Olga places another log on the fire, to the coals hot and flops in the soft chair. "We are going to have a psychological catastrophe on our hands. I am completely drained of any energy."

Odea hands overs a plate with cheese, slices of cook pork and buttered bread.

"Oh I can't eat. I might as well go to bed." Olga places the plate down on the small gateleg table to her right.

"Today I tell you what to do. Here, eat your dinner or I shall confess to Mr. Warrilow of your spoony on him."

"I shall not reply to such a scandalous remark." Olga softly replies, "I am too tired to even confront such a suggestion."

Odea smiles as she makes half a sandwich with the pork and cheese, "It is an observation and it is not scandalous."

"I am nearly a decade older than him." Olga takes a bite of cheese, "Besides no harm in a peek."

"Ah ha!" She points to Olga with a tired arm, "I knew it."

"You know nothing." Olga quietly replies, yawns and picks up her plate. "I am going to bed."

"Have a good dream about Mr. Morgan Warrilow." Odea teases.

Olga takes a blanket and tosses over Odea, "You get some sleep yourself. See you tomorrow."

Olga decides to continue eating in peace as her mind floods back to Ada and she wonders where she is right now. She gets up and looks at the world map and the Danish steamer Kina South American itinerary.

She looks closer and notices for the first time a stamp emboss. She quickly get onion skin paper from the secretary, a pencil and begins to rub lightly over the paper. She looks at it closely and it appears to be a capital T in the middle of a hexagon.

Odea looks at the clock, 'Tomorrow I will call.'

"Good morning!" Olga walks into the kitchen while Odea creating a list. She smiles at coffee and eaten breakfasts with one remaining mushroom. "Have you heard from the morgue?"

"I called Scotland Yard and explained we are missing staffed. They understood and will contact me if there is an emergency."

"Good, I could not take another day like yesterday by myself."

Odea turns around in her chair to make it obvious to Olga she is under scrutiny. She points, "You changed your hair. It is a modern up-do. Your clothing, where was this hiding?"

Odea stands and walks around Olga, "My my my ... Mrs. Yunevich, you look ten years younger."

Olga blushes, "Tread carefully, please."

Odea goes eye to eye with Olga, "You are look amazing. You should dress like this more often. It is quite becoming. Your hair is perfect, like out of a magazine."

"Da!" Olga smiles while contouring her body with her hands, "I could not believe it still fits. You think I would get older like my mother to become wider."

"You look amazing." Odea sits back down with her coffee and pops the last mushroom in her mouth, "I have been making a checklist of everything we had to do yesterday. I think it would be best if we split up. Divide business with phone calls and paperwork."

"Julia's office easily accommodate two desks. Why not move the desk from the back room and bring into Julia's? We need to stick together."

"Good idea. Do you want to have Mr. Warrilow take messages today like we did yesterday?"

"I don't know." Olga shakes her head, "We need to make sure clients are happy. Returning calls after three only extended our day even longer."

"Speaking of Mr. Warrilow ..."

Olga squints her eyes.

"What was his previous position?"

"He worked as a lamplighter, guess would be his title, except he changed the bulbs. At night, alone." Olga becomes quiet for a second, "His previous employer says he is healthy and able to take on any task at hand."

"Good to know." Odea looks at her watch, "Shall we start our day?" She gets up and fills Olga's Bakelite jug with hot coffee, grabs two mugs while handing Olga buttered toast.

They walk down to the first floor and notice lots of sounds coming from the front room. They follow the noise to find Mr. Warrilow rearranging things and looks up at the two women standing. "Good Morning. I hope you had a pleasant evening. I am making the desk more efficient for my needs."

Olga and Odea come around and see everything has been shifted to the right side.

Odea ask curiously, "What did you do with our phone?"

"I made it hand free. Let me demonstrate," He put on a headphone with, with only one earpiece, and microphone. "This way I can be on the phone, hear the office and write." He places it down, "I will wear this while sitting at the desk. I had the same style when I was in the army. I just tweaked it a bit."

Olga sees his changes, "You have book holders?"

"Ah, yes." He digs out of his bag four three ring binders, "I moved the Wheeldex to an easier system, which I can manage." He places each one in a book holder, "This is the client list by last name and this one is by company. He opens the third, this one was a little tricky as this is from what you told me yesterday - it will help me create proper responses. Each tab represents each business. This one, is important, I will now keep a log of all incoming calls and visitors. The last one is for me, I need to keep track of all office products, inventory and requests."

"Very organized. It looks like you have done this before. You must have stayed up all night."

"It did not take long." He points to the phone now down on the far left, "It just makes sense."

Odea bends down, "You added padding? Why?"

He takes a letter, places it on the thin padding and a box cutter. With one quick flick the letter stays put and the letter is open. "The padding is to keep the blade from coming through."

Chatter is filling the downstairs.

"It looks like our day has begun."

A small light blink on the desk with a muted ring.

"I felt that the ringer was too much." Mr. Warrilow sits in his seat, puts on the headphones and adds quickly, "I can feel the vibration and see the light. No need to fill the whole building when this phone rings." He flips a lever up and the phone receiver move off the arms. "Good Morning! How can I be of service?" He listens, "One moment."

He looks up and flips up a toggle, "Am I taking messages or are you accepting calls?"

"What is that toggle?"

"Mute." He smiles, "No one on the other end can hear our conversation. I am soon going to patch in the music as they wait."

"We are accepting calls." Olga decides quickly and nods to Odea.

He flips down the mute toggle. "Yes," He writes on the message pad to his right, flips the first binder to the T's, then the second binder to the A's and then writes it all down on the message pad. He tears it out and hands it to Olga. He then writes in the fourth binder:

0901 1939-12-05
George Macaulay (G. M.) Trevelyan
University of Cambridge, Regius Professor of History
Requests twenty copies of John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" delivered to The Authors' Club (1 Whitehall Place)

"Thank you," Olga takes the message to Julia's office while Odea grabs the desk from the back room.

Olga stops in her tracks, turns around and stands in front of the receptionist desk. "Mr. Warrilow. Please contact Viking Press in an America at ..." She looks to the clock to calculate the time difference, "At one this afternoon and order thirty-five copies to be sent immediately, get the cost to Mrs. Higgs. Mail the check. Then call back Mr. Trevelyan and tell it has been order. A week later see if Viking Press has received our check and update the appropriate party."

Mr. Warrilow nods as he writes the instruction down a paper pad. He looks up with a soft smile, "Anything else?"

"That will be for now," Olga smiles in return, gathers her composure and returns to Julia's office.

Odea is sitting at her desk and making it functional, "Mrs. Yunevich, you looked flushed. Are you ..."

Olga smiles, fans herself and whispers, "His eyes, have you noticed his eyes?"

"Not particularly." Odea stops what she is doing. "I see a dedicated man who is creative. He was wasted changing light bulbs; we must utilize him."

"Yes, I was thinking the same thing. He seems to know wires and communications. We shall speak to Alaya and Fiona when they return."

Olga looks to the schedule, "Friday the Battledress order needs to be completed. I will check with Mrs. Holt on the progress."

She goes down to the sewing room and everyone is busy working.

"... Heligoland Bight is a long way from home and it is German Territory. Our boys are too close to danger."

"They are keeping them from entering the Channel or worse standing on our soil. Besides ..."

Olga walks across the room slightly embarrassed as the conversation stops, "I am so sorry to interrupt. I shall not be more than a moment."

Mrs. Holt immediately stands, "How can I help you Mrs. Yunevich?"

Olga stands next to Mrs. Holt's left side, hold up the clipboard and points, "We are due for the Battledress order, how are you coming along."

The room goes quiet.

Olga doesn't wait for Mrs. Holt's response, "What seems to be the issue?"

"The wool serge takes longer to sew." Mrs. continues, "It takes three hours and fifty-five minutes to create jacket and pants. This includes buttons, pockets and map pocket. We have been working diligently. We told Mrs. Clements we were on schedule."

"What happened?"

"Three machines broke last week and they were unavailable for two days. It is the wool serge, the sewing machines don't like to be pushed."

"That is ... " Olga quickly write an equation on her clipboard, "That should put us at very close to completing the uniform contract. Even with the downtime of the three machines. Where are we on your tally?"

Mrs. Holt leads Olga down the tunnels to the back storage. She picks up a clipboard hanging by a nail to the entrance and hands it over.

Olga counts, "This is good. Very good."

Mrs. Holt puffs out her chest in pride.

"We can make the deadline, but it is cutting it close." Olga giggles at her pun and quickly stops her gleefulness when she notices Mrs. Holt has not shared in her humor. "What do you need from me to complete this order by Thursday night?"

"We can't work faster the wool serge is not forgiving. That is how we broke the three machines."

"I see."

Olga and Mrs. Holt walking back through the tunnels. They both must push themselves against the wall as a crate coming through of more completed garments.

"You want this done sooner?"

"We have more profitable projects on hold." Olga shows Mrs. Holt the clipboard, "Here are the projects through the next few months."

Mrs. Holt looks over the projects, "We could split the girls up and work on these all at the same time."

"That is a wonderful idea. Is there any way we can free Mrs. Warrilow?" Olga flips over the to the next page, "These men would like customization for Boxing Day and other holiday parties."

Mrs. Holt looks over the list, "We can free Mrs. Warrilow if we," Mrs. Holt flips back to the main contract list, "If we do these few first and just have her doing buttons Thursdays and Fridays. Our best buttonhole maker is Mrs. Warrilow."

"Mrs. Holt you make a fine supervisor. Now, how do we complete the battledress contract by Thursday evening?"

"You can let us work a few extra hours tonight, come in early and stay late. Pay me and my girls well and it will happen."

Olga grabs her pencil and writes out another equation, "Stay late tonight for two hours and come in early for two hours. Thursday night you must stay late until it is all completed to your usual excellent quality. I will make sure your team is paid accordingly."

Mrs. Holt stands tall, "Working always make us hungry. We will be giving up breakfast and tea with our families."

Olga offers Mrs. Holt her hands.

"Mrs. Yunevich, I am not finished."

Olga puts back her hand, "Only Miss Warrilow and myself will come in on Friday morning to go over next week's schedule. The rest get one holiday pay."

Olga was tempted to calculate the expense but instead she offers Mrs. Holt her hand.

Mrs. Holt shakes, "Maybe you should think about hiring new workers?"

"Not yet Mrs. Holt, not yet."

The two walk back into the workroom as they see three women returning to their seats. Mrs. Holt looks to Mrs. Yunevich, "Maybe we just replace those who prefer to eavesdrop over making an honest day's wage?"

"Please come to me if there are any more sewing machine breakdowns or changes that would affect our deadline." Olga smiles to the workers, "You are all doing very well."

The workroom echoes with each one replying, "Thank you Mrs. Yunevich."

Olga walks up the stairs while eavesdropping on Mrs. Holt's announcing to her team the recent changes.

She enters Julia's office.

Odea is on the phone, "Yes, thank you." She looks up to Olga, "How was your visit to Mrs. Holt?"

"We are on mess duty for the next few days."