manners
and
good breeding. They throw me off stride, and it’s like listening to some total, idiotic stranger running off at the mouth as I hear what I’m saying and realize what I’m doing. I’ll make some innocent joke to him when he walks in, just to try to put us both at ease, and he’ll just draw to a stop and stare back at me with that icy, superior smile frozen on his face. I can’t get a response out of him. I become so rattled that I begin making one asinine remark after another in an effort to be friendly, but he just stands there in supercilious contempt and waits for me to finish. He must despise me by now, and I can’t say that I blame him. God knows he does nothing to put
me
at ease, I can tell you that. Afterwards, I hate myself for being so stupid and weak. I wonder why I don’t fire him. Because it would be an admission of defeat, that’s why, even though his work
is
lousy.”
I do not tell either of them about the other (although I do try to cheer Reeves up). Neither would believe me, and it would do no good. They’ve got the whammy on each other—it’s as plain as that—and nothing can change the whammy that springs up between one person and another and usually lasts a lifetime.
Green’s got the whammy on me.
“I think they’ve decided to fire
me
,” Green blurts out to me unexpectedly. “Kagle’s the one they should get rid of, but I think that he and Horace White havefinally persuaded them. Your pal. You hear things. Go find out from Kagle or Brown or someone else just what’s going on. Or I’ll fire
you
.”
I don’t think Green really intends to fire me (but I’m never that confident about it for very long. I’m not secure about it at all on days when I know he is in a bad mood and I see his door shut for long periods of time). I know Green likes me, although we are not close, and confides in me, and I know he likes my work and the way I run my department for him. And I know Green is afraid of Andy Kagle, who likes me also and might try to protect me, and of Arthur Baron, who also likes me (I think he likes me: Arthur Baron always treats everybody as though he likes them—him—even people I know he doesn’t like, so how can one be sure?) and might not let Green fire me. Kagle has sworn, in fact, that he
would
protect me if Green ever decides he does want to get rid of me, and that he would take me right into his own department at a much higher salary, just to spite Green, so I seem to be perfectly safe, until I go to Kagle to find out what I can about Green and hear him say, as soon as I walk into his office:
“I think they’ve finally decided to fire me!”
And where would I be if that happened?
Andy Kagle, as head of our Sales Department, has a very powerful position with the company and is now afraid of losing it.
He may be right. His name is all wrong. (Half wrong. Andrew is all right, but Kagle?) So are his clothes. He shows poor judgment in colors and styles, as well as in fabrics, and his suits and coats and shirts do not fit him well enough. He moves to madras and paisley months after others have gone to linen or hopsack or returned to worsted and seersucker. He wears terrible brown shoes with
fleur-de-lis
perforations. He wears anklets (and I want to scream or kick him when I see his shin). Kagle is a stocky man of less than middle height and was born with a malformation of the hip and leg (which also doesn’t help his image much); he walks with a slight limp.
Kagle has ability and experience, but they don’t count anymore. What does count is that he has no tone. His manners are not good. He lacks wit (his wisecracks are bad, and so are the jokes he tells) and did not go to college, and he does not mix smoothly enough with people who did go to college. He knows he is awkward. He is not a hearty extrovert; he is a nervous extrovert, the worst kind (especially to other nervous extroverts), and so he may be doomed.
Kagle is one of those poor fellows who
and
good breeding. They throw me off stride, and it’s like listening to some total, idiotic stranger running off at the mouth as I hear what I’m saying and realize what I’m doing. I’ll make some innocent joke to him when he walks in, just to try to put us both at ease, and he’ll just draw to a stop and stare back at me with that icy, superior smile frozen on his face. I can’t get a response out of him. I become so rattled that I begin making one asinine remark after another in an effort to be friendly, but he just stands there in supercilious contempt and waits for me to finish. He must despise me by now, and I can’t say that I blame him. God knows he does nothing to put
me
at ease, I can tell you that. Afterwards, I hate myself for being so stupid and weak. I wonder why I don’t fire him. Because it would be an admission of defeat, that’s why, even though his work
is
lousy.”
I do not tell either of them about the other (although I do try to cheer Reeves up). Neither would believe me, and it would do no good. They’ve got the whammy on each other—it’s as plain as that—and nothing can change the whammy that springs up between one person and another and usually lasts a lifetime.
Green’s got the whammy on me.
“I think they’ve decided to fire
me
,” Green blurts out to me unexpectedly. “Kagle’s the one they should get rid of, but I think that he and Horace White havefinally persuaded them. Your pal. You hear things. Go find out from Kagle or Brown or someone else just what’s going on. Or I’ll fire
you
.”
I don’t think Green really intends to fire me (but I’m never that confident about it for very long. I’m not secure about it at all on days when I know he is in a bad mood and I see his door shut for long periods of time). I know Green likes me, although we are not close, and confides in me, and I know he likes my work and the way I run my department for him. And I know Green is afraid of Andy Kagle, who likes me also and might try to protect me, and of Arthur Baron, who also likes me (I think he likes me: Arthur Baron always treats everybody as though he likes them—him—even people I know he doesn’t like, so how can one be sure?) and might not let Green fire me. Kagle has sworn, in fact, that he
would
protect me if Green ever decides he does want to get rid of me, and that he would take me right into his own department at a much higher salary, just to spite Green, so I seem to be perfectly safe, until I go to Kagle to find out what I can about Green and hear him say, as soon as I walk into his office:
“I think they’ve finally decided to fire me!”
And where would I be if that happened?
Andy Kagle, as head of our Sales Department, has a very powerful position with the company and is now afraid of losing it.
He may be right. His name is all wrong. (Half wrong. Andrew is all right, but Kagle?) So are his clothes. He shows poor judgment in colors and styles, as well as in fabrics, and his suits and coats and shirts do not fit him well enough. He moves to madras and paisley months after others have gone to linen or hopsack or returned to worsted and seersucker. He wears terrible brown shoes with
fleur-de-lis
perforations. He wears anklets (and I want to scream or kick him when I see his shin). Kagle is a stocky man of less than middle height and was born with a malformation of the hip and leg (which also doesn’t help his image much); he walks with a slight limp.
Kagle has ability and experience, but they don’t count anymore. What does count is that he has no tone. His manners are not good. He lacks wit (his wisecracks are bad, and so are the jokes he tells) and did not go to college, and he does not mix smoothly enough with people who did go to college. He knows he is awkward. He is not a hearty extrovert; he is a nervous extrovert, the worst kind (especially to other nervous extroverts), and so he may be doomed.
Kagle is one of those poor fellows who
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