Veteran of Lateness [FICTION]

My brother and I rarely find time to get together, so when he called to invite me to help him claim some free food for Veterans Day, I agreed to meet him for lunch. After a quick hug and trite greetings, we picked a booth and examined the menu. We finally agreed on an appetizer and my phone buzzed.

The meeting is in ten minutes. I can’t wait to hear your input.

“Something good,” my brother smiled over his soda glass as he took a long draw from the straw.

“No. I forgot about a meeting.”

“Missed it and got fired?”

“It starts in ten minutes.”

“Then you have plenty of time.” He glanced out the window where my office building loomed only a block and a half away.

“If I leave now…” I pulled out my wallet and threw a twenty on the table. “Your lunch is on me.”

He laughed. “You mean my dinner. That appetizer is going to fill me up.” He saluted me and I remembered why we chose that restaurant, and it wasn’t the proximity to my work.

“We will try again soon…”

“Next time, don’t double book. I’m more important than that.”

His guffaws followed me from the restaurant. I glanced at my watch, relieved to find seven minutes remaining. A two minute walk would leave me five minutes to spare. I might even get to the conference room before my boss.

Then fate decided to punish my confidence. As I started across the street, a hand pulled me back.

“Pardon me,” my words ceased as I turned to face a tall man with military bearing and enough decorations on his dress blues to make any fan of accessorizing jealous, so I squeaked out, “Sir”.

“You can’t cross here. No crosswalk.” He grinned as he gestured at the unmarked pavement.

“Yes, sir.” I saluted awkwardly and turned toward the nearest corner.

As I reached it, a woman dashed out of the bank on the corner. We collided and papers exploded from her arms.

“No.” She wailed as she began grabbing at the floating pages.

Fueled by her distress, I grabbed at random sheets of paper as well. Soon half a dozen good Samaritans joined us, a couple straggled across the crosswalk with the few remaining lost pages. As my eyes fell on the crosswalk, I remembered myself.

“I am so sorry about your papers. I have to run.” I handed her the last page I had plucked from the ground and turned toward the crosswalk.

“Thank you for helping,” a soft voice called after me.

The signal had already begun counting down, so I didn’t turn to acknowledge her gratitude. As I reached the opposite side, I risked a glance at my watch. Two minutes to walk one block and climb three flights of stairs.

“I can do this,” I mumbled as I began to weave in and out of the throngs of people rushing to and from lunch.

As I maneuvered around a broad-shouldered man, who loomed over me at well over six feet, I found myself staring into a familiar pair of brown eyes. My former roommate blinked at me in surprise.

“I didn’t know you were still in town.” She gushed.

“I am. I work right there.” I pointed over her shoulder at my building.

“Oh wonderful.” She glanced at the building. “Do you sell insurance?”

“Um, no. I am late for a meeting..”

“Well, if you don’t want to tell me, it must be worse than selling insurance.” She giggled.

I paused to ponder if explaining my job to her was worth it to keep her from thinking I sell insurance. Considering how our roommate relationship terminated, with her trying to steal my boyfriend and getting angry when told her he would never be interested, I decided she wasn’t worth it. “We will have to catch up another time. I really have to go.”

She called out something as I rushed into the building, but I didn’t waste time processing it. I knew I had just earned the nickname Late Kate until someone else in the office messed up somehow.

I breathed a sigh of relief as the doors swished closed behind me, blocking out any final salvos. My ex-roomate’s desire to continue a fight I never truly had a part in left me more anxious than my current state of tardiness. As I rushed past the check in desk, the guard called out to me.

“Hold up. I need to see your badge.”

 I gaped at him. “You saw it this morning and you know me.”

“New regulations. I have to see it every time.” He shrugged apologetically.

I sighed and fumbled in my pockets. True to the theme of the day, I couldn’t find the laminated rectangle that granted me access to my place of employment. Out of desperation, I opened my wallet and started thumbing through it as voices behind me complained in progressively increasing tones. 

“At last,” I sing out like Ella Fitzgerald as I find it nestled between two gift cards, one of which came from the restaurant I just exited in great haste.

The guard smiled. “Thanks for being a good example.” He then turned stern eyes to those behind me in line.

As the damage was already done, I turned to look at them. They dug through pockets and purses sheepishly under his disapproving gaze. I turned my head and walked away before chuckling softly.

Finally at the door to the conference room, I breathed deeply, turned the knob, and stepped tentatively inside.

“…and that way we always know what the client wants.” My boss’s monotone voice greeted me immediately.

As I stepped into the room, all eyes turned to me. Even the workmate formerly dubbed Sleepy for always passing out in meetings raised his head from his folded arms to train bleary eyes on me. Sick Rick, so named for giving us all the summer flu a few months prior, grinned widely and began a slow clap. I struggled to keep my emotions in check as he opened his mouth.

“In honor of returning to just plain old Rick, I would like to thank you for being late, Kate.”

I sighed at the fulfillment of my premonition as every voice in the room raised to greet me as Late Kate. I took my seat at the table without responding. Though I kept my face impassive and unmoved, my mind raced with thoughts of how to contrive a new nickname for someone else at the table, so I can join Rick in being plain and old.

~~I hope you all got to celebrate Veterans Day with some loved ones yesterday. Mine are all hundreds or thousands of miles away, so I have to take comfort that they got some free food somewhere and some adoration from small children if they went out in public in their uniforms. Considering what some of our veterans have been through, maybe we should try to be a little kinder every day. Even if they aren’t in uniform or wearing a hat denoting their branch of service, many of those sweet older people we see out in the world could use a little smile to help them forget for a moment that they have seen some horrible things. I base this on conversations with a few men I am proud to consider my grandfathers who served in the Korean War. Everyone has a story and it isn’t all sunshine and roses, so be kind.~~