Fighting Life

Chapter Six

On Tuesday, Tana was back to work, it was reaching the end of the month, being March twenty fifth. She knew there was a lot she would have to catch up on, being away for two days from work, including a weekend as well. She felt very nervous going in, worried for what she was to face. Firstly, she went to her desk, and put her bags down, sorting through some files, before thinking it was a good time to get up, with a piece of paper, and to head to the boss's office. Tana was not sure if he was in yet, but she had to pass on the sick notice to Clark Smith. She was scared.

Knocking on the door, she stayed silent and waited. There was a noise from within the office and a moment later a voice spoke, inviting her in. Opening the door and stepping into the office. The desk chair again had it's back to her and she could only just see the top of the boss's head. She started to wonder, was there something wrong with him, that he did not face people, for what they would think of him? Tana was not sure, but she did not want to waste any more time thinking about it.

"Sir, I have bought in a certificate for the days taken off." She spoke, not sure if he would know it was her or not. "I am... it is... um... Tana."
"I know whom you are, you are the only one recently away." His voice spoke harshly.
"Oh... ok." She replied, unsure what to do.
"Well, pass it on." He advised firmly.

She wasted no time, Tana noticed he had placed his hand out, still not turning the chair. Carefully, she moved forwards and placed the form in his hand, the form that had her full name, her real name. At work, she was only known as Tana Nill, on the form it had what her licence would display, Tanaleah Nillkinszon. She always went short with her name these days, as it was always harder to explain it, unless it was something like a licence or formal ID matters. Her employment name, did not have to be as formal, but it was close enough. The moment she put the paper in his hand, it vanished, but she was sure, with the way he did it, that Clark Smith did not actually look at the form, likely just taking her word and leaving it at that.

"I do not like people taking days off." He warned.
"It wont happen again." She replied a bit worried.
"Good." He stated, "I am sure you have a lot of get onto."
"Thank you." Tana replied.

She did not know why she said that, after the tone he used and the way he was, she did not think a thank you was the right word, but it was all she could think. She did hear a small mutter of the word 'idiot' as she turned and started to walk away, which almost made her stop and say something, but Tana chose against it, shaking her head and walked out, going back to her own desk and getting stuck into work.

She was not happy, she felt sad, lonely and still unsure about this news with her heart. She knew it was not the worst thing to be dealing with, but it still had her wondering, thinking. Yet, for the whole day, she kept this all to herself, faking happy with the rest of the team, and trying as best as she could to avoid anything to do with Jenny, whom was trying to be nosy and work out why Tana had been absent.

There was a mild issue when Jenny approached her desk, wanting to dig and find out what was going on. Tana did not want to say anything and tried to avoid it multiple times, but Jenny was Jenny and she liked to make a show of things. She loved to joke loudly to claim Tana went on a holiday instead of being sick, which was annoying because it meant others started questioning where she went. Tana tried so many times to state it was illness and Jenny was wrong, but Jenny would not let up.

The hard thing was, even a week after she came back to work, the following Tuesday, which was in fact, April first, Jenny was still going on about it. This resulted in another call to the boss's office, where once again, Clark Smith did not turn around in the chair, and wanted to know if it was true. Tana explained it was not, that Jenny miss spoke. He seemed to think there was a lot of issues that she had with Jenny but that was not the case. She was no fan, but she was not the one causing issues. In fact, she actually explained to the back of his chair that while she was not willing to explain to others, she was recently diagnosed with a heart condition, that caused some issues that Thursday night. She did not mention about the near miss she was involved in. Yet, what she did not like was the snide comment made from the other side of the chair, the 'weak' comment her boss threw at her.