Chapter II

Thay leaned back against the chair for the first time since she'd sat down that morning. She checked her watch. Ten o'clock. Somehow, it felt like more than an hour had passed. She looked down at her desk and saw a cold coffe sitting on it, cardboard cup looking somewhat sorry and lopsided. Joining the coffee on her desk was a telephone, with two lights flashing on it; a jar filled with pens and pencils; her purse; some chang in a dish and a rather large stack of reports. With a sigh, she turnd her attention to the reports.

She had only finished reading the first report, when there was a knock on the door. "The Director is waiting for you in his office for an update," the Director's secretary told her, "He's just finishing up his 9:30."

'Hmm... an update...' Thay mused as the secretary left. 'Let's see. Another Dumpty thought he was a prophet, got up on the wall and, of course, fell off, forcing the H & M to go clean up the mess, and the KO to get really really annoyed. Three in the last month.

The Herald loved it. She gave them a fairly neutral response about how things were working just fine, and told the KO basically the same thing. That would keep them at bay, for a while, anyway.

Suddenly, Thay was facing the sign on the Director's door that read "Director of Inter-racial Affaires -- Herm Wilson". She had somehow made her way here, still lost in thought. 'I work too much,' Thay thought. She knocked twice on the door and twisted the doorknob hard, making sure her face said "I'm in control". That was, after all, her job.

As soon as she entered the office, she and the Director started thier dance that had become routine. The Director always started. He stood up behind his desk, put his hands in his pockets and said, "Looks like we've got a situation." Thay adjusted her glasses and, taking her cue, said: "A Dumpty by the name of Bob Dumpty fell off the wall this morning. The H & M cleaned it up pretty quickly, and he is recovering in the Dumpty care facility at the Royal Hospital. He suffered multiple fractures all over, but they are expected to completely heal."

The Director sighed and said, "Another one?" It was obvioulsy a rhetorical question, so Thay didn't answer. Instead, she waited for him to finish his turn. "Why did he do it?" he asked, this time waiting for an answer.

"Shortly before he fell off, he was yelling to a crowd of Dumpties on the other side of the wall about some sort of a revolution, rising against "The Oppressors", by which he meant the humans, creating their own country, etc. Basically, the usual." Thay explained. She then waited for the words she had heard and responded to so many times.

Looking at her over his glasses, the Director asked, "You've got it under control, Thay?" Thay forced an easy smile, and said "Of course I do. Now I have a meeting, so I have to go."

As she walked out the door through which she had entered, she heard the Director tell her, "Thanks, Thay. I dont know what I would do without you."

'You'd actually work,' Thay thought bitterly.