The impatient message over the loudspeakers cut through the quiet air in the bookstore:
Eva, call 251. Eva, please call 251.
But Eva was a naughty girl, for a few minutes later, the voice shrilled again, half weary, half annoyed:
Could Eva *please* call extension 251. Thank you.
She must have responded to this second call, for we were spared the third announcement:
Eva! Report immediately to the manager’s office.
She hadn’t called because she’d been afraid of the scolding that would inevitably follow. Not to have done so had made matters much, much worse. Downcast, she took the escalator up from the non-fiction section; went through the door marked ‘Private’. Knocked, and was called in.
“And why didn’t you call when you were asked to, young lady?”
“Because. Because… I’m sorry, sir.”
The manager would make an example of her: the tannoy would be flicked back on before her punishment commenced. The sharp retort of the strap would echo six times across the building. Other assistants would wince at their friend’s squeals, some remembering their own toe-touching moments. And the shoppers would look up from their browsing and realise quite how much effort went into maintaining the store’s impeccable reputation for quality.
I think I would promptly seek employment there… of course they’d have to talk to the fellow who collard me first… Hm. All the same, books AND spankings. Phew, what a job!
Great minds think alike and all that… just yesterday when the girl making tannoy announcements was obviously being distracted by a naughty friend and kept giggling as she was trying to speak, I imagined similar consequences to those above as it took her three goes to compose herself enough to put out her message about Mr. Patterson having a caller at the back door. I assumed both girls would be punished while the shop listened. I hung around for a while, hoping, but perhaps Mr Patterson had lots to do before he found time to deal with the miscreants.
ROFL Sarah! Though you do know, you’re actually properly becoming Abel now, right? Ha ha.
Eeek! Punished over a loudspeaker!!!
Hmm, I think I’ve just realized how literal that term ‘loudspeaker’ is… It kind of sounds like a Harry Potter spell now. Maybe it’s just a US thing, because I’ve never heard of a ‘tannoy’ before…
First time I drop by in two months and another Evie’s been letting the side down!
Smudge – I know!
I’m scared!!