INSIDE THEIR MINDS

Back To Work

PHIL

I didn't want to go back to work, but after talking to one of my managers and him insisting I return I thought I had better come back, for the sake of my company.

We decided that it would be a great idea to have a camera installed in the nursery and a back room which would eventually become Nora's playroom.

I paid extra for an added feature I knew I wouldn't be able to live without.

It was as I was pulling into the parking garage that I caught myself staring at my phone for a little too long, almost hitting a parked car.

I almost too carefully found my designated parking spot and turned off my car.

I then quickly reach for my phone that had been resting on my passenger seat and stare at the screen happily.

There she was resting comfortably in her crib. Her eyes were shut tight and her lips looking slightly as if they were in a pout.

I could see Kate's legs as she sat in the white plush chair beside the bed.

I wish I could be with you, my girls, I really do.

I then reluctantly turned the screen off on my phone and then withdrew myself from my car.

Every step I took towards the elevator I regretted. I wanted to be with them. I need to be with them. They need my help. Maybe we should start interviewing new nannies what with the old one having quit on me, once Erica left; I knew Erica was tipping her for almost every little thing. But was a nanny even something Kate would want?

I couldn't help but to have the back and forth debate rattle around in my head as I finally exited the elevator. It was as walking across the buildings main floor to the other 12 or so elevators that I noticed everything seemed a bit odd. There is 2 elevators assigned to a set of floors and usually my assigned elevator was empty or filled with just a few people, but today apparently that was not the case. There were 30 or more people huddling near my elevator all with angry features on their faces.

It was as I started to join the mass of people that I heard someone speak through a megaphone from behind me.

"Unless you work here please remove yourself from the property or you will be escorted away"

I look back to see several security guards, one of which I have seen on my way into work almost everyday he stood beside the man with the megaphone.

"What's going on here?" I ask him.

"You, you don't know?" He answers seemingly astonished.

"Kate had her baby I have been out of the office for a few weeks."

"Oh then that explains it."

"Explains what!" I practically yell so he can hear me over the talking crowd

"Phil someone from your news outlet was, um, how do I say this nicely, outwardly sexist and vulgar on live tv yesterday."

I give him a strange look and it was in that moment that I looked at the now growing group of people that I realized most of them are women.

"For your safety I would like to escort you to your floor. I wouldnt want anyone to get violent towards you."

I nod my head and follow him back through a door labled security only then proceeded to ride the elevator up with him to my floor.

The doors open to almost everything in a mass panic. Paper was strewn everywhere and people were literally fighting on the floor.

Brian, the security officer beside me, grabbed a whistle from his back pocket and blew it loudly, practically deafining me. It worked though and now all eyes were on Brian and I.