Chapter Three:

Most of the Happy Time cubicle farm was in darkness when George got there. As she walked past the receptionist's area, she nodded imperceptibly to Crystal, who returned the favor.

"Oh, there you are Millie!" Delores said as she walked up, holding her notorious keychain in one hand.

"It's so good that you're here early! We've got a long day ahead of us, for it's that time of the year, Millie, and I just don't know who I can trust here at Happy Time with this kind of responsibility."

"Uh, what time of the year?"

"Oh, I forgot, you're still relatively new here, Millie." A smile spread across Delores' face. "It's that time of the year when I have to go into the personnel files and clear them out."

"Clear them out?"

"Official Happy Time policy states that records must be kept for five years after someone gets a job through us or terminates their employment with us, and when that five year period is up, the files are destroyed."

"Officially, only I'm allowed into the personnel room for the fall cleaning, but seeing as how you handled yourself so well with the Georgia Lass thing..."

As she said the words "Georgia Lass", Delores brought a hand up in the universal shhh! motion, and George nodded in reply, smiling a little.

"...I thought that this year, you could help me out. Unofficially of course."

"Sure, no problem."

I figure this is good for at least ten, fifteen absences, and the extra pay is always nice...

Two and a Half hours later

"And that's it for the K's. I'll go get the Ms and Ns while you start on on the Ls," replied Delores as they finished with the box of people whose last names started with K.

"Sure thing, Delores..."

As Delores walked away, to get more files, George fed the pile of files that had built up over the last few boxes into a shredder and began working on the Ls.

Robert Lapp; Still has two years left. Mary Laramie; shred it. Charles Larez – six months left. Georgia Lass...

Georgia Lass?

At that moment George not only lost her train of thought, but it jumped the tracks, rolled down the embankment, and exploded.

Is this what it all comes down to? Eighteen years of life fed into the shredder in five years when my time is up, and no one is the wiser?

An image of angels working in a heavenly filing room popped into her mind at that moment.

"Damn it. How am I going to fill my quota for deaths this week?" muttered an angel whose nameplate read Bob - Death Assignment.

Another angel walked by at that moment carrying a stack of files, and the topmost file slipped off and fell onto Bob's desk. Picking it up tentatively, Bob saw the name on it: LASS, GEORGIA.

Stop it; George thought, mentally scolding herself for letting her thoughts get away from her. But she couldn't shake the image of some heavenly filing fuck-up being responsible for her death.

Looking around, she saw that Delores was still rummaging around at the far end.

Here goes nothing...

She quickly slipped the file into her purse. This one wouldn't be going into the shredder.

Turning back to the task at hand, she reached out for the next file; opening it with an unconscious motion.

Joy Lass...JOY LASS?

Of course; your mother has a file, she did come here for a job, remember?

Curiosity got the better of her, and she quickly scanned down her mother's file, which only served to irritate her. Joy was everything she hadn't been – eager, knowledgeable, and experienced.

Closing the file with a sigh, she put it into the keep pile.