Dark Silence

21 days (1)

Darnell came to the office of the Agency in high spirits. Despite the fact that it was the early morning, he had a good rest at night, freed from nightmares. However, that couldn’t be said for Madeleine. It seemed that she stubbornly decided not to sleep all night, having fun on his computer. Darnell started looking at the sluggish and sleepy girl with regret. It looked like even her usually bouncy ponytails turned sad with fatigue and exhaustion.

“You should start sleeping at night,” the man suggested kindly. Madeleine sighed and nodded at him. He knew perfectly well that she would not go to bed on time anyway. The computer and cartoons were more interesting than sleeping “Would you prefer to go to the girls instead of hanging with me?” he nodded at the employees he passed by. “I will be writing reports anyway, and I will think over what we should do next.”

Madeleine agreed to go to the open space, and the girls greeted her noisily and joyfully, as they were happy to see her as usual. Darnell smiled looking at this scene and unlocked his office. Before entering, he carefully peered inside, checking to see if Cyril was waiting for him in there. The office greeted him with semi-darkness and silence. It seemed that during these days no one broke in there without his knowledge. Darnell closed the door behind him and breathed a sigh of relief. He hung his coat on the hanger and sat down at the computer, which he never turned off. Because he kept forgetting to do this.

Darnell barely had time to start writing a more or less adequate report on the work that was done in almost a week and a half, as there was a lot of it, when he noticed a letter from Ewing in the mailbox. There were only two words in it: "Come in." Darnell stretched in his chair, wondering what he could be scolded for this time. He had already reported for his absence. Maybe Cyril rolled over on him? Then he had better not get into Darnell's eyes so that he would not be rolled over on the head. Darnell made himself stand up from the chair and leave his office going to the Ewing’s one. Inside, apart from the boss himself, there was a short, cutely plump girl, clutching a tablet in her hands. Darnell glanced over her idly and dropped into a chair in front of the Ewing's desk.

“I came in,” he announced to the boss.

“Appearance to the people,” Ewing said maliciously. “Will you order me to give you a bonus for coming to work on time?”

Darnell chuckled. He was not the only one in a good mood today.

“You called for me,” he reminded the boss. Darnell decided not to make assumptions about the call in advance, so as not to give out those mishaps that the boss might not know yet, and better never find out.

“To make a long story short, since your work is progressing very badly and slowly,” Ewing frowned, looking into Darnell’s eyes, “I decided to assign you an assistant.”

“An assistant?” his interlocutor raised his eyebrows. “What for?”

“To make you work better if you can’t do this by yourself!” Ewing snapped. “This is Evangeline if you don’t remember. I’m sure you don’t!” He raised his voice again. “She usually helps in the astrological department, but I think you will need her skills.” The boss gestured towards the short girl, and Darnell glanced back at her.

Squinting one eye, he tried to remember if he had seen her before. Maybe he did not notice her because he did not visit the astrologers often. Or maybe because the girl was very short, according to his point of view. The cutie smiled happily at him and put a chestnut lock behind her ear.

“I will be glad to work with you!” She blurted out.

Darnell looked at his boss with anguish.

“But I always work alone. I already go everywhere with Madeleine, and now…”

“Change is always good,” Ewing rapped out.

“But may I?..”

“No, you may not!” The boss snapped. “I assigned her - that’s that! That’s it, you both are free to leave!” He pointed a finger at Darnell. “And give me the report for last week. You can shove the formal reply that you’ve sent me on the weekend into your!..” He caught himself, casting a glance at the girl. “I mean, I’m waiting for the report, performed according to the standards. I must get it by this evening!”

“I was already working on it,” Darnell muttered discontentedly.

He left the boss's office and went back to his room. Employees from open space played with Madeleine in some kind of charade, in which the girl surely led the game. Turning to his door, Darnell bumped into Evangeline who was following him.

“Do you have to go after me now?” He grumbled. The girl's eyes lit up with enthusiasm.

“Of course, Mr. Ewing appointed me as your assistant, I will do anything you need!”

“Oh, fine, come in,” Darnell replied helplessly, opening the door for her.

Evangeline gave a skip for joy and rolled into the office. While Darnell was thinking about how to keep her both occupied and useful, the longer the better, the girl managed to run around his property, looking almost into every corner.

“It's great that you have a separate personal office!” She declared, falling into an empty chair. “And I have to sit with everyone in the open space. It's so noisy there.”

“Yeah,” Darnell said thoughtlessly, sitting down at his table, opposite to her.

“So, which task will you give me?” the girl put the tablet on the table and folded her palms on it. Darnell noticed the golden glow of a wedding ring on her ring finger. The man looked at her dimples on her cheeks, and it seemed to him that he saw a happy hamster in front of him, which was finally released from the cage to have a nice run.

“You know what,” Darnell said thoughtfully. “Take a copy of Madeleine's case and write down all the main points from there. It will come in handy for me, I still can't finish reading it.”

The girl grabbed the tablet and began to write down everything Darnell said to her, nodding to herself.

“By the way, does your name have any short version?”

“You may call me Evvy,” his interlocutor waved her hand. “Just not Jelly, because many people think it's funny,” she raised her eyes and smiled.

“I'll keep this in mind.” Darnell smiled back. “Well, this assignment will be enough for you for two days for sure,” Darnell said. “When you finish, send the results to my email.”

“I'll bring it to you!” Evangeline replied happily. “No trouble for me at all, and I will also tell you what I managed to discover.”

She jumped up and headed for the exit. Darnell politely followed her and opened the door to let her out. He looked after Evvy, who was leaving with a vividness unexpected for such a cutie pie. Darnell didn’t even manage to approximately understand how old she was. She belonged to the category of girls who could be 20 or could be 40 years old. On the other hand, she seemed to be a pleasant person, even though Darnell wasn’t favoring such personalities that were too noisy for him.

Darnell's attention was drawn to a lively discussion between the girls about what Madeleine was doing. He looked at her fanciful game. At first, she made her chest round and poked herself with her finger. The girls laughed loudly, and she also doubled over with silent laughter. Then she began waving her arms and scolding the invisible opponent. In the end, Madeleine pulled the hood of her gray hoodie over her head and showed an expression of a displeased look by pulling down the corners of her lips. Darnell chuckled. It looked like she was showing the seven deadly sins. Pride, wrath, despondent sloth...

“That is O'Dell!” one of the girls exclaimed. The others laughed even louder, and Madeleine pointed her finger at her and nodded, confirming her guess.

“Really, right like when a month ago he showed up in the evening drunk.”

“And he always smells tobacco smoke and cigarettes - that’s just awful. Madeleine, how do you stand all this?”

Darnell could not believe his eyes. Madeleine made fun of him in front of his colleagues. He behaved friendly with her, trying by all means not to offend her. Weighed every word twice. Started to perceive her as a friend and a little companion. And received such rudeness in return?

“Madeleine!” he called out to her, standing in the doorway of his office. Looked like he could not manage to strain the irritation in his voice since the employees immediately fell silent, and fear appeared in the girl's eyes. The employees immediately split to their working places, leaving her one-on-one with Darnell's wrath. Such good friends. “Come in,” he nodded toward his office door.

Madeleine approached him on unbending legs as if she was going to the scaffold. From his expression, she understood that Darnell had witnessed her performance and was not delighted with it at all. Madeleine walked past the man and rushed to an empty chair. She put her hands on her knees and looked down guiltily. Darnell sat down at the table and sighed. After all, she was only a child.

“You know, I did not appreciate your pantomime much,” he said. Madeleine shrank even more in her chair. “So, I gave you the opportunity to take a break from the rules, from discipline, and in return I receive a mockery? The mockery from a child?” Darnell asked angrily. The girl flinched and turned away. The man sighed loudly and frowned.  “In this case, the approach will be different now. First, you can do without a computer.” Madeleine looked up at him and pursed her lips aggrievedly. “Secondly, you will go to bed when I tell you. Thirdly…"

Darnell took thought. It was necessary to come up with a worthy punishment for her. She needed to remember that there are things that could and could not be revealed to others. He wanted to evoke a real feeling of shame in her, not a fictitious one. Speaking of which, she did spend a lot of time with Cole.

“Why,” the man said, “this is a good idea. I'll move Cole to the closet.”

Madeleine shook her head in fear and leaned forward.

“Yes, that's it,” he shrugged jauntily. “I am sure he will be incredibly happy when he finds out about his relocation because of you.”

The girl's face sagged and she sobbed bitterly. Tears flowed from her eyes, and she began to wipe them with the sleeves of a gray jacket. Darnell's heart skipped a beat, but he decided not to change his mind. This way Madeleine will definitely remember she shouldn’t mess with him. He could be good-natured as long as he is left be in peace, or at least at the minimum level of respect.

“Stop whimpering,” he grunted, turning back to his computer. “And stay quiet while I finish my reports. As such doings happen, you will now be here under my surveillance. And don’t do anything foolish, understand?” He glanced at her, and the girl nodded sadly, still wiping her reddened nose with her sleeve.