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Disclaimer: Any resemblances here to real people, places, institutions or events are purely coincidental. This is somewhat a work of fiction.

Fos continues...

Chapter 11

After many twinkles, the Great Grandmother called us together again.

"This will be our last session for this period," she said. "But we have a bunch of small incidents we need to hear."

Vel was the first on the docket.

"What do you have to say?" the stern old female asked.

"Well, I was in one of those places where the Big Things stay when they are many quivers from their home. A bunch of them were sitting around after a twinkle, feeding on their first meal of the day. They were making scratchings. I heard what they said, but I don't understand it."

Great Grandmother said, "Well, can you repeat it?"

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"I think so," Vel replied. "One of them said, 'well, I am not going to come up short on my expense report reimbursement this time. I have figured out how to do it, too.'

"One of the other ones said, 'how is that?'
"The first one replied, 'I am calculating taxi fares to make up the difference. They don't ask for receipts for those.'

"'How much are you going to have in taxi receipts? Don't forget we had a rental car in a couple of cities.'

"'Oh, about $150.00.' The second one said, 'One hundred and fifty dollars!' And that was the end of that," Vel said.

Great Grandmother responded, "That seems pretty petty, but it does point out a pattern among the Big Things. They seem to want to graduate their misdeeds into small and large ones. We on the council think such an attitude gets them in trouble in the long run. Who's next?"

Hae came forward, timidly.

"Well, after what you said, perhaps this is trivial."

Great Grandmother looked surprisingly kindly at Hae, "Nothing is too trivial, what is your story?"

"Well," Hae started, "I was in one of the places they call a 'storeroom.' It is full of all sorts of metal things."

"What kinds of metal things?"

"Some big, some small."

"OK, go on," said the Great Grandmother.

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"I think these things are supposed to be used in the machines in the mill. But I have seen two funny things happen over the years."

"What would those be?"

"Well, sometimes some of the Big Things that work for the mill take some of the storeroom things not to the machines, but out to their own BTI."

"You mean they stole some things from the storeroom?" asked the Great Grandmother.

"That's what it looked like to me," replied Hae.

Hae went on, "But that is not all. Some Big Things came in that don't work for the mill. They just come in when we are not making paper to work on the machines. They took some things from the store room and put in their own BTIs, too!"
The Great Grandmother conferred with the cadre. Looking up she said, "We think those are called contractors, but we don't what that means. Do you mean to say they stole things, too?"

"Yes," said Hae.

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Fos will be back next year with more stories from the Pulp Rats. Stay safe, stay honest and Mr. Jim will talk to you next week.

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