I continued to report back to work in the sample room on the following day, and everything seemed business as usual. I have not seen nor heard from Ms. Ma again for an entire week. I assumed that Mr. Jerrard Jr. must have talked with her already. I was waiting, and waiting…for a memo or something, to be sent out to everyone about my upcoming new position, but a week had already gone by, and nothing had happened yet; so I asked Mr. Jerrard Jr. what was happening to my new position. He told me he had spoken with his parents, and they suggested to him that the sample room was too busy at the moment, and they would need to hire someone first to replace me before I can take up a new position.
Okay, fine! I suppose that is a logical reason, but not one that I had wanted to hear right now, and I won’t accept that! I thought. I was becoming restless and impatient. I hope he was not going to change his mind.
"I want that job...NOW!" I told him sternly, looking him straight in the eyes. I was not even aware of the fact that he was my boss, and how in the world I had that kind of courage to speak to him in that manner, except that I was not going to budge. Remember... I had given up Ms. Ma’s offer for this position.
Mr. Jerrard Jr. reassured me not to worry and told me everything was under control.
On the following week, Monday, another new girl was hired. Her name was Lisa, whom I was told to train her for my job. Lisa came from a rich family, so she was not too impressed with our working environment. She was surprised and disgusted at the place where she would be sitting at to do her job. I told her that had been my seat for the past two years. I didn’t like it at first, but eventually, as with all the other duties that were being added onto my responsibilities I was hardly at my desk, so it didn’t seem to bother me that much.
Lisa was a girl around my age. She had a somewhat pointy jawline, while mine was roundish. We both were skinny. I was tiny, with a small bone structure. She was almost as tiny. We were about the same height as well. Within a few days, we had become very good friends with each other.
Besides Lisa, we had also hired another young packing boy named “Ah Leong.” Ah Leong came to our office on the same day that Lisa came to us. He was a quiet boy, and much younger than all of us. I think he might have been around 16 or 17, like most of the other boys that were hired before when they first started working here. Ah Leong was an adopted son, the only child to his adoptive parents. He might have just finished high school, and this was his first job.
Ah Leong seemed to be favoring Big Miss Chen. Perhaps it was her age that intimidated him. Whenever Big Miss Chen wanted him to do something, he would immediately drop everything else to go help Big Miss Chen with her chores. BIG MISTAKE!!!...for this did not sit well with Miss Ng at all. Sometimes Miss Ng would fly off the handle, and scold the whole tribe of us. She was now a fierce 19 years old, much unlike what she was 2 years ago when she first started. She and Big Miss Chen would frequently yell at each other. The office politics in the sample room was flying sky high. I tried to stay out of it as much as I could. I didn’t need the bullshit while I was working. I was not working directly under either one of them anyway, but still, I was belonging to the sample room so sometimes I still had to take orders from them both.
For some odd reasons, Lisa did not get along well with Miss Ng either. I did not know the reasons why. Perhaps she might have thought that Miss Ng was too young to be the head of the sample department, or perhaps there might have been some kind of jealousy as well within her towards Miss Ng. Poor Miss Ng! She didn’t seem to have anyone who would be nice to her. It seemed like ever since she took over that position she had somehow become a public enemy. I think it’s really sad that people are generally so easily be jealous of the success of another.
I told Lisa how Miss Ng had got that position. How she would often go to Mr. Chow’s home in the evening to convince him that she was good for the job (BIG MISTAKE AGAIN… AND THIS TIME IT WAS PROBABLY ALL MY FAULT!! I should never have told Lisa about this), and I told her to stay out of troubles, and only mind her own business, like good Little Miss Chen and myself - just do our jobs and pay no attention to everything else that goes on in the department. Yet, somehow, this Lisa girl was not the type that would behave and be quiet. Her pointy little face, and that pointy little mouth seemed to have minds of their own. Sometimes she would blurt out something silly to reflect Miss Ng. Other times, she would hold up a doll in her hands and talk to it, telling the doll what a trashy woman she is, how she would walk with her boobs bouncing and swinging from side to side (Yes...believe it or not! That's the way how Miss Ng would normally walk - like the whore she was). She would tell the doll it surely deserves a good beating; then she would slap the doll around and start giggling to herself. I always had to quiet her down..."Sssshhhh!!! Noooo!!! Don’t say that, you silly girl!!! You’re going to get yourself in trouble!!!” But quite frankly, this Lisa girl had always made me laugh so hard. She was quite the entertainer in our department.
On one of these occasions, Miss Ng overheard what this silly girl was saying and she got mad. She came over, stuck her eyes out at Lisa, and said, “Why don’t you go die somewhere?” - As this had now become almost one of her frequent trademark quotes. Miss Ng liked telling everyone off by telling them to go and die somewhere whenever she was not pleased with them.
That silly girl, Lisa, was quite a smart girl. I trained her on how to do the calculations on the price of each item. How to add in the cost of the freights, and insurance, and how to come up with the markup price for each item. She seemed rather clever and caught on to it real fast. In time I would even assign a whole box of toys for her to do the calculations and then had her type out the price lists and put the price tags on the lot before sending them off to our clients. She did all that really well, and I was glad she had caught on to her duties so quickly.
So, just as I was there waiting for my new position to take place, I have not seen nor heard from Ms. Ma again. I walked by the clerical office one day and glanced over at her area. I've found that she now had a new girl there by her side, so I assumed that she must have already hired someone for that position.
The following month I moved into Mr. Jerrard Jr.’s office. As I was tidying up my new desk on the first day, cleaning off the dust on the top of the desk, Mrs. Ma walked by the office. She poked her head in by the door frame and saw that no one else was around, except me. I was happy to see her again so I nodded and smiled, and invited her to come into the office. She came in and whispered into my ear, “Beware of the Little Pig!” Then, just as quickly as she had come in, she walked out just as quickly in the same manner. She didn’t even say another word. I watched her as she disappeared into one of those doors that would lead her to the ladies' washrooms. I understood who she meant by “Little Pig”. It was the nickname that everyone had used when referring to Mr. Jerrard Jr., and when referring to his father they would use the nickname “Old Man Pig”. I was left rather confused by Ms. Ma’s comment. She did not even so much as to say anything to congratulate me in my new position.
What does she mean by “Beware of the Little Pig”? Now she got me wondering.
What kind of thing to say?! Mr. Jerrard Jr. had been nothing but nice to me so far, I don’t have any bad thoughts about him at all. Ugh! Silly woman! Ah! She’s probably jealous anyway! I thought. I felt offended by her warning, and I felt I needed to protect my employer and friend, Mr. Jerrard Jr.
I would not even complain about anything now. I like my new office, my new desk, and the large workstation. They looked nice after I’ve cleaned all the dust. Now I just need to get some stationery: some pencils, ballpoint pens, pads, ruler... perhaps some other things too for my drawers; or perhaps I should buy a vase with some flowers to put at the corner of my desk to add beauty to my work station. I was rather pleased with my new working environment. I have decided not to let anything or anyone’s negativity ruin my spirit. Heck!... Just know I have earned this position by myself! It was through my hard work! I know I should be proud of all this!
Another head poked in through the door frame, and this time it was Lisa’s pointy little face peeking in.
“Ready for lunch yet?” She asked.
“Sure, Lisa!!...I’ll be there in a minute!” I answered.
The story description is done very well, except that I was thinking (just loudly )when we write in fist person like this is there any way to control the number of times we use first person "I", somehow when I started writing a story I quickly converted it to second person,
but here in this story the first person account is sounding good enough!Jk
The plot thickens. It is obvious what Mr. Jerard, Jr.'s intentions were. He had been using his position to take in naïve little girls into his lair, all condoned by his family because of their power. I can see where this is leading…
Again, it does need some editing, but is a thoroughly engaging and very realistic description of office situations everywhere. The fact that it is true makes it all the more inviting to read.
My memories as an immigrant professional woman in Ottawa, Canada 47 years ago. A new life after having survived the liberal war of a new country Bangladesh on December 16, 1971.
This book is a collection of short stories that depict events in Author's life while she lived in Romania, then in Greece, and last in America. It's a beautiful and very sincere account of a young woman's life and comming to age.
My First My First Job...continue...(Part 5)
