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Monday, October 1, 2012

A New Chapter Starts. Part 9


The rest of the day I am sent to the phone room. The phone room has 4 chairs and 4 phones and stacks of old member’s files. 

They want us to call to renew past memberships. Rachel sits next to me, one stack of files in front of her and a discard “ already called” pile on the floor. 

The first call I make is to a woman in her 70’s. After of 10 minutes me yelling into the phone, she understands that I am calling from Dora Dee Figure Salon and that I want her to renew.

After realizing that I am male and that the club is not going co-ed just the staff is, she hangs up on me. I write “ Doesn't want men in the club,” under her reason to not return. Her file gets tossed into the discard pile.

Rachel seems just as enthused as I am to be making these phone calls. She constantly holds her middle finger up to the phone when she talks and writes “Die” on a piece of paper that she holds up for me to read. After an hour of rejection on the phone, I begin making calls using a feminine voice and saying that my name is Genevieve. Rachel has to mute her phone after spitting water out her nose.

Thirty files get thrown into the discard pile. Rachel writes “Dead” under reason to not return on 50% of her files and then launches them Frisbee style across the room. She tells me that she does this so she doesn’t have to call them back. It is our jobs to take the discard files of someone else and call them. Past members will be called at least 7 times before they are completely removed from our paper system.

Isabelle peek’s her head into the phone room to make sure we are working. Dora told her that someday she could be second in command under Sharon. This way she is guaranteed that Isabelle will spy for her and report back.

The day is finally over for me and I have to punch out on the way out. Sharon waves to me from the front office. Rachel punches out moments after I do, waving to Sharon and then rolling her eyes when she looks away.

Half way down the stairs Rachel bums a cigarette from me. “Oh my lord, I need to graduate and get out of here.” “How long have you worked here?” I ask. “Not much longer than you,” she says taking a deep draw of the cigarette.” “I didn't know you smoked,” I say as she heads into the parking lot. “I don’t,” she says and flicks the cigarette onto the pavement.

I stand around the corner and wait for the bus to bring me back to Albany. The sign that reads Dora Dee Figure Salon gets turned off. I wait for the bus for about 45 minutes to arrive. The trip home is slow and we stop at every bus stop on the way home. No one is on the bus except for 3 people and no one is at the stops.

I am supposed to stop over and pick Billy up from David’s on the way home.

To be continued…….


Geoffrey Doig-Marx holds all written and electronic rights to his writing "A Day in the Life". It can not be reprinted in part or whole without his written consent.    



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