The Impossible Quest Of Hailing A Taxi On Christmas Eve by George Saoulidis Page A

to clean off! A waste.
They slap a Christmas packaging on products and mark-up the price
by 30%!"
    "Thirty
percent," she nodded patiently.
    He still
had more coming but he suddenly felt tired, so he sagged back into
his chair. The back was worn and some screws were poking out of the
lower back, making it really uncomfortable. He didn't spare any
cash to get new office chairs of course. They were fine and sturdy,
they still had at least 10 years of good use. "Anyway, go home.
I'll finish up here and upload it in a while. You're gonna drain my
account anyway, you can have the day off tomorrow."
    She
stood up and smiled, putting her stuff in her bag, arranging her
desk, pulling down the blinds.
    Scrooge
grunted at her, "But I want you here the next day half an hour
earlier!"
    "Yes
mister," she said, and watered the plants, cleaned up her cup of
tea, picked up his cup and put a new cup of water in the boiler.
She left it boiling, cleaned up the tiny little kitchen, went to
turn off the Christmas lights she had brought to decorate the
office, remembered Mr. Scrooge had already demanded her to stop
wasting power and turned it off, went back to her desk and sent the
accounts of the day to her boss, went to his desk, threw away the
trash, dusted off his hanging coat, leaned to his computer, pulled
up the accounts so he could update them as soon as the server was
running again, went back to the kitchen, poured hot tea, brought it
to his desk savouring its warmth for a second too long, stood in
front of his desk ready to leave and then said
goodnight.
    "Good
night Clara," Scrooge said with the tone a boss has when he allows
his employee to leave.
    "Maybe
we should do the upgrade Mr. Tsifoutis," she said hesitantly. "Our
service depends on it, it's been years. I've shown you the cost,
it's not that high and..."
    Scrooge
raised his hand interrupting her, "I know. I'll think about
it."
    She was
referring to their service, which was their object of trade really.
Scrooge was running an accounting internet service for small
businesses. Despite that their platform hadn't been updated in,
pretty much ever, they were still competitive due to their low
prices. The cost was kept down of course, by skimping on things
like proper furniture, internet hosting, required employees and,
office heating.
    "Merry
Christmas sir," she said cordially and turned to the
door.
    "Bah. A
marketing ploy I tell you. Don't you listen to anything I say
woman?"
    "Of
course I do, but Merry Christmas anyways," she said and she meant
it.
    As she
was opening the door, Scrooge's cousin showed up. He was fat and
huge and was always huffing from exertion, making his cheeks red.
He made a great Santa Claus, so he showed up in costume. "Hello
Miss Clara! Merry Christmas to you," he said and presented a small
gift to her. "For your son." Then he reached into his red Santa bag
and fished out a party horn as well.
    "Merry
Christmas Mr. Tsifoutis," she smiled back. "I'm sure he'll love
it."
    "Ho ho
ho!" the cousin bellowed out and then leaned in to whisper, "Is
Scrooge still here?"
    "Yes,"
she replied, "Go right in, he's just waiting for the system to
unfreeze."
    "Unfreeze? Why, in this cold it might take some time," he
said with jolly, half-stepping in the office.
    She
sneezed and then blew her nose loudly like a trumpet, that echoed
into the corridors. Cousin Santa blew his own party horn in a
similar note.
    They
both laughed and wished each other happy holidays.
     
     
    Scrooge
hid his face in his palms. He didn't really want to face his
cousin, he was dodging his invite for days.
    The cousin Santa came in and bellowed, "Ho ho ho dear
cousin!" and blew his party horn, in a loud prrr . He then went to the decorated
Christmas lights and turned them on, illuminating the place in
various flickering colours.
    Scrooge
stood up and ran to the lights, turning them off. "Are you trying
to bankrupt me man?"
    "Come
on, a few LEDs wont make a real difference. Be merry! Be jolly!" he
said,