Blown for Good - Marc Morgan Headley [42]
“Whatever reels have sticky goo on them, I use the MEK to get that off. That’s Methyl Ethyl Ketone. If you see any tape residue on the end of the film or leader, use the PERC to get that off,” Reiser told us.
“It seems pretty potent,” I said as I squinted at the smell.
“Yeah, the fact that there is no decent airflow in this office does not help the smell,” Reiser added. He told us he was going to be right back. “I need to get something,” he said and walked out the door.
Not 30 seconds later, we heard more screaming. It was the Commanding Officer again. Reiser came flying through the door with the CO Gold a half second behind him. Reiser reeked of cigarette smoke as did the Commanding Officer.
“This guy does not leave this room until all of these films are turned over to delivery!” the CO yelled to us, pointing at Ray Reiser.
“Yes, Sir,” all three of us answer in unison as he walked out of the office.
As soon as he was gone, Reiser said that he picked the wrong stairwell spot to take a smoke break. The Commanding Officer was right above him and bitched him out the second he spotted him.
“It’s the only way I can stay awake,” Reiser said, taking another sip of his stale, cold coffee.
“How long have you been up for?” I asked Reiser.
“Not that long, since Tuesday,” he mumbled, firing his projectors back up. “Well, I actually did get two hours sleep last night, So I guess I shouldn’t complain.”
“Why is he watching the films at the same time like that?” I asked McKay.
“He has to check the picture and sound quality to make sure they can go out to the organizations,” McKay answers.
“Wow, and he can do that in his sleep?” I asked. Reiser was now slumped over and had nodded off in his chair in front of the projectors.
“Ray! Wake up!” McKay shouted. Reiser straightened up and went back to “watching” the films.
By 11:50 a.m. we had packed up all the films Reiser had checked. We were cleaning up and doing busy work while we waited for him to turn the next batch over to us. I could tell from the way McKay was looking at his watch that we were not going to eat, or there would be a debate on who would get to go and grab a quick bite. Right then, Reiser started swearing and throwing his arms in the air. His switcher box had broken and the audio was no longer playing over his speaker. That meant he couldn’t check any more films until he fixed it.
McKay told Reiser that we were going to lunch and we would come back afterwards to help him with whatever else he needed.
Ray did not answer us. He was already on the phone yelling at someone about “downtime.” I knew he was contemplating what the Commanding Officer would do to him. I did not want to be around for that.
“What is Reiser going to do?” I asked McKay as we walked towards the mess hall.
“He’s gonna have to make it go right,” McKay answered, knowing that Reiser was totally screwed.
Lunch went by very quickly and before I knew it we were back at Building 36. This time muster went quickly, since it was right before 2:00 p.m. Everybody wanted to get back to post with only an hour or so left in the week.
Muster was over and we walked back to Reiser’s office. There were at least four people already there hovering around his projector station. There was a rather large fellow tinkering with the audio switcher box while the CO Gold and a few other people took turns yelling at Reiser.
A few minutes after we arrived and were pretending to be busy, the audio came back on.
“Well done, Bruce!” the CO Gold said, “Now stick around in case it breaks again. And you guys, get all these films packed up and out of here.”
The CO left and the other people that were with him followed close behind.
Ray introduced us, “Marc, this is Bruce Ploetz. He is the technician for this line. Bruce, this is Marc Headley.”
We exchanged “hellos” and Bruce went back to tinkering with another audio switcher that