Blown for Good - Marc Morgan Headley [63]
“Hey, Marc,” Greg said as he approached.
“Hello, Sir,” I replied while continuing to sweep.
“Go ahead and take a break, Marc, and talk to me for a second,” he said, and motioned me to sit down on a nearby bench.
“What’s up?” Greg asked.
“Well, I am supposed to get declared an SP and as long as I am getting declared, I want to leave,” I answered.
“You are getting declared an SP? I don’t think so. Who said that?” Greg asked, half laughing.
“Jason Bennick.”
“Not gonna happen,” Greg said. “I am running this organization and I say what goes and what doesn’t and I say that ain’t gonna happen.”
“What about the production line violations?” I asked.
“What violations?” Greg said, “The faulty tapes were caught before they went out, right? Maybe you could not see properly or maybe you were tired and missed those two that were bad. Who knows? But no harm was done. The only thing that I can see that was done wrong is that you were taken off post for no reason.”
“Maybe,” I said, still wondering how this would play out.
“How long did it take for you to get trained to do your post?” Greg asked.
“I don’t know, a few months at least.”
“Well, do you think everybody in Gold wants to wait a few months to get out of lower conditions because they need to train up another quality control to replace you because you could not see a few pancakes that were barely out of spec?” Greg said.
“Okay? You wear glasses. We are going to get your eyes tested and make sure your prescription is correct. If not, we will get you new glasses and get you back on post. Go get cleaned up, you are going back to work. I will talk to Jason and tell him not to give you a hard time. Okay?” Greg knew I did not want to get declared. He knew I did not want to be cut off from my family permanently.
I went over to the garage and turned in my broom. I got a shower and changed back into my uniform. I went to see the medical officer. As soon as she saw me approaching the building, the medical officer grabbed me and said that I was supposed to be in town getting an eye exam! She told me that I needed to go to a specific address, it was already paid for and I just needed to get the exam. The phone rang and she picked it up and shooed me out of the office.
I knew the address. It was in Hemet off of Florida Avenue. It was not far from the Kirby apartments. But how would I get there? Right outside the medical office there was a small parking area where people parked their motorcycles and mopeds. Tom Pope’s moped was parked right there. It was small and could do maybe 45 mph, it worked, it had some gas in it and I could probably get all the way into town with it. I grabbed a helmet from inside and got on the moped. I put the helmet on, started the moped and slowly crept towards the road leading to the motorized security gate. I waited until another car was driving out the gate and then took my chances on sneaking out right behind it. Chances are that with the helmet on they wouldn’t have a clue who was driving out.
I went out the gate and down the highway! I was out and no one was following me. Hah! I made it all the way into San Jacinto before I saw the security rover bike coming up behind me. I had a 50cc moped. The security bike was 650cc dual sport. There was no chance I was going to out run him. I pulled into the ARCO gas station, pretending I had not seen him.
“What the hell are you doing?” the guard asked. It was Bob Champagne.
“I’m going into town to get an eye exam. It was just ordered by Greg Wilhere,” I said with a straight face.
“No way, you have to come back to the base,” he said, not believing me for half a second.
“Well, I have to get gas to make it back,” I said.
Bob got a call on the security radio. He answered it then put his helmet back on. “I have to go back right away, you better come straight back.” He drove off towards the base.
I went in to AM/PM. “Can