Forget Me Not

Chapter Four

"The way you cheated on me...."

The thought had come to Korn long after Mew had left. It would have been a worthwhile dig to throw at him after what he'd said. A reminder that he had started it. But that wasn't fair. Mew had done what was right for him. Korn had done something that hadn't even been good for him let alone the people he'd hurt along the way.

Why couldn't he be honest with himself? There were no 'people'. It was just Knock. He'd hurt him. And because he didn't know how to make things right, he'd run away. Perhaps that wasn't the right way to put it. He'd left because there was no reason left to stay.

It didn't mean that Korn could switch off his feelings. He couldn't forget what he'd had with Knock. What it had been like to have his friends around him. He was worried. Not because he thought they needed him. But because of how desperately he needed them.

How hard would it be to call and find out how Knock was? Hear his voice if he even bothered to pick up Korn's phone call. Tell him how sorry he was—again! Even though he knew he was beyond forgiveness.

He toyed with the idea for so long that it was well past his bedtime when he finally made up his mind to forget about it. Sleep still eluded him for hours after. He woke up cranky and sleep-deprived. The perfect recipe for a bad day. And when he got to work, it just got worse.

"This is the third time this week that the conveyor belt on line three has stalled," P'Dan told him when he was called in to find out why production had slowed.

"I'll see what I can do," he said, as he went back and put on his coveralls and grabbed a toolkit.

Korn wasn't sufficiently deluded into thinking he could fix the problem. This was one of many things that needed more than the temporary patch he could put in place. Like many of the older pieces of equipment, it needed a complete overhaul at least. Replacing it was the best thing he could hope for.

He was able to get it working. But made a point of noting what he had done and filing a report to the effect that it was temporary. He outlined his recommendations for a permanent solution like he'd done countless times already. Then sent the email to the production, QC and procurement managers and copied P'Dan and P'Chaisee. He filed a copy with the log of repairs.

He was back in his office going through the quality control notes on returned or failed products. Just like he'd predicted, they were increasing. It was only a matter of time before it started costing the company money instead of making them money. The knock on his door pulled him from his scrutiny of the document (and the hope that if he stared at it long enough the outcome would change).

"I saw your email," P'Song said as she squeezed into his office.

"Yeah...that was the point of sending it to you."

"This is the how-many-eth time you've had to patch the machines?"

"I've lost count. But you complied these numbers," Korn said showing P'Song the print-out of QC results. "You and I both know it's getting worse. How long before it's unsustainable? And of course, the longer we wait, the more repairs and corrections we'll have to make."

"Honey...you're preaching to the choir. I already know all this."

"What am I supposed to do?" He asked sincerely. He wanted to know if there was something he'd missed. "I've gone through all the official channels. Should I try ambushing management and getting them to pay attention to this?"

The fact that P'Song didn't toss out his idea outright was troubling.

"I know it can be frustrating but you have to be patient. It won't be like this forever. In the meantime, keep your chin up and keep doing what you're doing."