Part 378: The Trials of Locke Part 4
March 31st, 2006
Locke got up at the crack of dawn. It was going to be a special day. He calmly walked into the bathroom and proceeded to take his shower. Afterwards, he walked backed into his room and smiled at the clean, pressed clothes that Mia did for him the night before. He began to get dressed, putting on the white shirt, reddish tie and then snapped up his suspenders. After he put on his shoes, he walked down the stairs and could already hear the sound of Mia cooking breakfast. Locke walked in and John was finishing up his breakfast. As he stood up, he wiped his mouth and then Mia walked over to him giving him his lunch container. He gently kissed her and proceeded out. “Have a good day at school, John.” Locke called to him.
“Likewise, Pops,” John said as he picked up his car keys, “We celebrating tonight?”
“Absolutely. My treat.” The older man smirked.
John laughed and then opened the door to leave the house. Locke then sat down at his usual place and within seconds, Mia set down a plate of toast with jam and light butter; just like he liked it. He smiled his warm smile as she then picked up a napkin and placed it around his collar. “You are too kind to me, Mia,” he said, “I could have done all this.”
“I know that,” she said, kissing him on his forehead, “But the point is you don’t have to.”
“When you have the baby, I definitely will be doing this myself.”
“Until then, It’s the daughter’s job to spoil her father,” she said, sitting down and picking up the paper, “Besides . . . .it’s a special day.”
Locke smiled as he took a bite of his toast. “Yes, it is,” he agreed.
Locke finally arrived at his work place. He road the elevator up to the second floor and past the lobby. The receptionist waved to him as he walked on. He entered the main cubicle area and was proceeding toward his desk area until he saw Gordon and Sweeny walking fast toward him. “John. John!” they hissed.
“What’s going on, guys?” he asked.
“You’re never going to believe this, but that fat guy is here!”
“What fat guy?” the older man raised an eyebrow.
“That guy . ..the TWINKIES GUY!” Gordon whispered.
“Oh, you mean Hugo Reyes, the owner of the company?” Locke smiled.
“Yeah. He went into Steven’s office an hour ago. Steven’s left with all his stuff and a great big smile on his face.”
“Stevens is gone?” the bald man said with a coy grin, “How interesting.”
Then within seconds of their conversation, they both saw an exotic Latina coming down the hallway toward them. They only knew her as Mrs. Gurzera, Steven’s secretary. The beautiful woman came up to the three men and smiled. “Mr. Locke?” she said, in a polite tone, “Would you please come with me?”
Gordon and Sweeny were frozen. They had no idea what was going on nor did they have any inclination what to do. Locke smiled, shrugged his shoulders and followed the beautiful woman. After they walked through a bunch of other cubicle areas, most of the people were gasping; wondering what was going on. Locke continued to have a coy grin about him as he followed Mr. Gurzera. Soon they were at the end of the hall, and the two people walked into Mr. Steven’s office. Locke was quick to notice that his name was off the door. In the office was Jay Parent, the president of the company and next to him was Hugo Reyes, the owner of the company. “Mr. Locke,” Parent said, “This is Hugo Reyes, the owner of the company.”
Locke laughed and walked up to him, holding his hand. “How’ve you been, Hurley?” he laughed.
Hurley laughed again and embraced him. Mr. Parent was taken a bit by surprise but of course, could say nothing about it. The large man patted him on the arms as they parted. “It’s good to see you, dude,” he smiled.
“I want to thank you for this.” Locke said.
“No thanks are needed,” the big man smiled, then pointed toward Steven’s desk, “I know it’s the right decision.”
Locke then calmly walked over toward Steven’s chair, which was as of that moment; HIS chair. He sat down and relaxed inward. Parent took a deep breathe and sighed. The bald man put his hands on the back of his head, relaxing and looking at the president. “You disapprove, Mr. Parent?” Locke asked.
The older man gulped, rubbing his collar with his index finger. “No, of course, not, Mr. Locke.” He smiled.
“What’s he’s trying to say, dude,” Hurley smiled as he sat on a nearby chair, “Is that I am the owner of the company. I can pretty much do what I want. He’s NOT ALLOWED to disapprove.”
“Quite correct, Mr. Reyes.” The president smirked with a slight bead of sweat rolling down his forehead.
“Dude, calm down,” the large man laughed, “When you see the results of your employee performance in a few months, you’ll also see this is the right decision. Besides . . . .I got a Cancun trip with your name on it.”
“Thank you, sir,” Parent laughed.
“You look like you could use the vacation. Get out of here. It’ll be waiting for you at your desk.”
Parent walked over and shook his hand, then proceeded to leave the room. He closed the door as he left. Hurley looked over to his older friend and smiled. Locke chuckled as he leaned up on the desk. “You did take care of Stevens in a nice way, right?” he asked.
“OH, you mean his 500 thousand dollar severance package?” the large man laughed, “Oh, yeah, he was quiet happy to leave, dude.”
“Good, “ Locke laughed in his reply.
“So, Mr. Locke, the regional manager. What will be your first order of business?”
“I got some things I need to set right here. Someone deserves to leave this job and I am going to check the files to make sure I can fire him. I am pretty sure I can.”
“So, you’re going to fire somebody?” Hurley raised an eyebrow.
“I’m going to cut out the deadweight and promote those who deserve it. The ones, like I use to be, were past up for promotion several times.”
“Well, how about this? Remember last Christmas party. A certain single mother who was looking for a job?”
Locke’s eyes went wide. He knew exactly who Hurley was talking about. He smiled and pointed his finger at him, agreeing with him with what he said. Locke called in his new secretary to call someone for him.
Later in the day, Locke was getting settled into his new job. He had sent out an email to all the personnel, letting them know who their new regional manager was. Gordon and Sweeny were still in shock, but Locke promised them he would review their personnel records and make sure they were promoted to the jobs they were suited for. Plus, now they would be able to play Risk in his office and not the break room. Locke finished typing on his computer and then the door to his office opened. Mrs. Gurzera quietly stepped in with a very large manila folder. “Is this what you were looking for Mr. Locke?” she smiled.
Locke started to browse the file. He flipped through page after page and as he did, his smile grew brighter. “Yes, this is exactly what I need,” he said, then turned serious, “Could you get Randy in here?”
The Latina secretary smiled and calmly turned around to go do what her new boss told her. Locke typed up the computer and pulled up a specific page that he was looking for earlier. He calmly sipped his coffee and rotated his chair around to look at the buildings through his window. He never thought he would have an office view of the city. However, he was more than happy about the task. Then he heard his office door open and someone stepped in. He didn’t have to turn around; he knew Randy was in the room. “You . .uh . . .wanted to see me?” the supervisor asked.
“Have a seat, Randy.” Locke told him.
The supervisor took a deep breath and walked up to the two chairs in front of Locke’s desk and sat down. He crossed his arms and waited. Locke then rotated his chair back around and smiled. He calmly put his coffee cup down and then pulled out the company check book. “How you doing this afternoon, Randy?” he said, as he started to write a check.
“I’m okay.” He grunted.
“Didn’t you call your former regional manager, sir?” Locke then looked at him.
“Okay, look,” Randy said, leaning forward, “I don’t know how you got Steven’s job but congradulations. Don’t expect me to kiss your ass, old man because I won’t. You are not better than me.”
“On the contrary, Randy,” Locke leaned back into his desk, “I know for a fact . . .I AM better than you.”
The door outside knocked again and Mr. Gurzera opened the door. “Excuse me, Mr. Locke,” she smiled, “But your four o’clock is here.”
The Latina secretary moved to the side and allowed the young blonde at her side to step into the room. The young woman looked to Locke and smiled at the recognition of friendship. Locke then stood up and held out his arms. “Hello, Mandy.” He smiled.
The young woman walked over and embraced him. Randy stared at both of them in amazement, wondering what was going on. As the two parted, the bald man stared at her with a fatherly pride. He gave that mostly to Mia but the other younger members of his little survival family received it often as well. “You are looking well,” he smiled, “How is Bridgett?”
“Oh, getting bigger by the day,” she grinned, “Alexander is taking care of her most of the time. And you should hear the funny name she calls Seth.”
“I look forward to hearing all about it,” he smiled, “And I suspect I will, when we start seeing each other on a daily basis.”
“Oh, yeah!” she laughed, “Thank you so much for calling me. You said you have a job for me?”
“I do have a job for you,” the older man then pointed toward Randy, “His.”
“What?” Randy blinked.
“Oh, thanks,” the blonde laughed.
Randy didn’t think it was funny. He quickly stood up and looked at Locke sharply. “What the hell do you think you are doing, you son of a bitch?” the former supervisor screamed at him.
“Watch your language around this young woman, Randy,” Locke said with bent eyebrows, “In case you didn’t get the message, you are fired.”
“You can’t fire me just cause you don’t like me!” the irate man screamed back at him, “I will sue you and this stupid company!”
“You’re right, Randy. I don’t like you. But that is NOT why I am firing you.”
Locke then picked up the large manila folder and flopped it in front of the former supervisor. “There are over 100 reprimands in there for being tardy,” the older man said, “Only 30 will get you removed from this company.”
Randy froze. He knew for a fact that those reprimands were in there because he knew there were many times when he was indeed late. He didn’t care because Steven’s didn’t care. However, Stevens was no longer his regional manager. “We must get to work on time, Randy and we must do so by example.” Locke sat down, “You are about to become that example. Find a printer box, clean out your desk and if you are not out of this building in 15 minutes, I will have Gordon and Sweeny escort you out.”
Randy sneered at the old man. He couldn’t do anything. He had him with the tardy reprimands and there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do about it. The former supervisor slowly turned around and proceeded out of the office. After he slammed the door, Mandy smirked and held onto her purse, looking at her new boss. “Why do I get the feeling he deserved this?” the young blonde smiled.
“He did,” Locke sighed, “Now that the hostile element is out of our work place, I think the co-workers will have a better chance to get along with each other.”
“I won’t let you down, Locke,” Mandy promised.
“I know you won’t, Mandy.” He motioned to one of the chairs, “Now have a seat. Show me some photos of Bridgett while Randy gets YOUR desk ready.”
Locke got up at the crack of dawn. It was going to be a special day. He calmly walked into the bathroom and proceeded to take his shower. Afterwards, he walked backed into his room and smiled at the clean, pressed clothes that Mia did for him the night before. He began to get dressed, putting on the white shirt, reddish tie and then snapped up his suspenders. After he put on his shoes, he walked down the stairs and could already hear the sound of Mia cooking breakfast. Locke walked in and John was finishing up his breakfast. As he stood up, he wiped his mouth and then Mia walked over to him giving him his lunch container. He gently kissed her and proceeded out. “Have a good day at school, John.” Locke called to him.
“Likewise, Pops,” John said as he picked up his car keys, “We celebrating tonight?”
“Absolutely. My treat.” The older man smirked.
John laughed and then opened the door to leave the house. Locke then sat down at his usual place and within seconds, Mia set down a plate of toast with jam and light butter; just like he liked it. He smiled his warm smile as she then picked up a napkin and placed it around his collar. “You are too kind to me, Mia,” he said, “I could have done all this.”
“I know that,” she said, kissing him on his forehead, “But the point is you don’t have to.”
“When you have the baby, I definitely will be doing this myself.”
“Until then, It’s the daughter’s job to spoil her father,” she said, sitting down and picking up the paper, “Besides . . . .it’s a special day.”
Locke smiled as he took a bite of his toast. “Yes, it is,” he agreed.
Locke finally arrived at his work place. He road the elevator up to the second floor and past the lobby. The receptionist waved to him as he walked on. He entered the main cubicle area and was proceeding toward his desk area until he saw Gordon and Sweeny walking fast toward him. “John. John!” they hissed.
“What’s going on, guys?” he asked.
“You’re never going to believe this, but that fat guy is here!”
“What fat guy?” the older man raised an eyebrow.
“That guy . ..the TWINKIES GUY!” Gordon whispered.
“Oh, you mean Hugo Reyes, the owner of the company?” Locke smiled.
“Yeah. He went into Steven’s office an hour ago. Steven’s left with all his stuff and a great big smile on his face.”
“Stevens is gone?” the bald man said with a coy grin, “How interesting.”
Then within seconds of their conversation, they both saw an exotic Latina coming down the hallway toward them. They only knew her as Mrs. Gurzera, Steven’s secretary. The beautiful woman came up to the three men and smiled. “Mr. Locke?” she said, in a polite tone, “Would you please come with me?”
Gordon and Sweeny were frozen. They had no idea what was going on nor did they have any inclination what to do. Locke smiled, shrugged his shoulders and followed the beautiful woman. After they walked through a bunch of other cubicle areas, most of the people were gasping; wondering what was going on. Locke continued to have a coy grin about him as he followed Mr. Gurzera. Soon they were at the end of the hall, and the two people walked into Mr. Steven’s office. Locke was quick to notice that his name was off the door. In the office was Jay Parent, the president of the company and next to him was Hugo Reyes, the owner of the company. “Mr. Locke,” Parent said, “This is Hugo Reyes, the owner of the company.”
Locke laughed and walked up to him, holding his hand. “How’ve you been, Hurley?” he laughed.
Hurley laughed again and embraced him. Mr. Parent was taken a bit by surprise but of course, could say nothing about it. The large man patted him on the arms as they parted. “It’s good to see you, dude,” he smiled.
“I want to thank you for this.” Locke said.
“No thanks are needed,” the big man smiled, then pointed toward Steven’s desk, “I know it’s the right decision.”
Locke then calmly walked over toward Steven’s chair, which was as of that moment; HIS chair. He sat down and relaxed inward. Parent took a deep breathe and sighed. The bald man put his hands on the back of his head, relaxing and looking at the president. “You disapprove, Mr. Parent?” Locke asked.
The older man gulped, rubbing his collar with his index finger. “No, of course, not, Mr. Locke.” He smiled.
“What’s he’s trying to say, dude,” Hurley smiled as he sat on a nearby chair, “Is that I am the owner of the company. I can pretty much do what I want. He’s NOT ALLOWED to disapprove.”
“Quite correct, Mr. Reyes.” The president smirked with a slight bead of sweat rolling down his forehead.
“Dude, calm down,” the large man laughed, “When you see the results of your employee performance in a few months, you’ll also see this is the right decision. Besides . . . .I got a Cancun trip with your name on it.”
“Thank you, sir,” Parent laughed.
“You look like you could use the vacation. Get out of here. It’ll be waiting for you at your desk.”
Parent walked over and shook his hand, then proceeded to leave the room. He closed the door as he left. Hurley looked over to his older friend and smiled. Locke chuckled as he leaned up on the desk. “You did take care of Stevens in a nice way, right?” he asked.
“OH, you mean his 500 thousand dollar severance package?” the large man laughed, “Oh, yeah, he was quiet happy to leave, dude.”
“Good, “ Locke laughed in his reply.
“So, Mr. Locke, the regional manager. What will be your first order of business?”
“I got some things I need to set right here. Someone deserves to leave this job and I am going to check the files to make sure I can fire him. I am pretty sure I can.”
“So, you’re going to fire somebody?” Hurley raised an eyebrow.
“I’m going to cut out the deadweight and promote those who deserve it. The ones, like I use to be, were past up for promotion several times.”
“Well, how about this? Remember last Christmas party. A certain single mother who was looking for a job?”
Locke’s eyes went wide. He knew exactly who Hurley was talking about. He smiled and pointed his finger at him, agreeing with him with what he said. Locke called in his new secretary to call someone for him.
Later in the day, Locke was getting settled into his new job. He had sent out an email to all the personnel, letting them know who their new regional manager was. Gordon and Sweeny were still in shock, but Locke promised them he would review their personnel records and make sure they were promoted to the jobs they were suited for. Plus, now they would be able to play Risk in his office and not the break room. Locke finished typing on his computer and then the door to his office opened. Mrs. Gurzera quietly stepped in with a very large manila folder. “Is this what you were looking for Mr. Locke?” she smiled.
Locke started to browse the file. He flipped through page after page and as he did, his smile grew brighter. “Yes, this is exactly what I need,” he said, then turned serious, “Could you get Randy in here?”
The Latina secretary smiled and calmly turned around to go do what her new boss told her. Locke typed up the computer and pulled up a specific page that he was looking for earlier. He calmly sipped his coffee and rotated his chair around to look at the buildings through his window. He never thought he would have an office view of the city. However, he was more than happy about the task. Then he heard his office door open and someone stepped in. He didn’t have to turn around; he knew Randy was in the room. “You . .uh . . .wanted to see me?” the supervisor asked.
“Have a seat, Randy.” Locke told him.
The supervisor took a deep breath and walked up to the two chairs in front of Locke’s desk and sat down. He crossed his arms and waited. Locke then rotated his chair back around and smiled. He calmly put his coffee cup down and then pulled out the company check book. “How you doing this afternoon, Randy?” he said, as he started to write a check.
“I’m okay.” He grunted.
“Didn’t you call your former regional manager, sir?” Locke then looked at him.
“Okay, look,” Randy said, leaning forward, “I don’t know how you got Steven’s job but congradulations. Don’t expect me to kiss your ass, old man because I won’t. You are not better than me.”
“On the contrary, Randy,” Locke leaned back into his desk, “I know for a fact . . .I AM better than you.”
The door outside knocked again and Mr. Gurzera opened the door. “Excuse me, Mr. Locke,” she smiled, “But your four o’clock is here.”
The Latina secretary moved to the side and allowed the young blonde at her side to step into the room. The young woman looked to Locke and smiled at the recognition of friendship. Locke then stood up and held out his arms. “Hello, Mandy.” He smiled.
The young woman walked over and embraced him. Randy stared at both of them in amazement, wondering what was going on. As the two parted, the bald man stared at her with a fatherly pride. He gave that mostly to Mia but the other younger members of his little survival family received it often as well. “You are looking well,” he smiled, “How is Bridgett?”
“Oh, getting bigger by the day,” she grinned, “Alexander is taking care of her most of the time. And you should hear the funny name she calls Seth.”
“I look forward to hearing all about it,” he smiled, “And I suspect I will, when we start seeing each other on a daily basis.”
“Oh, yeah!” she laughed, “Thank you so much for calling me. You said you have a job for me?”
“I do have a job for you,” the older man then pointed toward Randy, “His.”
“What?” Randy blinked.
“Oh, thanks,” the blonde laughed.
Randy didn’t think it was funny. He quickly stood up and looked at Locke sharply. “What the hell do you think you are doing, you son of a bitch?” the former supervisor screamed at him.
“Watch your language around this young woman, Randy,” Locke said with bent eyebrows, “In case you didn’t get the message, you are fired.”
“You can’t fire me just cause you don’t like me!” the irate man screamed back at him, “I will sue you and this stupid company!”
“You’re right, Randy. I don’t like you. But that is NOT why I am firing you.”
Locke then picked up the large manila folder and flopped it in front of the former supervisor. “There are over 100 reprimands in there for being tardy,” the older man said, “Only 30 will get you removed from this company.”
Randy froze. He knew for a fact that those reprimands were in there because he knew there were many times when he was indeed late. He didn’t care because Steven’s didn’t care. However, Stevens was no longer his regional manager. “We must get to work on time, Randy and we must do so by example.” Locke sat down, “You are about to become that example. Find a printer box, clean out your desk and if you are not out of this building in 15 minutes, I will have Gordon and Sweeny escort you out.”
Randy sneered at the old man. He couldn’t do anything. He had him with the tardy reprimands and there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do about it. The former supervisor slowly turned around and proceeded out of the office. After he slammed the door, Mandy smirked and held onto her purse, looking at her new boss. “Why do I get the feeling he deserved this?” the young blonde smiled.
“He did,” Locke sighed, “Now that the hostile element is out of our work place, I think the co-workers will have a better chance to get along with each other.”
“I won’t let you down, Locke,” Mandy promised.
“I know you won’t, Mandy.” He motioned to one of the chairs, “Now have a seat. Show me some photos of Bridgett while Randy gets YOUR desk ready.”
posted by Jason | 3:57 AM
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