Hitting The Ground – Sandra 32

 

[For back story go here: Story so far at 17 Sept 2020 and more recent Sandra episodes especially this one.]

[Other back story through in-links.]

Yolanda had a streaming cold. At least it wasn’t Covid, she kept saying and Sandra kept telling herself too. At least Yolanda had now returned to her actual home and was not sneezing on or cluttering up her sofa. For these small mercies Sandra was grateful, but she’d prefer they were bigger mercies so she could actually do some work for her new employer.

Indeed, everything outside Sandra’s immediate situation was vying for her attention and preventing her from ‘hitting the ground running’ at Epstein’s. Yolanda was sneezing down the phone at her (with Eric, sounding only slightly inebriated, but on the whole remarkably caring again in the background). Trinny had stacked up a load of questions for her in the dedicated Together…Apart ‘emergency' chat box and there were annoying looking texts rolling in from Frankie on the subject of work, bubbling and childcare.

Sandra desperately wanted to put all of these things on the back burner and concentrate on the Epstein issue, which was to give some kind of response to report of chaos at Felixstowe and the ever increasing danger of a no deal Brexit. However she didn’t think she had the mental back burner capacity for all these things and it was highly likely that if she did so then one or other of them would boil over without her constant attention. If ever there were a time for decisive action, this was it, and frankly if the various people involved couldn’t work out their problems alone, then they didn’t deserve them in the first place. Problems are an indication of power, and don’t forget that with power comes responsibility, Sandra reasoned, although she wasn’t certain she’d got that straight. If you can’t take the responsibility you shouldn’t have the power and then your problems shouldn’t exist. Or they should be less pressing.

Yolanda, still on the phone, still sounding atrocious, was the easiest to take care of. “Can you give Frankie a ring about this in about half an hour?” she suggested. “She’s really good at cold cures and knows her way round a packet of paracetamol like no one else. I know she’s busy right now but ring her in half an hour, OK?”

Yolanda sneezed, several times and Eric agreed, adding Frankie had always been the ‘practical one’ of his daughters when it came to matters of health. Sandra wasn’t entirely convinced by this assessment, but wasn’t going to disagree right now. She also wasn’t certain where this had come from, but even if the answer to that was the latest bottle of whisky, she would let it go as this was the first hurdle down.

Next she sent a text to Frankie telling her to expect Yolanda’s call. Before Frankie responded Sandra had already copied, pasted and sent her several interesting looking web pages about cold cures and paracetamol.

Next, with a sense of trepidation, but what the hell, she texted Rob. Never mind the actual situation, she thought, let’s make a drama out of it, and she composed a neat little series of texts explaining how Frankie was truly suffering at the moment and how Sandra didn’t know how she would cope with the kids and how Rob really really had to get in touch with her and see if he could help. (It was possible to share kids for childcare purposes under the current rules, according to a fairly reliable source for Together…Apart.)

Next, with another sense of trepidation but fewer nerves, she rang Daniel. She got his answerphone but persevered: “Hi Daniel,” she said, “Look, I know you offered me the chance to work on something and that’s fallen through but I might have something for you to help out with. Can you give me a call soon as possible? Thanks.”

She cleared the line and in the chat box sent Trinny a message saying the cavalry was on their way. Hold steady. Trinny needed someone who knew about apps. Daniel knew about apps.

She then received a text from Rob.

– Sure thing. And then can I see you? It read.

– No. She shot back. – But let me know how it goes with Frankie.

Feeling as if she’d finally got everything under control she got in touch with Bill from Epstein’s who was in charge of compliance PR and therefore should know a thing or two about whatever was happening in Felixstowe.

“Good question,” said Bill. “And I have no idea. Is there someone else you can ask?”

Sandra suggested this was his job, and although he sounded a little worried about it he said he’d ask around. 

She put down the phone. Everything was sorted and working in the background. All she had to do  was wait. And for some reason the same her feel more nervous than before.