PAGE 90

"Yeah," James continued to explain in a hushed tone. "They said you were too smart to work here and you'd mess things up. So they said they're going to mess you up first." James seemed honest, and he seemed to believe what he was telling me. Maybe they told him what he he was telling me as 'counter intelligence' expecting I'd find out.

"Go on, get out of here, James. How can they mess me up? I went to college and I'm honest?" James looked over at the desk where Judy was beginning to cash out a HighSchooler Cashier. The time clock read 9:58. James looked from side to side again. With a hushed tone, James continued, "Now you have to do whatever 'they' ask. You can't give them any trouble. If you give them a hard time, they'll put on your permanent record that you played rubby with High School girls in the sink late on Saturday nights." "That's crazy, James. I didn't do anything like that. How can they say something like that?" "They had ten witnesses who saw you playing rubby with that girl in the sink." "No. I didn't do anything like that." "You know what 'they' say? 'If ten people tell the same lie, that's the same as the truth.' "

I covered my mouth in disbelief. I never heard of anything as insane as what James told me 'they' were doing to mess up my new career. I thought,"That can't happen here, can it?" I was dazed for a moment as James' comments sunk in. I thought, "That must be the mysterious employee manipulation 'they' use to make people submissive. Could anyone be so satanic to make up a whole situation like that? Could he be telling the truth?" I looked at the other HighSchoolers to see if 'they' might be listening. There were no giggles. I looked over at the time clock, the three MidNighters were ready to punch-in.