower, Kim said to herself. Wonder where the towels are?

Rising up from the chair and walking stiffly toward the door, she was depressed. But she did smell coffee. And onions. Food? Hearing her stomach growl, she knew that something was working. Walking to the break room she was greeted by the sight of three women at the counter, and two men sitting at tables in the room. Recognizing one of them as Carol and the other as Helen, and not knowing the third, Kim carefully walked in.

'Good morning, dear. You are just in time for breakfast." Helen said. "You can help with the Orange Juice. It is in the fridge. And glasses are there in the cabinet."

Not having anything better to do, Kimberly started picking up glasses and setting them on the tables.

"Good Morning. I am Gus. This is Jimmy" the older of the men said to Kimberly. "Helen told us to sit here and behave, and we know better then to not listen."

"Hi. I am Kimberly. Just a second and I will get some juice."

"Kimberly, how do you take your coffee?" The taller darker haired woman asked.

"Sweet. No crème."

"I'm Elizabeth, by the way. But everyone calls me Liz."

"Thank you. I am Kimberly. I guess Kim is ok."

"Here you look like you could enjoy this."

"You are right about that." Kim said, as she smelled the aroma of dark French roast. "This is exactly what the doctor ordered."

"Kim, if you want, you can use the shower upstairs. We have guest towels out and I can loan you some soap and conditioner," Helen said. "Liz, you can finish up these onions and peppers can't you?"

"Sure. Give me the apron wench."

"Here follow me Kim." Helen said.

Upstairs in the bathroom, Helen gave Kim a pair of very large towels. "Here is some body wash and shampoo. I don't know what conditioner you use, but we have some here."

"Thank you, Helen. I must look a fright."

"No. You actually look pretty good. I noticed you disappeared last evening. Candy found you and threw the blanket over you in David's office."

"I got to thank her for that. It very considerate of her." Not what I would have expected, Kim thought to herself.

"She is like that. Candy is probably the most considerate person here." Helen said. "So, how are you coping this morning?"

"Not as good as I would like. I am a little pissed at my husband."

"I hear you there. Mine is dating another woman. Not just screwing but dating. Pisses me off." Helen said.

"Mine wouldn't come last night. Said it was too hard on the girls. Said he might come Sunday afternoon, with them, since it is a family thing. He also said he might come Saturday night. But he is not sure. And he seems to blame me for the extra work he has to do with the kids." Kim said in an angry voice.

"Aha. Abandonment already? And after only one day? That is almost a record." Helen said with a grimace.

"This happens?" Liz asked.

"I expected it over time. Our circumstances cause an emotional disconnect. We are like prison. Someone sentenced to ten or fifteen years in prison is disconnected from their spouse, kids or parents. The world goes on without you. Terminals have a different challenge. Your husband knows you are not coming home. He thinks that he has to reconcile and go on without you. Elizabeth has an issue with her in-laws. Peter is being told to move on, since she is all but really dead. And her own parents are saying that Peter dating will at least give her a chance to see the woman that will finish raising her kids."

"My god, that is horrible." Kim said.

"Finish your coffee, get your shower, and come down for breakfast. Then we can talk."

Knowing what good advice was when she heard it, that was exactly what Kim did. While standing under the shower for several minutes, she heard a noise. Looking around she saw Candy coming into the stall across from her and sitting on the toilet. "I have to thank you for the blanket." Kim said.

"You are welcome. I would have woken you up but you seemed to be really asleep."

"I guess I was. Hard getting adjusted."

"We better get you settled in a room tonight. Is your husband bringing any of your things over?" Candy asked.

Starting to tear up and cry, Kim sobbed out "I don't think I am going to be here long enough for that."

Standing up, Candy walked into the shower and pulled the shorter brunette into her arms and held her while she sobbed and cried. "He wouldn't come. He said that it was too upsetting to come here. And it isn't the kind of place to bring the kids. And I don't have much time left. And he said he had to look after the emotional needs of the kids."

At that point, Kim broke down. Gently lowering her to the floor, Candy stayed there and rocked her as she cried for almost ten minutes. Others came and went from the communal bathroom and shower, and left the two alone on the floor.

David had left in the earlier evening. Cathy woke up in bed curled around Abby, and wondered where she was for a moment. She soon remembered. Last night had been great. Good sex was wonderful and last night with David and Abby was several steps beyond good. David was not overly large, but he had staying power to get the job done. Several times in fact.

Carefully getting up and walking out to the hallway, she heard the shower was running at one end. Bathroom. Don't need that right now. Coffee. Smelling coffee, Cathy followed her nose to the stairs back down to the break room. And saw a couple of naked women standing next to a stove and nearby coffee pot.

"Good morning" the taller brunette said from the stove "I'm Elizabeth. You can call me Liz. Coffee is there."

"I'm Cathy. Wow, what smells so good?"

"Breakfast. We have to cook for a mass in the morning. Helen started this and it has kind of grown."

"How can I help?" she asked.

"Pop some more toast into the toaster. We have some Chipped Tofu beef for it to go with the crème sauce."

Popping in toast, and pouring herself some coffee, Cathy stayed with Elizabeth and helped to set up the line for people filling their plates.

When the buffet was set up, Cathy joined Elizabeth at the table with Jimmy and Gus. Both were very friendly and the small talk soon turned to differences between H&S and Findlay.

Soon Cathy felt comfortable and relaxed at the chatter. And she also noticed that Jimmy showed special warmth for Elizabeth. Gus was an older gentleman and had been with Findlay for some time. "Not to be confused with the other Gus" who had come from H&S. He flirted shamelessly with Cathy, and even told her where his permission slip was posted on the bulletin board. "The wife says the more I am here, the less I spend time bothering her."

Gradually most everyone came down from upstairs, as well as the rest of the meat cutter crew from in back. Candy was missing, but Nancy went to David's office to do the intake estimate for the day.

"Come on, woman. I have to get ready for work. We stay here too long and we will look like prunes." Candy said to Kim after several minutes. Leading Kim up and out of the shower room, and down to her room. Guiding Kim into her place, Candy went over to her desk and picked up her keys and computer.

"So, how do I cope?" Kim said to Candy, while sitting on the edge of the bed. Candy was sitting in her chair opposite her, and seemed to be the picture of calm.

"I don't know how you cope. I cope by being useful, helping people, and never treating anyone badly."

"But you kill people." Liz said.

"Yes I do about two dozen a day. And I hope I do it with no pain to each and every one of them. But while they are upright and walking around, I try to do the to treat them the best that I can." Candy said calmly.

"And you would kill me, too?" Kim asked.

"Yes. Carefully and calmly, and I promise I won't let you hurt." Candy said.

"Do you know how strange that sounds?" Kim asked.

"Absolutely." Candy said with a smile. "It is insane. But it is what I have to do to stay alive and if I was not doing it, someone will do it that won't do it as nicely. I hate to say I am good at it, but in this little circle, I am about the best. Which really sucks, in a way."

"At least you have a skill that is useful here." Kim said.

"I didn't when I got here. I was fished out by Margaret to be a weekend toy for David. I kind of knew that. But when I saw how Margaret treated the people she worked with, and how they were totally surprised at the end, I figured I could do that too. So I studied and I am the best here." Candy said.

"How did you study to be a killer?"

"Grey's Anatomy, Meat cutter's edition. I read it every night. Abby says I am good enough to get into Pre Med. Liz is coaching me in math and science studies, and Helen is coaching me in language and writing. This place is a great education for me."

Thinking of the total absurdity of it, Liz began to laugh. And once she started, she couldn't stop. Soon Candy was laughing as well. Some of the quips passed between them included:

"If you only have one skill, do it better then anyone."

"I guess that you don't get a lot of repeat business. Minimum complaints of bad service."

"Abby says here you don't have to worry about malpractice."

And the one that had both of them laughing hysterically, "Nobody has guts enough to go through processing more then once."

Finally, the laughter lapsed into giggles. And then a growl in Kim's stomach signaled time to go downstairs. "Candy, Thank you. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you."

"And you haven't even seen my best skill yet." Candy replied.

Suddenly sobering, Kim replied. "Do me a favor. Save your best for me when the time comes."

"I promise everyone that, darling."

David and Margaret were surprised to hear their production estimates from Nancy. When David saw Candy come down with Liz and walked over to get breakfast, David purposely waved both of them to come over to the table with Nancy, Margaret and himself.

"Good morning good looking." David said to Candy. "Nancy gave us the numbers for today, one hundred thirty and sixty. We are going to have a busy day today. Can you coach Cathy? Kim, I have a research project for you, if you don't mind."

"I'll work with her. I thought Abby was going to take Cathy under wing." Candy replied.

"I think she can benefit from both of you. So trade off today. Get her used to intake and escort. If you think she fits in that role."

"Ok." Candy replied.

"And what is this research project?" Kim asked, eating her breakfast.

"I want you to contact specialty tool companies for tree trimming tools. I think you may have something with minimizing our repetitive motion injury. Let me know what and where we need to order for here and for H&S."

"Ok. I guess I should tag along with Candy or Abby or one of the others for a few cycles to get an idea of how specific we should get."

"Ok. But we have a heavy load today. Don't bog them down. In fact, you can help with intakes. You already know how those work." David said.

Realizing that this was the sort of thing Candy had talked with her about earlier, Kim saw that this was a way to stay around. "I can try. I promise I'll try to not shake anyone up."

"Follow Helen, Liz and Carol's lead, and you will do OK. And it helps to keep the focus on your client, and not on your own feelings. At least, that is what they tell me." David said with a smile.

"I'll try to do that." Liz said.

"David, did Jack drop off the collars for H&S?" Margaret asked.

"No. Good catch. I'll go over there this morning. Don't want any untagged floating around. Kim, wait here until we can get a collar for you, then we will ease you into the traffic flow." David said. "I'll go out front and see if they were dropped by."

"Actually" Margaret interjected, " She can use mine for a while. I am not fish or fowl here, so we can tag her and keep me out of the running. Protects her too."

"Works for me. Kim, want a collar for today?" David asked.

Here is the decision. Kim thought to herself. "I think I would like that very much, thank you." She said to David.

"I'll get the key from the drawer and drop it off with you." Candy said. "Then I will go up front to open up. It is almost eight o'clock people."

"Busy slave driving bitch" Margaret teased.

"That is why you have me around." Candy said with a smile.

After retrieving the key and giving it to David, Candy and Helen went up to reception to open up. The rest of the back office team finished up breakfast. They knew they had about forty-five minutes before the first person came through the turnstile.

David reached to his wife and removed her collar. It was the only the third time it had been off of her in as many weeks. Moving to Kim, he reached around her neck and brought the lock in front and snapped it in place. "There. You are now legal. Wear it in good health."

A whole series of emotions ran through Kim. Anger, fear, and some level of pride as well were all cycling through her mind. She was aware of the change of her status, if only temporarily. Thinking back on how she was treated only yesterday, she realized that she had to be as good to the doomed women who were here as this group was to her yesterday. The main difference, all of the women who she would run into knew that they were here to die.

"Margaret, since we don't have you collared, I want you to work with Chris and Jimmy in the back end, and help with processing. I will let the others do the herding today as much as possible. Please go ahead and let Kim use your terminal. If we can break Cathy in later today, then we will have minimal impact on production. Maybe we can even get enough numbers reduced so you don't have to do so many trips."

Religious Support?

David was surprised to see he had appointments for this morning at his office and a call from Jack Stienhauer to go over the materials from the architect. Jack's message was that Phil was not going to take or return any calls to David in the future, and that all construction and modifications would be with Jack only.

Not my fault for any of this, David thought to himself. I can't blame the guy, but we are doing him a favor for the moment. At least his car was not in impound, his kids in social services and his wife on a stake. While she was alive.

David was in his office at nine thirty when his guest was shown in. Standing as a sign of respect, the Imam signaled that David should be seated. "I want to thank you for your time, Mister Findlay."

"It is my pleasure. Even though I am not a member of your faith, I was taught by my father to respect other's beliefs. How may we help you?"

Siting in the guest chair, after an exchange of pleasantries, the Imam got to the issue at hand. "In our faith, we have a challenge with compliance with the secular law as you have it. We do not allow our women to be seen by men. And we are limited to our methods of punishment that result in death. In fact, our only real method is beheading, hanging or stoning. And both beheading and hanging requires removal of the headdress. And stoning is a punishment for adultery. And this has drawn our society into different camps. We feel we need to find a commercial service that will fulfill both our legal and our religious requirements."

"Imam, my father worked with your predecessor long a go when we were providing meat for your group. We had not supposed to impose ourselves in this arena when we moved our business into this role. How do you feel we can help?"

"David, I have heard that your business does not employ men for the most part. Is this true?"

"Yes. Our operation in the intake and initial support is entirely staffed by women. The women we have here are excellent in their sympathy and understanding of the process and they work to relieve the stress as much as possible in these times."

"And your process handles women how?"

"Imam, I am sorry, we cannot talk about that further. Suffice to say that your people have minimal suffering, for a very short time, and that they are escorted with dignity for the remainder of their life by one of our female escorts. That it is a singular experience and that men are not the witness."

"And you would show me this how?" The Imam asked.

"I would not at all. If I were to show you then how would you be able to say with confidence that I did not have any man present?" David replied.

"But I am a man of god who must look to the affairs of my people." The Imam replied.

"All the more reason you should not be tempted to violate those who should not be violated, regardless of their faith." David responded with a smile.

"Your father trained you well. I see. What sort of arrangements can we expect for our women who are caught in this unfortunate trap?"

"That depends on your people. How do you desire your women to be treated post mortem? Do you intend to recover them for your own funeral services? Do you wish to have them offered from a list we have here? Or do you intend to have us perform disposal?" David asked.

"How would you dispose of them?"

"In neat packages. Plastic."

"They would be treated as Kosher?"

"Yes, both you and the Rabbi have an agreement on dietary rules for processed flesh. Thus they would be treated as such." David replied.

"And they would be processed singularly?" the Imam asked.

"Yes. And we would return any and all clothes, and personal articles that were with them to their next of kin as designated on the form that they fill out when they arrive."

"What day would you focus on our group?"

"How many?" David asked.

"We have some three hundred under a religious stay of execution at this time. They are encamped south of here in a large hotel. We would like to reduce the number of women held there as quickly as possible."

"Imam, we need to talk with my director of scheduling in the reception area, and she will work with you. Please understand that all women who are here under a stay are nude, and must be so. Do not be alarmed or ashamed. They are under a stay of their own and this is their only way of being recognized for their situation under the law."

"I saw them when I arrived. I was shocked but I had been prepared for this by the articles I have read."

"Good. Let's go talk to Nancy."

Bringing the Imam to the reception room, David found Nancy had finished with a group now working on questionnaires. Bringing the Imam with him David made introductions.

"Nancy, Imam Yashik is here to work with us on scheduling the women selected in his religious order. Evidently they have been kept under a stay while appropriate arrangements could be made and thus they are being brought here. Could you help him with scheduling his groups? I would advise sixteen or twenty at a time and estimate normal time cycles."

"Pleasure to meet you Imam. Do you have any of the notification numbers of the women you represent?" Nancy asked.

Seeing that the Imam was taken aback by Nancy's nudity, David interjected "Imam, please remember what I told you and treat us with the respect we will treat yours with."

Blushing, the Imam removed a portable digital device and gave it to Nancy. "These are the electronic letters of notification. Currently they are covered under a religious stay."

Downloading the list and the selection dates, Nancy saw she had two hundred and ninety two women on the list. Some had been selected from as far away as New York and Texas, and a few were almost six weeks past due." I think we need to look at this and define some process criteria." Nancy said. "Imam, how should we select the order for these women?"

"I would say oldest in age first, but our order would prefer to leave this in your hands" Yashik said. "It is enough that the government selected them, we do not want to soil our hands with this further."

Running through the list, Nancy saw that several of the older women were close to the age of exception. If we keep them for last, Nancy thought to herself, I can probably get a few of them out of here as too old. And Carol can do the exception thing.

Nancy thus selected youngest by age first. Presenting a list to the Imam, she said, "Here you go. Bring this first group of twenty on Saturday, and then Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday until we can get you caught up. Take some of our entry forms with you so we can make sure that all of their affairs are closed up, so we wont' have any holdovers. It shouldn't take long to service the entire population. Five or six weeks at most"