“Call me Phil,” he said as they walked to the technology room.
Once he unlocked the door and let Frank in he was amazed at how large it was. It had four sections to it. There was a very dark corner section that looked like it had ancient artifacts of the I.T. industry in it. One section seemed to store supplies like printer toner cartridges, spare computers, monitors, and other ready for use equipment. Another section was where Phil obviously did administrative work and then there was an entire other room. It was a special room.
As a part of the special room there was a locked door and a glass window to allow viewing. This small room housed the server rack that had the network servers, network router, and switches. He pointed out that it had its own air conditioner, as well as the whole room used solar panels on the roof for power, and it could work on twelve hours of an uninterrupted power supply in case of black outs.
Phil also explained to him that he needs more help because of how the schools I.T. Systems have grown, are outdated, and how the users have become more demanding and needy. He mentioned that he would like to take a long vacation soon and if he could train Frank on some of the dos and don’ts he could spend some family time away from work. Frank totally understood this and felt that this was a win win situation for both parties.
After a brief silence Phil said, “I need to check up on something really quick. Go ahead and make yourself at home.”
Frank walked around the room and made mental notes of some of the objects there. He saw some very old I.T. equipment and some other equipment that was probably five years old or newer. During his informal inspection he got closer to the dark corner and felt something weird. It was like a cold thickness.
Phil saw Frank in that area and said, “Oh yeah. Be careful of that area. We put very dysfunctional things there. You know stuff that refuses to work or causes other problems to occur.”
“OK. I’ll be careful,” Frank said while visually inspecting some of the shelves in the corner.
There were four shelf units to be exact and they formed a kind of open zero shape. Each shelf unit had four shelves. On the second shelf of one of the units he saw what looked like a pair of goggles, some earmuffs, gloves, a workman’s bodysuit, and a helmet.
Frank was about to ask Phil a question about the goggles, but then he saw that he was busy talking on the phone to someone. He went ahead and picked up the goggles for further inspection. They were the typical clear plastic rubber goggles with an elastic strap to help keep them in place when they were on. He looked back at Phil and he was still on the phone. He totally forgot Frank was even in the room.
Frank was curious to see if they would fit him so he put the goggles on and then everything became a different tint and color. It was like everything turned purple. He looked up at the ceiling directly above him and noticed that there was writing on it and what faintly looked like an arrow pointing somewhere, but since the area was so dark he couldn’t make out what it said. As he brought his head down to look at what was on the floor he immediately saw four grey wolves siting in a circle around him and they appeared to be ferociously growling, but Frank couldn’t hear anything. There was no sound coming from them. At that moment Frank had an idea, he puts on the earmuffs and along with a thick wave of fear that drenched his bones, he was able to fully hear and receive the angry growls of four angry wolves.
Frank’s stomach and chest were filled with butterfly motors going 100 miles per hour. He rapidly took off both the goggles and the earmuffs, and returned them to their places on the shelf. After that, the wolves and their growls ceased to exist. He then slowly walked out of the dark corner area and back to the open area of the room.
Phil was off the phone by now and saw Frank moving in a very strange way and then asked, “Are you OK? Do you need some water or something?”
“No, I’m fine,” Frank said. Then a loud heavy knock was made on the door.
Phil turned, and looked at Frank with a puzzled face laced with fear. He slowly walked over to the door, and began to turn the door knob. As he cautiously opened the door, a very tall and large brunette woman, approximately six foot five in height, bustled through the door and grabbed him by his crotch with her left hand. After the door automatically closed behind her, she spit on him once, and while keeping an intense stare into his eyes, walked him backwards toward the center of the room.
In a high pitched lady’s voice Phil screamed, “Pleeeeeeease……don’t touch me there!”
On the other side of the very thin wall you could hear the kids in the hallway laughing as they walked by on their way to class.
“Where should I touch you,” the lady grumbled in a deep tone with fierceness as she replied to Phil. “How about here?” she said as she back hand slapped Phil to the ground. He laid there on his left side slightly moving as he embraced what was left of himself. “I see you have a guest,” she said as she straightened her rigid black suit jacket, shook her head from side to side, cracked her knuckles and looked at Frank.
J.J. Fauria 