Toto and the Boys I: Jackie

Chapter 18

I wasn’t comfortable with the thought of Jackie going on that trip, especially with what was happening the past few days. For one, I saw Brian walk up to me while I was waiting for Jackie under my lonely acacia tree in the parking lot. Jackie wasn’t around to witness the scene, but the guy gave me the creeps when he ran his hands over my hood. He didn’t say a word. He just stayed there (even sat on my hood for a minute or two) without doing anything.

Second, I saw the black BMW again. AGAIN! I was taking a rest outside the boys’ apartment. Everything was good. It was a silent night and the boys were probably asleep in their rooms. And then it rolled by once and came back a few minutes after. The windows never rolled down to give me a chance to get a glimpse of the driver. What the hell, right? It stayed there for about five minutes and then it was gone in the silence of the night. I tried talking to the BMW vic, but it wouldn’t even bat a headlight at my direction. Again, what the hell, right?

So yes, you could really imagine what I was feeling that day when Jackie announced that she was going on a weekend trip with her team in Campuestohan. It was not that far away, just a one-hour drive from the city, really. But still, I had this feeling that something could go wrong. Very wrong.

George and Dannie felt the same way. Georgie even suggested that Jackie take me, but Jackie said that I couldn’t possibly make the drive alive. Well, she was right. From what I heard from Tata about the road going to Campuestohan, I would probably go home in scraps.

The only consolation was the thought that Jackie would be riding a small rented bus with the rest of the team. But I didn’t know anyone from her team. They could be just as sick as Brian.

  *****

Jackie first thought that they would be having their team building with the other teams, but it turned out that the HR department decided to do the team building by team in their department like last year. So she would be leaving with only Karen, Joseph and three more namely Jamie, Daisy and Bernie.

She was quite disappointed since she really thought she could have some fun time with the other teams whom she had worked with in the past. They never really had a lot of time to meet and have fun outside the office in the past few months, especially with Dean around. They could have finally have a few days away from the office and away from the presence of their boss who always made them feel nervous.

What devastated Jackie further was when Dean announced that two HR personnel will be coming along to facilitate the team building activities.

She was standing by the vending machine, praying for a Coke, when Dean showed up beside her.

“I’ll give you my Coke if it drops a Pepsi,” he uttered.

The machine did what it always did and dropped the blue can. Jackie picked it up with a sigh and handed the Pepsi to Dean without a word. He fed the machine with his bill and punched the blue button. Lo and behold, it dropped the red can. He bent down to pick it up and handed it to her. “Thanks,” she murmured.

He looked around for a bit before he turned to look at her troubled face. “What’s wrong?”

She was about to blurt out about her fear that Brian might be one of the two HR personnel to go with them, but she held her tongue. “Nothing.”

Dean frowned. “It looks like it’s nothing.”

“Really, it’s nothing.”

“Come on, tell me.”

“It’s just a minor thing regarding the team building activity this weekend.”

“You can’t come?”