This is just going to be a short chapter :)
…
Meanwhile, Perry was still in his office. After finally dismissing Sylvia, he had come straight up here. He was typing on his computer, writing an angry email to Major Monogram that he was never going to send.
When he had finished it, he sighed and deleted it, before pushing his office chair backwards away from the desk. Rubbing his eyes in both exhaustion and frustration, he wondered how exactly he could go on. He knew he wasn't being fair to poor Sylvia. He had pushed her way too far, especially for her first day. But he couldn't help it. Every time he saw her face, it just stabbed him in the heart that this platypus who looked like Edith was here but Edith herself wasn't.
Speaking of Edith…
Perry shot his desk a look. It was the anniversary of her death…maybe he could bring himself to even have a peek at the thing.
He bent under his desk and took out the taped-shut cardboard box. It was about the size of five closed laptops stacked on top of each other. He had put the box under the desk when Edith had died. It had been delivered to him by Major Monogram. He suspected he knew what it was: when an agent died, their personal belongings were put into a cardboard box and given to their closest relative, which in Edith's case happened to be Perry.
He had looked at the thing many times, trying to work up the courage to look at his deceased mate's belongings, but his nerve had failed him every time and he hadn't been able to.
Now he stroked the side of it as if stroking Edith's cheek. He missed everything about her: her smile, her caring manner, her irritated look, the way she tapped her fingers when she was nervous, but especially the way she looked at people when she was about to kick their butt: it was a smile but in the way that says say one more word and you're gonna be on the ground bleeding.
He picked up the scissors on his desk and opened them up, about to cut through the tape. He figured he may as well do it today: the anniversary of E-Day.
But after minutes of agonising over it, he sadly put the scissors back on his desk and the box back under it.
…
WHAT is in that box? 'Fraid you'll have to wait a while *evil smile* I:}