"Congratulations, Wilkins. It's your lucky day," the Chief had said. "You are the most reliable guy I've got on night shift. I'm sure you're getting bored with emptying trash bins and vacuuming concourses,aren't you?"
"Reckon so, Chief," Wilkins replied.
"Good. Well, you can look on this as a promotion. Ten percent salary increase retroactive to the start of this pay period. No problems working unsupervised?"
"No sir."
"Good. 'Cause you'll be alone, mainly. Here..." The Chief handed Wilkins a big ring of keys. "These are numbered, and the numbers correspond to the numbered doorways on this floor plan." The Chief opened a rather brittle old blueprint. "It's easy. Door One is the entrance to the old Hefley Concourse. Know where that is?"
"Yes sir," Wilkins said, and he gulped involuntarily, remembering the night he had been mopping tile near the locked doorway, and he had heard something from inside. Laughter, maybe, or sobbing. "I heard that wasn't used for nothin' anymore. Storage."
"Yeah, some counters and old chair-benches, nothing much. Once you
go into the Hefley, all the rest of the doors lead off from it. Just follow the map. We need the whole floor mopped once every two months. No trash to dump, 'cause nobody goes in there. Need to inspect the light fixtures and electrical. You'll have to test the outlets with a meter. Make sure you take your radio, because there aren't any phones that I know of."
"I always carry the radio."
"Good. You'll want to take your lunch too, Wilkins. You get back in there, you don't want to hike out 'til your shift is over. And a flash light. Some of the lighting back in there is pretty marginal." The Chief smiled and clapped Wilkins on the shoulder. "So can I count on you?"
"Yes sir."
"Good. We'll go ahead and have you start tonight. The guy that was handling this left suddenly." The Chief glanced at his wristwatch and said "well, sir, grab that mop and bucket. The rest of the tools are at the B Concourse Maintenance Office. Let me know if you have any questions or problems."
"Yes sir," smiled Wilkins and he started off.
"Oh, Wilkins.."
"Yes sir?"
"Here. Make sure you take the map with you. It's pretty easy to get lost back there." The Chief suddenly lost his smile, and Wilkins thought he had something very troubling in his face for a moment, but soon the grin returned, the Chief said "hey, gotta run." And he turned on his heel, moving up the concourse at a brisk clip.