Louise

"Morning Louise," Yvonne said chirpily as she entered the office one
morning. Louise ignored her co-worker. "Oh, it's going to be one of
those days, is it?" Yvonne mumbled. Louise walked past her to the coat
rack, hung up her coat and went straight to the Ladies room. When the
door had closed behind her, Yvonne sighed and turned around.

"What's the matter with her again?" she asked. The others shrugged. If
Louise was in one of her moods, it was better to keep out of her way.
They had all learned that the hard way on those occasions where they
felt like cheering her up and got yelled at for their efforts. When
Louise came out again some 20 minutes later, they kept their heads
down.

Louise dreaded coming into the office. She did not like her job, and
she did not like the people she worked with, especially Yvonne who was
always so happy. Louise wished she could be that happy. Every time she
tried, something happened. She came to the conclusion that she was not
supposed to be happy. It was easier to give in to the darkness, anyway.
Much easier.

Louise stood outside the office for ten minutes, trying to gain
courage to enter. At one point someone came out, and Louise hearing the
footsteps cowered behind a cupboard, hoping that whoever it was would
not go past her. She was lucky, the footsteps faded away and she tried
the door again. This time she managed to open it. She walked along the
corridor to the other end of the office. Nobody took any notice of her.
It was like she was invisible. Just how she liked it.

Except for Yvonne who had to shout some abuse at her. Yvonne hated
Louise and the feeling was mutual. She walked straight past her and
into the Ladies room. Behind her she could hear Yvonne bitching about
her. She closed the door and collapsed onto the floor, crying. Why did
Yvonne have to do this to her every day? It made her life a
misery.

It took Louise nearly 20 minutes to make herself go back into the
office. She sat down at her desk quietly. Yvonne said something
spiteful but she did not listen. She switched the computer on and
waited for it to boot up with her head in her hands.

"All right?" Yvonne asked as Louise sat down next to her. "Did you
have a nice weekend?" Louise did not answer. Yvonne did not know what
else to say, so she decided to leave her alone. The day was going to be
busy, and Louise being late and then hiding in the Ladies room for ages
did not exactly improve the situation. Yvonne had a vague idea who was
going to pick up the work that Louise was not going to finish.

Louise felt herself get more and more aggravated. Why did Yvonne keep
staring at her? Did she not have any work to do? She knew that it was
only a matter of hours until Mark would come in and check that all the
work was finished by the deadline, so why was Yvonne wasting time
staring at her? Did she expect Louise to pick up her work at the end of
the day? Louise was close to tears. She had enough to do already, how
was she supposed to cope with Yvonne's work as well?

She started bashing the keys on her computer. Mark was going to agree
with Yvonne, of course. He always did. He was probably sleeping with
her, and because Louise had turned him down he always sided with Yvonne
against her. She hit the keyboard with her flat hand and an error
message flashed up. She pushed her chair back and jumped up. "Why did
you do that?" she shouted at Yvonne. "I lost an hour's work now because
of you!" She stormed off into Mark's office.

Yvonne found it hard to concentrate with Louise hammering the
keyboard. She tried very hard to stay patient, but she could see that
the others were getting annoyed, too. Louise hit the keyboard with her
flat hand and made Yvonne jump. When Louise got up and shouted at her
Yvonne instinctively ducked expecting to get hit, but Louise ran past
her and into Mark's office. "Now what was that all about," Yvonne said,
trying to control her shaking voice. She got up and looked at Louise's
screen.

"Has she lost it?" Emma, a co-worker, asked. Yvonne nodded and tapped
the side of her head with her finger. "Yeah, she's lost it all right,"
she said and pressed a few keys on the computer. "The system is fine,
though, just an error message. Nothing to get so up tight about. I
mean, for crying out loud, how are we supposed to work in
this&;#8230;"

A loud noise from Mark's office interrupted her. Louise was shouting
at the top of her voice. Mark was trying to calm her down, but he had
to shout, too, to get heard. "Why are you shouting at me?" they heard
Louise yell. "If this wasn't so weird it would almost be funny," Yvonne
said. "For heavens sake, Yvonne, sit down again and pretend you hadn't
heard. She's going to thump you when she comes out," Emma stated.

Yvonne sat down and wondered why she put up with working under these
conditions.

"She is abusing me!" Louise shouted and slammed the door to Mark's
office. Mark had heard the commotion and was ready for her complaint.
He ordered her to sit down. Louise did not want to sit. "The whole
morning she has been swearing at me, and trying to distract me so that
I make mistakes, and now she crashed my computer! I can't work with
that bitch any more, I want you to fire her!" Mark said something to
her but it made no sense at all, as usual. She had known that this was
going to happen. Mark always sided with Yvonne.

"Don't tell me to calm down, I am perfectly calm!" she yelled. "It's
Yvonne who needs to calm down! And you still haven't paid me my money.
When are you going to pay me?" Mark denied all knowledge, just as she
had expected. She slammed her hand on his desk. "I'm going to lunch
now, and when I get back I demand my cheque! You can't do this to me,
I'm not a silly little girl, I know my rights!"

That showed him. She could see in his eyes that he would finally pay
her what he owed. For the first time his words made sense. "I will get
the cheque ready for you this afternoon," he said. "I'm so sorry it
took so long. You go to lunch and we will talk again later, okay?" She
nodded. Finally a result. She left his office and slammed the door
again.

Slowly Mark opened his door. "Is she gone?" he asked. Emma nodded. He
sighed. "She has totally lost it," he said. "What on earth went on in
there?" Yvonne asked. "She was ranting and raving about some money I
owed her, and she demanded a cheque this afternoon. I'm not sure if it
was safe to let her go, but I couldn't keep her in here. I don't know
what she would do."

"Call Security," Yvonne said. "I don't want to be alone here when she
comes back. Really, Mark, we have to do something about her. This has
been getting worse." Mark nodded. "I don't think we need Security, I
just call her husband," he said. "She needs to see a doctor, she's not
well." "You can say that again," Yvonne said. "Call him right now,
before she comes back, okay?" Mark did.

For the first time in ages Louise felt happy. Finally she had told
Mark what she thought of him. She really couldn't put up with this any
longer. Mark was a liar. He had tried to pretend that he didn't know
about the money, but now he was going to pay her.

Louise stopped. Mark was a liar. What made her think that this time he
had told her the truth? She was so na?ve! Within a second she went from
happy to furious. He had taken her for a ride again! He was never going
to pay her what he owed, he had just tried to get her out of his
office. How could she have believed him! She was angry with herself for
falling for this old trick, but even more annoyed at Mark, who'd have
to be taught a lesson.

Louise turned around. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw something
that caught her attention. A red fire extinguisher, and something else.
She nodded. This was what he deserved. She broke the glass that was
covering it and took it out of the box. It was quite heavy but she
would not have to carry it far.

Louise marched back into the office with the fire axe in her
hands.

Yvonne still had trouble concentrating. She kept thinking about Louise
and what she was going to do when she got back. If only Mark had called
Security! She would feel so much safer.

The office door opened. Yvonne casually glanced at the person coming
in, but then did a double take. It was Louise coming back early, and
she was carrying an axe. Yvonne was the only one facing her. Without
looking at her, Louise went straight into Mark's office. "Mark, watch
out!" Yvonne yelled.

Mark was on the telephone to Louise's husband when he heard Yvonne
scream. He turned round and saw Louise standing behind him, a red fire
axe in her hands, swinging it at him. He just had time to throw himself
off his chair before she buried the axe in his desk.

Louise screamed with disappointment and tried to free the axe while
Mark scrambled to his feet. He was not going to get away with it this
time, she had promised herself that. When she realised that the axe was
buried too deeply into the desk she grabbed a pair of scissors instead
and leaped at Mark.

Mark managed to get his chair between himself and Louise. He was
distantly aware of Yvonne yelling for someone to call Security, and he
heard himself scream. Louise's arm shot forward and the sharp scissors
cut his neck. He stumbled against the wall and his hand went to the
wound. He could feel warm blood on his fingers and his vision blurred.
In Louise's eyes he could see triumph. He did not want to die like
this.

Mark had got the chair between them, but Louise lunged forward and
brought the scissors down on his neck. Immediately blood gushed out and
Louise laughed. He was going to pay this time. Now she had got him. Out
of the corner of her eyes she saw someone enter the room. She felt
herself being shoved hard and hit the side of the desk. At the same
time she saw how Mark was dragged out of the room. By the time she got
back to her feet, the door had been closed and locked.

Louise started screaming. Eventually the screams faded to sobs. She
collapsed on the floor and couldn't stop crying. Someone came and spoke
to her. She didn't understand what they were saying, but their voices
were kind. They helped her up. Louise allowed them to lead her to a
car. She couldn't see Mark anywhere. Maybe she had killed him. She
didn't care.

Yvonne gave Louise a hard push and grabbed Mark's arm. She pulled as
hard as she could, but Mark was virtually unconscious. He was bleeding
and Yvonne moaned. Emma grabbed his other arm and together they pulled
him out of the room. Emma quickly locked the door.

Someone had called an ambulance and when it arrived, Yvonne was still
trying to keep the blood from pouring out of the wound on Mark's neck.
She had never seen so much blood. "We take it from here, love," the
paramedic said, and Yvonne started to cry.

***************************************

A big round of applause greeted Mark when he returned to work a month
later. He was a little anxious when he went in his office, but of
course his desk and the carpet had been replaced and the walls washed
and painted. There was no sign of his ordeal.

"I still don't understand why you didn't press charges," Yvonne said.
Mark shrugged. "It wasn't her fault," he said vaguely. "She needs
medical attention, that's all. She's not a bad person." Yvonne sighed
and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "You're a saint," she said. "I sure
hope we never have to see her again."

***************************************

The announcement was made ten months later. Louise had made a full
recovery and the doctors said she was fit for work. The company had
seen no reason to dismiss her during her illness, and proposed that her
old department would be a good place for her to go back to work. After
all, she was declared fit. Mark was apprehensive, but he made sure he
did not show his staff. Louise would need all the help she could get.
So he pretended that this was all right with him.

"You have got to be kidding me," Yvonne said when she heard the news.
Mark had called her into his office to tell her the news. He had known
what her reaction was going to be. When he explained the company's
reasoning, Yvonne shook her head. "No way," she said. "If she comes
back, I resign." Mark sighed. "Management have made it quite clear that
that is your choice, but Louise is coming back regardless. I don't want
to see you go, but I can't force you to work here."

"If I have to resign over this I will sue for constructive dismissal,"
Yvonne said. Mark nodded. Yvonne handed in her resignation the same
day. So did one other member of staff. Mark stayed. Admittedly he was a
little frightened, but the doctors had declared Louise fit for work,
hadn't they?

***************************************

Louise stood outside the office door and tried to make herself open
it. Was this never going to get any easier? She hoped that Yvonne
wasn't there. When she heard footsteps approach she hid behind the
cupboard.