Broken Levees Chapter Two
Title: Broke Levees
Author: Thy Truth is Won
Word count: 906
Summary: Levees are walls that keep rivers and lakes from flooding a place. When the levees break, the water that they’re blocking, escapes and cause a lot of damage to the places that they flood.
Disclaimer: I do not own ‘Dead Like Me.’ MGM & Showtime does, and Bryan Fuller created it. Trust me, if I did own it, Bryan Fuller would’ve had full creative freedom and the show might have gone longer then two seasons.
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Chapter 2: Vacation Time
During the time of collating, Mildred Hagan (Millie) learned many things about the benefits of employees. Especially when it came to asking for time off. How to get it was anything else in Bureaucracy - Slow.
Happy Time Temporary Services grants vacation leave to eligible employees for rest and recreation and as recognition for service. Employees are expected to give advance notice when requesting vacation time (preferably two weeks' notice) to allow the supervisor to evaluate staffing needs. Consideration is given to employee seniority and to other approved vacations granted to employees during the same year.
Millie Hagan was not of seniority and she was not going on vacation.
All eligible employees will be allowed up to five days leave, with pay, for time lost due to the death of a family member. The leave time includes making arrangements for and/or attending final observances as well as time required to conduct personal business related to the death of the family member. Days off may be intermittent or consecutive.
If an employee needs additional days, he may use vacation leave or time without pay.
No has died, yet, and no one she knows has died.
The employee must request compassionate leave in writing. The supervisor, area Vice President, and the Associate Vice President for Human Resources will review the request and determine whether or not to grant the request and, if granted, how many days.
There fore Millie Hagan will have a sick aunt in New Orleans who needs her to come by and take car of her for a few weeks, or months.
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Millie demurely sat down, discussing how Aunt Bea just went through hip replacement surgery, due to get an operation for her cataracts, and is in danger of getting pneumonia. Poor Auntie Bea needs help and her youngest great-niece was the only one who could; at least help her find a good retirement home. And Auntie Bea needs her now, ASAP.
Which is why it would be such a big help if Delores, her employer and mentor, would forgo the two weeks notice, the letters and just let her go to dear Auntie Bea who needs her now.
Millie wondered, with a dead aunt, a brother Luke who broke his legs after an accident with his convertible,
and an older sister Betty who decided to leave and go somewhere else, and she hadn’t heard from since.
Then with the dozens of AA meetings, doctor appointments and emergencies in the form of two roommates,
one was being a drunken British man and the other a southern blonde. Millie wondered if Delores will let
her go.
Delores sympathetically smiled, “I hope your aunt gets well. Hip replacement surgery is a common practice,
but complications always come up.”
Millie didn’t trust herself to smile and thanked Delores Her-Big-Brown-Eyes. If anything, Delores thought
that Millie was a bleeding heart from a screwy, accident prone family that relied on her. No wonder she
became an alcoholic.
Millie left Happy Time, going home so George can pack and go to work.
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Daisy was already packing. She tried to get out of the assignment.
“I don’t why I’ll be needed on something that is obviously important and hard,” Daisy said in her most
diplomatic tone, facing Rube who was enjoying his coffee.
“It’s New Orleans,” Rube said, “Good coffee. I know this little bakery that makes the best beignets.”
“You should send Roxy,” Daisy continued, “She can keep those two in check.”
Rube stopped drinking his coffee, placing it gently on the table top, and looked at Daisy.
He was considering something, something that wasn’t letting Dasiy off the assignment.
“I know why you’re doing this,” Rube still kept his gaze on her, “Whatever happened in the past is done
and it had been what? Seventy five years?”
“Seventy six,” Daisy found her correcting, silently, automatically thinking, ‘Three months and twelve days.’
“Either case, it’s been a long time,” Rube added another teaspoon of sugar to his coffee, “Get over it and
don’t cause any trouble on this assignment. Just the job.”
Daisy carefully folded Dolce & Gabbana dresses and skirts into her leather suitcase, still feeling off hand
and sickly tingle. She went to her vanity table, gathering the makeup and small polished boxes holding
jewelry. She then stopped at one particular powder blue box and opened its ornate carved lid.
She took out a rather plain and roughed out necklace, hardly the sort she even think of wearing, much less
would own. The chain was a tarnished bronze metal, able to withstand time but not stay pretty, with a
heart pendent broken in half. This pendent was made of gold, pure gold and managed to have its sheen,
and lined with tiny diamonds, stopping only at the part where it was now a half heart. On the other side of
the pendent was a picture that Daisy could stare at for hours and try not to cry. So she didn’t look at it.
Not now.
She put the necklace back in its box and carefully set the box in the suitcase. She covered it with a bundle
of Gucci scarves and gloves and then closed it.
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Sorry it took me this long to have a second chapter, and the story is going at a slow pace,
both plot wise and development. Anyway, I hoped you like reading it.