He knew he was late, but what could he do? The kid has a fever and his wife was herself late for her school crossing job. Since he was on commission and she had to be there at that street corner on time, he had to comfort their three year old until Gloria showed up. Gloria had her own kids to deal with so he just had to wait around. Lucky for them that they could afford Gloria. She was undocumented and showed concern for their own financial woes. He arrived at the office, hurried down a cup of stale coffee ( Lillian the bookkeeper’s poison brew) and got right on the phone. Since this was Christmas week he needed to get in as many call backs as possible. He laughed, remembering that stupid show ‘ Dialing for Dollars’ that was the television rave years ago. Yeah, he was ‘ dialing for dollars’ or perhaps more explicitly ‘ dialing for commission’.

The boss had this Christmas party every year, or rather a lunchtime Christmas buffet of cold cuts, salad and fruit cups. He did splurge for booze and plenty of soda, along with a platter of cookies and cake from the bakery around the corner of Park Ave South. The only consolation would be the yearly sales bonus that he craved every December. This year’s should be a good one, as his sales were on an upward trend this time. That second check was all that he could focus on this morning… actually all this week! Too many bills were coming due and the wife was beginning to panic. The doctor bill for the kid’s ear surgery, not covered by their shitty medical insurance, was too hefty to disregard like the other hatful of assorted bills. He remembers his cousin Mick, upon moving back east from LA, and what he told him. ” You see cousin, when I get a collection call here’s what I tell the joker on the other end. As my bills come in I just throw them all into a big hat. Once a month I reach into the hat and pull out one to pay off. The rest stay in the hat until next month.”

Lunchtime came and the whole office congregated at the reception area by the elevators. The delicacies were laid out along with the table filled with soda and booze. All the salespeople ate, mingled, laughed, ate, drank and drank until the holiday spirit was upon all. Between the background Christmas music and stale jokes he was finally able to relax a bit. Yet, what was on the minds of all the phone men and women was the bonus. These were all folks like him, working stiffs with no union behind them, no pensions, no vacation or sick days. Each one had his or her own story on why money was so important this year end. He called his apartment to see how the boy was doing. Gloria said all seemed well. Now all he wanted was that second check and off he would scatter back into Brooklyn.

The party was almost over. The boss started calling the salespeople, one by one into his office. He stood by the booze table, guzzling down a brandy with a ginger ale chaser, and he waited his turn. Before he knew it the boss had called his name. He walked into the office like a serf humbles into the lord of the manor’s abode. The office manager sat on the couch opposite the boss with this shit eating half smile. Something was up. He qualified that quickly as he stood in front of the boss’s desk. The boss was sitting there opening the mail with fine manicured nails. He really never even looked up to him as he spoke. ” Listen kiddo, I know you had a pretty good year. It’s just that the company, WE did not have such a great year. The landlord raised our rent and we had to deal with some lawsuits. Not to blame you or the others but shit does happen kiddo. Bottom line is we cannot afford to give out bonuses this year. I told the others that as well. Please be patient and maybe we can all get back on track in the new year. ”

As he walked to the subway he remembered the thing about the United Health Care exec getting blown away. He also remembered how in October the boss and his family took two weeks to vacation in the south of France. He factored that in with the new Jaguar he remembered seeing his boss pull away from the office in last week. Was there a gun shop nearby?

PA Farruggio
December 2024