The next day was the first day that Gabby was going it alone. Not entirely alone; the guys were in the building with her. She was just alone when it came to her specific tasks, although Janine wrote down her home phone number if she had any questions. Gabby put her lunch in the fridge and sat down at the desk.
She sat down and took a good look at The Ecto-1, which was staring her directly in the face. The outside of the car looked immaculate despite what it had been through. She then looked down at Janine's desk. It had tchotchkes of all sorts along with a framed photo of a watercolor flower that someone had painted for her. It felt a little like Gabby was taking over another person's life, like she herself was a ghost possessing another person, but it wasn't quite that invasive. The things before her were Janine's little work shrine, no different than the shrine that Gabby hid in her closet.
Before her was a list of customers that she had to invoice. Easy enough. The trusted computer made this task fairly straightforward. With each invoice that she typed out and printed, she was more and more surprised that this was a private business and not something run by the government. After all, the police and firefighters were federally funded. Ghost catching was just as important, she figured.
Once she got to the last invoice, her eye itched. She rubbed it with her finger, only then remembering that she had put on mascara earlier and that this most likely smudged it. She didn't bring a mirror with her so she had to use the one in the bathroom.
Egon walked through this garage at this point. This was the perfect time to ask him if she could take a short break from her duties. As a new employee, she felt that she needed permission to do things such as this.
"Excuse me, Mr. Spengler?" she asked.
"You can call me Egon," he said.
"Can I please be excused for just a few seconds?"
"I don't know. Can you?"
Gabby had no idea how to answer that question. Should she have phrased it a little better?
"Of course, you can. That was just my attempt at humor."
Gabby felt a flicker of relief. "Well, it was a good attempt."
Gabby walked as fast as she could to the small bathroom in the garage, making sure to take her purse with her.
She entered the small bathroom, which had floor tiles that were grubbed with age. The mirror had a crack in the upper corner but it could still do its job. When Gabby took a look at her eye, it was a little smudged but not too much. She used some tap water to wash the smudge off of the corner of her eye, something that was made more challenging by the fact that she had to lean forward in order to get a good look at the insignificant makeup gaffe.
As she was doing this, she felt a minor chill. There was a presence nearby. She stopped and looked all over the small room. She figured that if there was a presence, it couldn't have been in the bathroom because nothing seemed out of the ordinary. But she wasn't an expert when it came to seeing ghosts and other paranormal creatures. She went back to fixing her makeup.
And then it happened. In the mirror, she saw something pink and serpentine slither out of the toilet. Then she saw the suction cups on its underside. This was a tentacle.
She dropped her mascara in the sink and screamed. She ran out of the bathroom as fast as her heels would let her go. Once she got to the desk, she turned around to make sure the tentacle didn't follow her.
"Help!" she screamed.
Ray happened to be in the Public Relations Office when he heard this. He stopped what he was doing and ran to the garage. Gabby was so scared that she couldn't form her problem into words, so all she could do was point to the large tentacle coming out of the bathroom door.
When Ray ran over and got a good look, his face gained a smile. He was as giddy as a child on Christmas.
"Wow!" he said. "Carla's back! She's never come out of the toilet before!"
Gabby wasn't sure whether to be more terrified at the tentacle or more terrified at Ray's reaction to it. How could somebody possibly be that happy to see a monster? A monster coming out of a toilet?
"It has a name?!" she asked.
"Yeah," said Ray, "We've been trying to nab her for months! Hey, guys! Get down here with the guns quick! I think this time we might actually get Carla!"
Like that, the other ghostbusters slid down the pole in their suits with their proton packs, ready to fight a monster that suddenly appeared in the bathroom. Gabby got the feeling that something like this was a common occurrence for them. All she could do was sit by her desk and watch, hoping that the fight didn't end up reaching where she was.
And then the phone rang.
"Ghostbusters, what's your emergency?" she said after she picked up the receiver.
"Oh, it's no emergency," said the woman on the other end of the phone, "This is Mrs. Kendrick and I just wanted to make a complaint."
In the background were the sounds of monster roars and proton guns firing but Gabby tried to hold a conversation as normal.
"What type of complaint would you like to make?"
"Those ghostbusters have nabbed several of my house's ghosts so far and I'm convinced that they've been stealing my jewelry every time!"
Gabby wasn't sure how to respond to this. She couldn't exactly confirm whether the ghostbusters were innocent or guilty of this charge. It wasn't like she could ask them right now.
One of the multiple tentacles coming out of the bathroom had managed to grab Peter.
"Proton guns down!" ordered Egon.
All that Peter could do was stab the creature with a fork that he happened to have on his person.
"I've had tough calamari at Italian restaurants but this is ridiculous," he said as he stabbed the creature to no avail.
"I apologize for this inconvenience, ma'am," said Gabby, "Allow me to summon the right person for you to consult about this matter." She put down the receiver and covered the handset with her hand. "Egon! There's a woman on the phone who needs to talk to you!"
"Not now, Gabby!" said Egon as he was trying to navigate this dangerous creature, "Can't you see we're busy at the moment?"
Gabby put the receiver back up to her face. "Anyway, I'm sorry for your missing items, Mrs. Kendrick. Would you mind telling us what evidence you have that one of our workers took them?"
"What evidence?!" said the woman, "The jewelry was there when the ghostbusters showed up and then it was gone when they left! What more evidence do you want?!"
Gabby sat there being verbally abused for something that she played absolutely no part in. This was customer service in a nutshell. She should know. "Listen, Ma'am. Ghostbusters Incorporated is not liable for any lost or stolen property. If you like, we can give you a discount for your next ghostbusting session. Does that sound good?"
At this point, Carla dropped Peter and the guys could go back to using their proton guns again.
"I don't want a discount, young lady, I want those trouble-makers to give me back my jewelry! Those pieces are irreplaceable!"
"Right now, the ghostbusters are busy but I will relay the message to them and have them call you back in order to get this issue resolved, all right?"
"I've tried to deal with these guys before about this issue but they always deny stealing my stuff! Now they have the excuse that they're busy?"
"Ma'am, please-"
"Well, you can tell them that I'm never using their business again!" With that, the woman slammed down the phone, leading to the dial tone.
"That was uncalled for," said Gabby. She tried her best but some people just couldn't be reasoned with. The question was, how was she going to tell Egon?
The guys were all firing their proton guns at the tentacle monster, making it glow hot pink. Ray slid the trap under it. When it opened, it sucked every bit of that monster into the tiny, rectangular space. Once the trap closed, it let off a small billow of smoke.
"Don't let the door hit you on the way out!" said Winston.
"We got her!" said Ray, "I can't believe we got her!" He grabbed the trap so that he could go into the basement and safely empty it into the containment unit.
Egon went over to Gabby holding the yellow pages. She plopped the large book onto her desk.
"Gabby, I've got a new assignment for you," he said.
"What is that?" asked Gabby.
"I need you to order us a new toilet. Plus some tiles. Plus a refurbishing of the entire rest of the bathroom as well."
Great, she thought. First an octopus attacked her in the bathroom, then a difficult customer called up to complain and now this. At least it couldn't get any worse.
And then she remembered that she forgot to put her lunch into one of those ghost-proof safes.
"Crap!" she said. She got up and made a mad dash to the break room upstairs.
Once she opened the fridge, she found her Tupperware standing out amongst the other ghost-proof safes. The top was still on it but the contents were completely gone. When she looked to her right, she saw Slimer licking his lips and rubbing his belly with a satisfied grin.
"Ugg…" she said, "Slimer!"
Slimer phased through the wall, ignoring his scolding.
"I guess I'll have to get takeout today."