By Philip Johnson
Preface
Company functions. They might be called employee recognition teas or award banquets. Or, it might be an annual picnic. The larger and more successful the company is, the more elaborate and expensive the function will be. In some cases, they are a great experience, but in many cases it's an obligation that must be endured as part of the job.
Matt Hollis had joined Twin Lakes Electronics in mid November the previous year as a manager, and was quickly promoted to one of the junior V.P. positions. Twin Lakes was a large company located in Atlanta, and occupied a four story office building on the north side of town. It was all offices and they employed approximately a hundred and twenty five people, including the maintenance and housekeeping staff. Each floor was full of offices with one good sized conference room to each floor,, with the top floor having the largest conference room and the nicest and largest offices. Needless to say, that was the floor for the senior V.P.'s and above.
Matt considered it a good company to work for. They weren't big on expensive suits until you made it to the top floor, and first names were commonly used. Take Matt for instance. He would usually wear slacks and a casual shirt or even Dockers on occasion. None of the managers had fixed hours. They could start at seven in the morning or nine. Just as long as they were very good at their jobs, put in an honest days work, met the deadlines ,and were always available for the frequent meetings, especially of the top floor variety.
When Matt started with Twin Lakes, he bought a small condominium about five miles from work, and a good number of residents in his little community worked for the same company. His neighbors Greg and Nancy Ormond were a good example. She was an executive secretary at Twin Lakes, and he was a manager on the same floor as Matt. The condos were nice, but not ostentatious, but each did have a large mostly private veranda that overlooked a strip of woods that served as a screen against the row of condominiums on the other side of the woods. The only thing you wanted to remember when out there was to talk softly. Matt had been privy to quite a few conversations that drifted to him on summer breezes, some benign, and some pretty personal. Some came from Nancy and Greg, and some from Cameron and Ula, on the other side. Ula was from Russia, but she had come to America when she was quite young, so she had no hint of an accent. But she did possess all of the beauty that Russia had to offer. Now, along with not talking too loudly, the other thing to remember was if you made love on your veranda it was a good idea to do that quietly too.
Matt just assumed there would be some kind of company function at Christmas time, but there was none. Being the new guy with the company, he didn't say anything. If he didn't have to deal with some inane company gathering, that was just fine with him. All thoughts of company functions had receded to the far reaches of his mind...that is until late in the day when he got his invitation to a Halloween party.
Chapter One
Matt put his Halloween invitation in the middle drawer of his desk, but grumbled to himself, a childish thing like Halloween, of all the dumb times to have a company event. The memo said details would be available in a couple of days. Crap, that meant he had to come up with a costume and he was sure it couldn't be something cheap and cheesy. He shut down the computer, turned off the lights, and closed the door on his way out. He was a little early leaving, but he felt the need to stop at the gym and work off some steam.
After changing into shorts and a tee shirt, he went out and jumped on a stepper. It was something he could do without too much thought, so he could let his mind wander. He was a thousand miles away mentally when somebody jumped on the stepper next to him and said, "Hey Matt." He snapped back to the present and looked over. "Well, hey back, Cameron."
"You just get here?"
"About ten minutes ago I guess."
"Doing the usual hour?"
"Probably, I want to do some weights or something for the upper body after I've warmed up on this thing for a little bit." "You get an invitation to the Halloween bash?" "Sure, but I guess about everybody did. I wish I didn't have to go though."
"Oh no, this is by invitation only, and it's for select managers and up. This is a private affair, not a company function. Well, it is in a way I guess."
"Really? I just assumed it was a command performance thing, and there would be a hundred sweaty bodies there."
"Nope. There will be maybe fifty or so attending between company people and guests, and it's quite the gathering. It's always held at Larks View, Gordon Anderson's estate."
"Damn."
"Yeah damn, sounds like you don't want to go, but I'd suggest you not miss it."
"Why is that?"
"Just trust me on this one."
"So I better take a costume seriously then."
"There will be some pretty fancy get ups there that's for sure."
"They haven't given the date, yet but when do they usually have it?"
"It's right at the end of October, as near Halloween as possible."
"Anything you can tell me about it?"
"I don't want to spoil it for you. Just get a good costume and go expecting to have a good time."
"Do I have to have a guest?"
"Not required. But I will tell you that you won't likely recognize anybody. Everybody works hard to disguise their identity."
"For the whole evening?"
"The whole evening."
"So, if somebody has a little too much to drink he just might get away with it."
"If he kept his mouth shut he could."
After twenty minutes on the stepper, Matt moved over to the Nautilus for twenty minutes and then finished with free weights for fifteen minutes. It was the most strenuous workout he'd had in weeks, and it almost killed him, but between that and what Cameron had told him, he felt he could handle the Halloween thing now. Driving home he thought about a costume and how to best stay anonymous. He could hide his face easily enough, and the costume could alter his appearance, but what about his voice. He couldn't go through the evening and not speak. As he pulled into his garage, he
remembered a part he'd had in a play in college. He was a pirate and for his role, he worked for weeks to perfect a strong lower register voice. Could he do that again and
maintain it for a whole evening? As he went inside he tried one of the few lines he still remembered from his role. It wasn't bad but he needed to work on it. It was a good thing he had close to a month to put all of this together.
After dinner he sat at his computer and started looking at costumes and made a list of what he wanted. He now had a mental picture of what he wanted to look like and made a mental note to stop at the little theatrical makeup shop downtown. Among other things, he would need a moustache and it had to be a believable one. He finished his list and sat back to practice his new voice for half an hour. If he was going to this damn thing he was going to do his best to keep his identity secret. He tried to picture what kind of person people saw him as. He was professional, almost to the point of shying away from personal interaction, shy, perhaps, certainly soft spoken, and straight with very little swearing beyond the occasional damn. He'd make it a point to dress nicely for the next month so people would be used to seeing him in nice slacks and a nice shirt. That way, his pirate costume would be even more of a change. But could he be more flippant and sassy? More outspoken as the evening wore on and maybe even outrageous? That wasn't him, but he'd do his best to speak out in his new voice. He was really getting into his project now.
He put Halloween thoughts aside and went out to his veranda to enjoy the evening over a small glass of bourbon and water. He moved his table a little and was just sitting down when he heard, "Is that you, Matt?"
"Hi Ula, it's me." He went over to the left wall that separated the two verandas and if he leaned out he could just look over to their place. Just as he did that she did too and they almost bumped into each other's head.
With a start he heard, "Oh! God you scared me Matt."
"Sorry, love. We both seemed to have the same idea." She smiled as they leaned out enough to talk and she asked him, "How are you?"
"Doing great, how about you two?"
"We're both fine. Cameron said he saw you at the gym."
"Yeah, we talked for a minute before I moved over to the Nautilus."
"How was your workout?"
"One of the best in a long time, I have to get back to that more seriously."
"He said you weren't too keen on the party."
"I wasn't, but I'm rethinking that now."
"Good. You'll have a good time I promise. Have any idea what you'll go as?"
"I have an idea, but only if I can pull it together. It will take some work though."
"Sounds interesting."
"What about you two?"
"I don't know about Cameron, but I have mine picked out."
"What is it?"
"It's secret silly."
"Oh, that's right. Sorry. How will I be able to flirt with you then?"
"You'll just have to figure out which one is me."
"I'll take that as a challenge."
"If you can find me, you can flirt with me all you want lover."
"Brace yourself then, sweetie."
