twenty-seven

Huey was tucked into an office far from the front door and next to the kitchen. He was a huge guy, eclipsing the sun for small children who got too close to his gravity well. Despite his bulk, he had a light touch with a Ping-Pong paddle. He was also a coding genius.

We were friends in a way that was easy when we worked together but awkward now that we didn’t. It turned out that the only thing that I had in common with most of the people who worked in this office was a project and a cafeteria. When those were gone, so was the friendship.

I had always liked Huey. He was completely guileless. Anything that popped into his head popped out of his mouth a second later. He was genuinely honest and kind, though useless in front of management or customers. One time he told Nate that the software was shit and that we should all be fired. That’s why I came to visit him. I wanted unfiltered information about Dana Parker.

I poked my head in his door and said, “Hueeeyyy!”

Huey twirled his office chair and lurched himself out of it. He reached for me with giant meaty man-arms.

“I heard they hired you back,” he said. “Fuckin’ A! It will be so good to get rid of Roland.”

I was enveloped in a big, sweaty hug. I reached as far around Huey as I could to return the hug and then started to push on his massive chest. “Air, buddy. I need air.”

“Oh, sorry,” said Huey, releasing me.

“I’m afraid you’re still stuck with Roland,” I said.

“Well that sucks. What are you doing?”

“Some consulting for Nate. Have you ever heard of Bronte Software?”

“No.”

“Me neither. That’s why Nate hired me to look into them.” I turned and headed for the break room. “Up for some pong?”

“You know it,” said Huey.

He surged past me and turned into the kitchen. I heard the pop of his ever-present Diet Coke. We walked to the recreation room at the front of the office. Huey talked a lot once you got him playing Ping-Pong. The physical activity soothed him. We walked past Roland’s office. The door was closed.

“Where’s Roland?” I asked.

“I dunno,” said Huey. “I think he’s at the show in Boston.”

“I heard you had some excitement last night. A break-in or something?”

“First I heard of it.”

The Ping-Pong table was in a long conference room that had been converted into a frat house. A plasma TV hung on the wall behind one end of the table, and a dartboard hung on the wall behind me. A massage chair took up another corner. We had all pitched in for that chair but nobody used it. Moaning in shiatsu pleasure is frowned upon in a corporate setting.

Huey and I grabbed paddles. I let Huey have his favorite, the one with the black handle. I also let him have his favorite end of the table, the one away from the door. It was an instinct I got from leading programmers. I let them win on the quirks while I focused on the big stuff.

We fell into the habits we had developed from playing hundreds of games of Ping-Pong. Programming is a mentally taxing activity. Though it looked like we were just sitting in front of our screens typing, we were really manipulating mountains of abstract data in our heads. It was mentally exhausting, and after a while we needed to do something physical. Ping-Pong is a great way to shift mental focus. It ranks up there with coffee in the pantheon of engineering support systems.

We played and I kept it close. When we were tied at ten, I thought it was time to learn more about Dana. I had just hit a ball with topspin. The ball hit the net, but the topspin made it climb over. It dropped to the other side.

“Dude, that’s so freaking cheap,” Huey said.

“Only when I do it,” I said. “When you do it, it’s genius.”

“Well,” sniffed Huey, “when I do it, it’s planned.”

I asked, “What do you know about this Dana girl?”

Huey said, “What?”

“That Dana girl. Do you know her?”

“Yeah.”

“Where did she come from?”

Huey ignored me and served. We played the point. It was a long volley and Huey had gotten into that zone where he returned all my shots. Finally he broke me and I hit one long.

“Damn!”

“That was a good volley,” said Huey.

“So where did she come from?”

“Who?”

“Dana.”

“I dunno. She just kind of showed up.”

“When?”

Huey served again. Apparently, he didn’t want to talk about Dana. His serve touched the white edge of the table and dropped to the ground. An ace. Huey was pleased with himself.

I took advantage of Huey’s moment of glory and asked, “When did Dana show up?”

Huey served and we volleyed three times before he hit it long.

“Damn,” he said.

“When?” I asked again.

“When what?”

“When did Dana join the team?”

“I dunno. A couple of weeks ago? I didn’t notice her for a while,” said Huey.

“How could you not notice her? She’s gorgeous.”

“We had a release coming up, and I was having trouble ’cause Carol didn’t train Alice enough before … before … you know.”

“I know.”

Huey’s serve sailed long and it was my turn to serve.

I asked, “What was the problem with Alice?”

“She was a screwed-up chick. Really flaky. She stopped coming to work, the code releases backed up.”

I served low and fast. Huey popped it up and it hit a ceiling tile. He said, “Ceiling’s in play!” but it did him no good. The ball landed softly on my side of the table, and I smashed it past him.

Huey threw me the ball and I served it. As I served, Huey snapped his fingers and the ball sailed past him.

“My point,” I said.

“That’s not fair,” he said.

“Why?”

“I was going to answer your question. You can’t distract me with questions and then serve.”

“Pay attention, then,” I smirked.

“Dana joined just after Alice got flaky. And you’re right, she’s gorgeous.”

I served. Huey returned my serve and said, “There always seem to be gorgeous women in that job.”

I returned his shot. “Yup.”

“Dana, and before her Alice, and before her … Carol.” Huey returned my shot. Carol’s name distracted me and my shot went wide right.

“Crap.”

“Sorry, man, did I distract you?”

“A little.”

“Pay attention.”

“Pay attention,” I mimicked. I served the ball and said, “Have you worked with Dana?”

“Yup.” Huey returned my shot.

“And?”

“She kind of sucks at her job.” The ball tocked back and forth between us.

I said, “Maybe she didn’t get trained before Alice got killed.”

Huey, playing like a hippopotamus in a tutu, reached the ball and daintily dropped a shot in front of the net. I couldn’t get it. His point. We stopped playing.

“First Carol, then Alice. I was so focused on the release that I never put it together,” he said. “Dude, that is freaky, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, freaky,” I said. “How’s she working out? Is Dana any good?”

Huey returned my shot and said, “They’re going to have to fire her. She’s lost.”

“That’s a shame,” I said as I returned his shot, low and tight to the left. A killer.

Huey returned my shot effortlessly and said, “Did you sleep with her yet?”

The ball sailed past me.

I said, “What kind of a question is that?” I walked to the corner of the room and swiped the ball off the rug. I chucked the ball at Huey’s head. He caught it and smiled.

He served and said, “I just asked because you slept with everyone else in that job.”

I returned the serve and said, “I never slept with Alice.”

Huey returned my shot and said, “Well, no. Not alone.”

This time I missed the ball completely.

“What the fuck are you taking about?”

Huey looked startled. Social dynamics weren’t natural to him. He had to think things through before he’d know he’d made a faux pas. I watched the realization dawn across his face.

He looked at his shoes and said, “My serve.”

I tossed him the ball and said, “What do you mean, not alone?”

Huey ignored me. His serve curved at me, and I instinctively returned it to the center of the table. He swiped at it and the wicked spin curved the ball to my right and away from me. The ball hit the wall behind me and rolled back to Huey. He picked it up and started to serve.

“Stop serving, you asshole,” I said.

“Jesus, Tucker, what’s wrong with you?”

“What do you mean I slept with Alice ‘but not alone’?”

“Are we going to play?” Huey asked.

“Not until you tell me what you meant.” I put my paddle on the table.

Huey had a compulsive need to finish things. If he didn’t get closure to this game, it would bother him all day.

“C’mon. Pick up your paddle.”

I picked up my paddle and Huey served. My return sailed long. Huey picked up the ball. I couldn’t focus on him. Not alone? I couldn’t get the phrase out of my head.

Oblivious to my mood, Huey served again. I hit the ball and said, “Finish saying that thing about Alice and me.”

Huey returned my shot poorly. It floated lazily up and landed in the middle of the table. I lined it up and smashed it … into the net.

“Fuck!” I yelled. The Ping-Pong, the office, and Huey were all dragging up memories that I thought I had safely buried.

Huey was lost around strong emotions. He said, “Jesus. It’s just a game. Calm down.”

“Serve that fucking ball and tell me what you meant by ‘not alone’.”

Huey looked at me and then broke eye contact, focusing on the ball. He served and said, “I thought you knew.”

I missed the ball again.

“Fuck me! Fuck me! What the fuck did you think I knew?”

“Stop yelling at me. I shouldn’t be the one to tell you.”

The door burst open behind me, and Roland stood in the doorway. Dana stood behind him. Roland said to Dana, “Well, fancy this. I thought I heard some exceptionally loud whining.”

I took a step toward Roland and said, “I am sick and goddamn tired of …”

Roland ignored me. He turned to Dana.

“Get rid of him,” he said. He walked off down the hall and unlocked his office. I took a step to follow him, but Dana grabbed my arm.

“Tucker, no.”

I shook my arm, but she held on. Roland’s office door closed, and I turned on her.

“Get rid of me?” I said.

Dana crooked her finger in a come with me gesture and turned. She walked out into the hallway. I followed her.

When we got into the hallway, Dana turned and said, “Please just go home.”

“Why?”

“I worry about you.”

“I could say the same. The last two women who sat in your chair are dead.”

“I know.”

“That doesn’t bother you?”

“Are we still on for tomorrow?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t answer my question.”

“Let’s talk tomorrow.” She turned and walked through the office door, letting it lock behind her.