Eaters Read Free

wishful thinking got any further.
    “Oh, Cheryl. Good. I’m glad you’re here. Half the office called in sick today. I know there’s some bug going around, but I can’t believe they’ve all got it. They’re either all hypochondriacs or just paranoid.” He threw his hands up in the air, sloshing coffee out of his mug. “I’ve got a goddamn business to run here. We need to meet today to talk about those new regulations…”
    She nodded as he followed her towards her office. “Yes, I know.” Before she turned the corner in the hall, she glanced back over his shoulder towards the front window. The man outside was gone.
    “Bob’s here, but I’m waiting for Lanny and Paul to get their tails in here. They’re both running late, and neither of them has called.”
    “Who else is here?”
    “Just you, me, John, Mary, and Robert.”
    Good , she thought. The water cooler gossips were out. Maybe, she’d actually get some work done.
    “Meeting starts at 10:00 sharp. I want to get a plan going today. That Lanny better get his butt in here and Paul…”
    Cheryl laughed and shook her head as he walked off still talking to himself.
    Before she had her things put away and her computer warmed up, the phone rang. She didn’t answer it. There was way too much prep to do for the meeting to risk getting into a new claim with a client. Looking at the flashing red light on the voicemail button, she already had a feeling that this was going to be one backed up, busy day. She knew there were a half dozen messages waiting to tell her about fender benders and roofs that caught on fire from stray bottle rockets.
    Cheryl got down to work, and it seemed like only twenty minutes had passed when Schrumer buzzed her for the meeting, though it had been two hours, she realized. She sighed as she grabbed a stack of folders, a clean legal pad, and her pen, and made her way towards the conference room.
    Lanny brushed past her on the way. “Crazy traffic! Took me forever to get up here from the south side.”
    Considering her own commute and his rush to get to the bathroom, she believed him.
    Mr. Schrumer and Bob were already seated as she walked into the small room that barely fit the long board table and chairs. Lanny joined them a couple minutes later with a mouthful of apologies and a ranting unabridged traffic report.
    Schrumer’s impatience was evident by the reddening of his face. “Where’s—”
    Before he could finish his sentence, a shadow fell across the table. They all looked up and saw Paul leaning against the doorframe.
    “Well, I’m glad you could join us,” Schrumer said, holding his hand out in a mocking welcome gesture.
    Paul didn’t seem prepared to deliver one of his famous comebacks. As he stumbled towards the table, it was obvious to Cheryl that he wasn’t feeling well, even if Schrumer didn’t seem to notice. His face was red, and there were shiny beads of sweat on his forehead. He looked like he might lurch over, head first, at any moment.
    “I…I’m sorry,” he mumbled, falling into the nearest chair.
    Schrumer stacked the papers in front of him and tapped them on the table to straighten them. “Alright, then. Let’s talk about these regulations. We’re going to lose a buttload of…”
    Cheryl tried to focus on what he was saying, but Paul was sitting straight across from her, staring at her with glassy, vacant eyes. His mouth hung open, and he took raspy breaths through it as if he couldn’t breathe at all through his nose. She imagined a green cloud of germs emanating from his lungs and leaned back in her chair to increase the distance away from him. What was that she’d heard earlier on the radio about an epidemic? All she could remember was something about flu-like symptoms and—
    “Cheryl!”
    She snapped out of it and looked towards Schrumer on the right side of the table.
    “What did you find out about the new flood plain zones? Weren’t you researching that?”
    She looked down and