CHAPTER 19
Sammy was off, a little wave to Lil and a nod to Marlene as he went, and Connie let out a long sigh of relief.

“I had a boss like that, once”

I picked up my second pint, still almost untouched.

“What, a backstabbing bastard?”

“No, not this one. Had loads of the bastards, though. I meant one who would actually go out of his way to look after us. Did a management course, years and years ago, and it covered something that was actually called ‘scientific management’. It wasn’t, not in any way”

“Go on”

“Well, it was production-line based. The man who came up with it, well, time and motion on steroids. Set a number of seconds to carry out a task, but base that on the fastest worker on site. If he can do it, then so can anyone else. Crank up the line speed, sink or swim time for the workers. The people who tried it got a big increase in production, plus a bigger increase in faulty returns. What happens when you just use the stick, without a carrot”

Tom started chuckling, and Connie simply said, “And?”

“And, my love, is that story we had from the sorting office”

She snorted a laugh out, begged our pardon and dug out a tissue to wipe her nose, as Tom turned to me with a broad grin.

“Old friend of ours ended up working for the Royal Mail, at an old-school sorting office. They have these big square wire-mesh trolley things called ‘mates’, and they carry loads of sacks of letters, packages. There’s a rack of open sacks with delivery regions on them, and the sorters work through the mailbags chucking the contents into the appropriate sack, which then gets sent to the appropriate hub. They had a lad who was phenomenally quick at sorting, bosses were using him as a shining light of how things should be done, all that stuff, and then the complaints start piling up. Loads and loads of missorted items”

He paused for some ale.

“So they went looking for the culprit, and of course it was the superstar. Turned out he was, ahem, functionally illiterate. His idea of sorting was to try and even the stacks up”

He sobered up.

“That job Gaz and Shona had was a really shitty one, Jen. If that Adam Price had that one so soon after our mutual nasty, he’s going to need some Olympic class therapy. Which sort of brings me to the point where Connie needs a visit to the ladies’. Right, love? Ten minutes should do us”

It had clearly been prearranged, for the ‘ladies’ seemed to consist of talking to Lil and Marlene. Tom leant towards me, voice low.

“You’re wobbling, woman. I’ve seen that look before, and it’s the ‘this is too much for me’ face. If I’m wrong, just tell me to piss off, but I don’t think I am. Not asking for a reply, so just listen. You are good at what you do, very good. You multitask, plate-spin like very few others I’ve seen, You know when to delegate, like that copper with the oxy tank, and you catch things like plugging that bag of plasma in right on time. That’s you, okay?”

“Yes, but---”

“Not finished. This is a job that brings a lot of shit; so many people have said it, that it’s the job of the emergency services to run towards danger, not take the sensible option. I was talking to one of the coppers when we had one of those Jobs at the Man in the Moon, how he coped, how it felt”

“I didn’t notice”

“You were too busy talking to Miss Butch to notice. I asked him what he thought when he had to go in for a roll on the floor, and he just said, ‘I ask myself how much is this going to hurt this time’. Oddly, I think that was the night you got twatted in the eye. That’s not the point, though. This is a job in which you not only make big differences for the better, visibly so. Priceless, that”

“Yeah, but I couldn’t save that kid”

“Shit happens. Somebody has to pick it up. You saved that man with the heart attack, and we did the same for that van driver”

He started to chuckle again.

“What?”

“I said ‘priceless’, and we weren’t, because he was there, and…”

They weren’t really chuckles, they were on the edge of being sobs, so I took both of his hands in mine, and he gripped mine fiercely.

“Who are you pep-talking for, Tom?”

“Both of us, I suppose. You’re a solid partner, Jen. I think I might have folded on that van driver if I hadn’t had you there. If you go, I’ll probably end up following you. So please don’t”

He straightened up.

“We need a proper debauch some night. Let our hair down properly, and embrace liver damage”

He grinned, far more easily.

“Part of the reason Connie came tonight. Scouting out the safe space. She was worried they’d be funny about having a straight couple in, so she’s having a chat with the owner. You staying with me, love?”

“I… I suppose I have to, don’t I?”

“Promise?”

“Okay”

“Right, CON! More ale needed, and get yourself a lemonade while you’re at it”

She gave him a two-fingered salute, and returned empty-handed, to be followed by Lil, who had a tray carrying two pints, a glass of wine and five shots. Marlene joined us, reaching for one of the little glasses.

“Just vodka, people. I know what Inspector Patel was here for, and I also know all about his little peeler Mister Adam Price, because he is a solid Pride supporter, and Marlene learned a long, long time ago, through fucking necessity, how to spot a friend”

She waved at the other shots, so we did the necessary as she raised hers.

“To Adam Price and caring about other people”

Safe space. Good people. Awful hangover.

I spent the next day running Tom’s pleas over and over again in my aching head, but he had bowled me a tricky one and, in reality, where else could I go? At the moment, the balance sheet was tilted heavily in favour of ‘nasty shit’, but even some of the ‘taxi’ jobs were rewarding, if only a little.

All too many of the people we drove to and from hospital were effectively housebound, and I gathered that we were sometimes the only people that they ever saw. They would smile, even if they had sepsis all the way up to their groin, and by god they would chat, happily in the main, clearly delighted to see another human being.

Could I settle for that, just passenger transport? I realised the answer was no. Tom was right: I was one of those who ran towards danger, at least for now, and it would lead to the guilt trip from hell if I chucked it in.

Sod it. Another day off tomorrow; I went back to the Smugglers that evening.

Lil was brighter than I had ever seen her, which took some doing, and teased me about mordant canine hairs as she pulled my pint, before looking past me with a broad grin.

“Hiya, you!”

I looked over my shoulder to see a slim Asian girl in her twenties, who looked up at me with a cheeky grin.

“Can I just slide past…”

I shuffled sideways a step, and she pushed up to the bar, Lil leaning forward for---well, neither of them held back, but it was still a little awkward to be standing next to a full-on snog. I coughed, as politely as I could manage.

“I will assume you two have been introduced, then”

Lil let go of her new friend to busy herself with bottle and glass.

“Jen, Amina, Amina, Jen”

“You two appear to know each other rather well”

Lil flushed slightly.

“Met on my night off”

“Where?”

“Here. I came for a bit of a bop. Look, I know I work here, but that means I also know the beer’s well-kept, and some of the other places---to be honest, it would feel a bit like betrayal. So I had a bop, and Amina here had a bop, and then we both had a bop, and, well, stuff. It’s allowed!”

I slapped her forearm gently, where it lay across the bar so that they could hold hands.

“You don’t have to explain, woman. What do you do, Amina?”

“I’ve just finished my MBA. Master of Business Admin. Working for EY at the moment. Your eyes are glazing over. It’s an accountancy and consulting firm”

“The only consultants I know are reasonably senior doctors”

“Oh?”

“I’m a paramedic”

Her mouth opened wide in surprise.

“I think you know my Mam! She was talking about you”

“How does she know me? “

“She’s a District Nurse; Hira Khan”