The elevator opened on five to a tiny office, just large enough to
hold a single desk and two chairs. On the desk were a telephone and
a microphone. Beside them was a double-decked "In" and "Out" basket.
"Here's where you'll do your nine-to-five, honey," Mr. Wanji said.
"What will I be doing, Mr. Wanji?" Orison asked.
The Vice-President pointed to the newspaper folded in the "In" basket.
"Flip on the microphone and read the paper to it," he said. "When you
get done reading the paper, someone will run you up something new to
read. Okay?"
"It seems a rather peculiar job," Orison said. "After all, I'm a
secretary. Is reading the newspaper aloud supposed to familiarize me
with the Bank's operation?"
"Don't bug me, kid," Mr. Wanji said. "All you gotta do is read that
there paper into this here microphone. Can do?"
"Yes, sir," Orison said. "While you're here, Mr. Wanji, I'd like to
ask you about my withholding tax, social security, credit union,
coffee-breaks, union membership, lunch hour and the like. Shall we take
care of these details now? Or would you--"
"You just take care of that chicken-flickin' kinda stuff any way seems
best to you, kid," Mr. Wanji said.
"Yes, sir," Orison said. This laissez-faire policy of Taft Bank's
might explain why she'd been selected from the Treasury Department's
secretarial pool to apply for work here, she thought. Orison McCall,
girl Government spy. She picked up the newspaper from the "In" basket,
unfolded it to discover the day's _Wall Street Journal_, and began at
the top of column one to read it aloud. Wanji stood before the desk,
nodding his head as he listened. "You blowing real good, kid," he said.
"The boss is gonna dig you the most."
Orison nodded. Holding her newspaper and her microphone, she read the
one into the other. Mr. Wanji flicked his fingers in a good-by, then
took off upstairs in the elevator.
* * * * *
By lunchtime Orison had finished the _Wall Street Journal_ and had
begun reading a book an earmuffed page had brought her. The book was a
fantastic novel of some sort, named _The Hobbit_. Reading this peculiar
fare into the microphone before her, Miss McCall was more certain than
ever that the Taft Bank was, as her boss in Washington had told her,
the front for some highly irregular goings-on. An odd business for a
Federal Mata Hari, Orison thought, reading a nonsense story into a
microphone for an invisible audience.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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