45
Alice knocked on the door to the personnel department. She pushed it open, not waiting for an answer. Across a small, tidy office with three desks lined in a row, she found two women sitting face-to-face across a desk. The other desks were empty. As if half the department had been let go. Both women were in their fifties and heavyset. One with curly black hair in a green blouse. The other with gray hair tight in a bun, wearing glasses and a black Nature's Glory polo shirt.
"Yes?" the woman with the greying hair and glasses said.
"Is this a bad time?" Alice asked.
"Not at all," said the other woman. "How can we help?"
Alice stepped inside the office and walked across a thin beige carpet to the women's desk. She slid her backpack off and set it down at her feet. "Mr. Kilbride told me
