More Human – Sandra 57

[For a quick guide go here: Quick guide.]

[There's some back story here: Story so far at 30 Nov 2020 and read more recent Sandra episodes like this one.]

[Other back story through in-links.]

It was raining. But that didn’t matter good much because they were under a large umbrella. A large umbrella with the word Epsteins plastered across it. It might well be fending off the rain, thought Sandra, but it wasn’t that good as the rain was getting heavier, noisier and subsequently following everything that Bill – and occasionally Janice – was saying, was getting tricker. It was getting harder to hear anything, even though Sandra and Bill were sharing the umbrella – it was big enough to accommodate outside distancing – Janice, smoking at her end of the table, sat under her own protection.

“Wurble burb all be over soon anyway,” Sandra thought she heard Janice saying. “Bohiss says we’ll be furble upsetoh this time next week.”

Sandra smiled in Janice’s direction, which may have been foolish. But Janice smiled back and took another drag on her cigarette.

“I would apologise usually!” said Janice in a louder voice, and waving the cigarette to identify what she would usually be apologising for, “But we’re miles away from each other so it really doesn’t matter. What you can’t smell won’t kill you.”

Sandra smiled again, a little more weakly this time, remembering that she’d stopped running because she became spooked that if she could smell the aftershave or perfume or whatever of someone she passed, then surely she could be inhaling their germs too? She put this to one side and promised herself she’d find a podcast or something to get her back out there and running, once she had time again, and redirected her attention to Bill.

“So,” it sounded like he was saying, “We wanted to put in something where the drivers could actually put in their details and profiles. You know, a kind of introduction to your driver, make them human.”

“Human?” queried Sandra. “As opposed to..?”

“You know what I mean,” said Bill, petulantly.

“How many drivers have asked to do this?” asked Janice, slowly from her end of the picnic table.

“A few,” said Bill. “Several,” he said clearly trying to beef it up. “Several very well respected drivers and they also said everyone they’ve talked to thought it was a good idea too.”

“Right…” said Janice.

Sandra left a pause, in case there was more coming from Janice. There wasn’t.

“Well, we can certainly do it,” said Sandra. “If that’s what they want?”

“I’ve just said it is,” said Bill, “Why shouldn’t it be?”

The rain turned into hail and made a further assault on the umbrella. Sandra tried speaking twice but it was impossible. She looked across to Janice who simply rolled her eyes and blew smoke out her nose.

To show willing, Sandra stabbed at the tablet she’d lain out on the desk, trying to get it to register through the polythene covering she’d put over it. It wasn’t really helping but it seemed to make Bill happy while the hail pelted down.

“I think everyone just wants something that makes them feel valued and,” said Bill, “alive again.”

“You think they don’t feel alive?” asked Sandra and the rain eased around them. Bill licked his lips and tried to collect his thoughts. 

“It’s difficult for everyone,” he began. “Even when you realise things are getting a bit better, even when you think there’s some kind of normality coming at you, that’s still difficult. Our drivers have been in their cabs throughout this entire pandemic. They’ve seen it all from there – some cut off from their families for a good long while, some of them stacked up when the channel crossings stopped, and even now it’s not that easy. There’s a lot of processing that needs to go on.”

Sandra took this on board. It was easily the most profound and sensible thing anyone had said too her at Epsteins ever.

“Do you think letting them put their name on the app is going to help?”

“Like I said, they’ll feel more human,” said Bill. “Rather than being just another part of something bigger, or just that their cabs and trailers are there for someone else’s game.”

Sandra spoke slowly: “Do you think they really need to be on an app or do they need some real support? Like something that connects them to health services?”

There was a pause, broken by Janice coughing and stubbing out her cigarette.

“We can do that?” asked Bill.

“I can’t,” said Sandra, “but I seriously think you should.”

They wandered back towards the office and carpark where they would split their three ways for now. Sandra reflecting that maybe office work, or a mix of office and home wouldn’t be too bad and even something to look forward to. Once the roadworks had been sorted.

“Good show today,” said Janice as they said farewell. And then, softly to Sandra, “although I suggest you take down that special section on the current app before we meet again.”

She tapped a finger to the side of her nose and stalked off.