The Story - part 6

Betts stared up at him for a moment and then lifted his hand, holding up the report, and tossed it into the trashcan without breaking eye contact with George.

George sat down in his chair, sulking. His head was spinning. He kept trying to remind himself that it was just a report and it didn’t matter what Betts did with them after they were out of George’s hands. It wasn’t his report. It wasn’t even his place to care about it.

Yet, it felt wrong to watch it be thrown away. He knew his work was important. Why else would they pay for the reports? He knew they had to be done correctly. Something wasn’t right, obviously, but it seemed to George that it was more than just the reports being thrown away. Somehow there had to be important information missing that would make it all make sense to him. Betts didn’t seem to the type do things mindlessly. There must be a real reason for all of this.

The next day, George worked on his report at usual. He gathered the data, analyzed it all, and compiled his report. It was a good report, as always, but he wasn’t very happy about it, knowing where it was going to end up. It made him angry just to think about it.

As George leaned back in his chair scowling at the ceiling about the report, his phone rang.
“Yes?” he said into the speaker.
“George, Mr. Stanton is not in this afternoon. He wanted you to give the report to the client for him.”
“What?” George stammered leaning forward in his chair.
“The report, George. Give it to the client?” she said slightly condescendingly.
“Uh, ok.”

George sat back in his chair again after hanging up the phone. He supposed now he would get to see Betts’ reaction in person, which made him a little bit nervous.

When it was time to meet Betts, George printed his report out and headed down the hall. When he reached the lobby, he found Betts waiting there for him.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Betts.” said George holding out his hand.
“Hello, George.” said Betts shaking George’s hand firmly.
“Here’s today’s report.”
“Thank you.” said Betts taking the report and stuffing into his coat pocket.
“Uh, did you want to look it over?” George was more than a little disappointed at Betts not even glancing at it.
“Oh, I’m sure its fine. I’ll have a look at it later.” said Betts, winking at him.
“When you throw it out!” George was shocked at his own outburst, like someone else was shouting out of his mouth for him. Betts only grinned.
“Perhaps.” he said “Is there something on your mind, George?”
“There is. What is the point of preparing those reports if you are just throwing them away? It’s a useless waste of time and money!” George blurted out. Betts continued to grin.
“It sounds to me, George, as though that is really something you should be asking of yourself.” and he turned his head ever so slightly to one side, and blinked both eyes in an exaggerated slow motion.

George was a little taken aback at Betts’ reply as well as the annoying facial gesture, and he there stood staring blankly at Betts.

“Come with me, George, I want to show you something.” George followed Betts out the front door to the edge of the parking next to the trash can. Betts pulled the report from his pocket and tossed it in as he stopped and turned around to face George. George started to speak, pointing at the report in the trash as Betts interrupted him.

“George, tell me what you do all day.”
“I analyze the data you send, put it in a report, and you throw it in the trash.” George replied rather testily.
“Excellent.” said Betts grinning again “Now, do you know what I do all day?”
“Generate data?” said George, grasping at straws and failing.
“Wrong!” said Betts loudly. “Let me show you.”

Betts bent down and picked up a rock about the size of his fist off the ground and, turning towards the parking lot, hurled it overhand directly into the lot full of parked cars.

to be continued…

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