Epilogue
“Thank you, Susan.” Thomas’s eyes shone with tears. “I— I— I just can’t believe I’m actually going. This is a dream come true.” He wiped his eyes.
“Stop.” I held up my hand. “You deserve it, Thomas. Go, and have a good time.”
I sincerely hoped he wouldn’t be embarrassed about crying in my office later. I would be—I’d barely done anything to help him—but that was a burden I was happy to bear.
“I’ve worked here for almost thirty years.” My oldest employee clearly wasn’t going to stop. “Nobody has ever helped me like this. You helped me apply for a passport. You went into battle with HR for me. You forced the executive team to sign off on the alterations to the company policy.”
“It’s your long-service leave. You should be able to spend it the way you always wanted to.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think it’s fair that the company forces you to break it up into two-week blocks.
” I nodded at him. “If you want to take a month to backpack around Peru, then you should be able to take a month to backpack around Peru.” I smiled at him.
“Your job will be here when you return.”
He sniffed, pulled out a handkerchief, and blew his nose noisily. “You know, when you first got the job here as my team leader, I hated you.”
“I know.”
“I don’t like change.”
I knew he didn’t. Thomas was one of the old guard, the employees I’d always affectionately called “dragons” in my head.
They hoarded their knowledge of the out-of-date tech systems we used, they grunted to each other moodily over the tops of their desk partitions, and guarded their novelty mug collections in their cubicles like piles of gold and silver, hissing at each other if one ever went missing.
I used to have four dragons, and eight sprites in my call center team. Now, I had fifty staff members underneath me, and for the past week, I’d been almost giddy at being able to help every single one of them.
“But… change is good.” Thomas mopped his cheeks. “I’ve always wanted to hike the Inca trail. See the Rainbow Mountains and the Colca Canyon. At my age, it’s going to take me weeks to get around everything. I never thought I’d get there before I died.”
A jolt of apprehension pulsed through me. Good grief, I hoped he wouldn’t die.
Welp. If he died, he’d go happy.
And that’s all I ever wanted. I wanted people to be happy. When I told Cecil that being in service to others was the secret to happiness, I meant every word.
A large golden Labrador padded into my office. He looked at me, nudged me with his nose, and sat down. “Oh, no.” Thomas looked down. “Your assistance dog is alerting you. Are you about to have a seizure?”
I frowned. “I better not be. I’ve got a budget meeting this afternoon.” I eyed the Labrador sternly.
The dog tilted his head and stared at me.
I got the message. If I hurried, I’d be able to make it back in time for the budget meeting.
“I better go and take my meds.” I smiled at Thomas. “Go. Enjoy your trip. Take lots of photos.”
Thomas nodded, thanked me again, and shuffled out of the room.
I followed him out and headed through the call center floor, smiling and waving and chatting to staff members as I went.
“Terry, how are the girls? Fantastic! Jules, can you get that report to me by this afternoon? That’s okay, you can push it back if our call volumes are too high today.
Stacey, have you and Owen found an apartment yet? Nob Hill? Brilliant!”
The dog trotted at my heels towards the ladies’ room, every now and then nudging my bare legs with his cold nose. Okay, Cecil, I get it. I’ll hurry.
We walked into the bathrooms. The cubicles were empty. “What is it this time, Cecil?”
His wide muzzle split into a grin. “Dragons on the western plains of the Summerlands, Chosen.”
“Dragons, huh? I suppose today is a day for dragons.” I walked into the cubicle on the far left.
“One of the Nobles from Duskenmaine decided to steal an egg from a clutch. Got some silly notion from some silly TV show that they could force the juvenile to bond once it hatched and ride it. Can you imagine?” Cecil snorted and padded into the cubicle behind me.
I snapped the door shut and locked it. “Of course, the dragons went ballistic. They razed one of the outlier villages. The King and his army are doing his best to search for the egg and return it, but Princess Cress decided to go and beat up the whole dragon horde by herself. Now she’s stuck on the western mountain range, and the dragons are angry.
” He chuckled. “The princess needs rescuing, Chosen, and the King has called for your assistance.”
I was missing him, anyway. It had been almost… three hours since I left the warm embrace of Donovan’s arms. “So, am I rescuing the Princess?”
“He’s doing that. You need to calm down the dragons.” Cecil tapped the wall with his paws. A circle of green flames flared before us, an endless black void within. “Let’s face it. You and the King are the perfectly balanced pair needed to handle this sort of thing.”
A thrill buzzed through me.
“And that’s what life is all about, isn’t it, Cecil? It’s all about balance.”
I grinned and walked through the gateway.
THE END