Chasing the Storm

Words do not equal actions

Beam was struggling. She had been working with Payu for two weeks and everything had been going great. Her mentor had continued to be professional, and she was learning a lot from him.

Since she was a first year there were still a lot of things she didn't know how to do. Either she would ask Phayu for help or search the internet for answers and up until now that had been enough. However, this time she had a task that she just couldn't seem to figure out.

Every time she tried to ask Payu for help, someone else beat her to it. Today was unusually busy and she had watched Payu rush around all day.

After lunch, Payu came over to her. She had continued working through lunch and was making slow progress on the task she had been given.

"Beam, have you finished the task I gave you? I need you to send it to me."

"No, not yet. I can't work out how to -"

"I need this done today!"

"I - I'm sorry."

Payu rubbed his forehead.

"Can you get it done and send it to me by 10 am tomorrow?"

"Yes. Do you have time -?"

"I have to go to a meeting now. If you have any questions, ask anyone here. They will help you, okay?"

"Okay, P'Payu."

Despite her mentor's words, no one here was willing to help her. They were either too busy or saw her as Payu's problem. Instead of wasting more time, she went back to the tutorial she found and very slowly got it done little by little.

She almost cheered out loud when she finished. It was half an hour before home time, and she had managed to finish the task for Payu.

However, Beam had celebrated too soon. As she looked over her work, she realised that something didn't seem right. She double-checked her calculations and didn't find anything wrong. She was about to redo the whole thing when she decided to check the figures she had been given first.

After finding the files on the project her task was for, Beam looked for the numbers she needed. Eventually, she found them and after a bit of pondering, figured out that the figures she had been given were wrong.

The rest of the office was starting to pack up and Payu hadn't returned from his meeting. On their way out the door, she asked one of the staff members if they knew if Payu would be coming back and found out that his meeting had been followed by an on-site visit just outside the city. Her mentor wouldn't be back today.

Beam sat back down at her desk with a sigh. It looked as though she would be staying late tonight. She would have to redo the calculations and then redo her task with the new figures. It would probably take her late into the night, but since Payu needed it in the morning she didn't have a choice.

It was slow going but at least Beam was familiar with the calculations she needed to make. She triple-checked her work and had something to eat before moving on to the task she had spent all day doing. Having done it once already she was slightly quicker this time, but it still took hours to complete. She was double-checking before she sent it to Payu when she felt her eyes start to close.

The next thing she knew her alarm was waking her up. Beam sat up and looked around. She had fallen asleep at her desk. Everything was just as she'd left it last night. It was still early enough that no one had arrived, so she stood up stretched and went to the bathroom to splash some water on her face.

Back at her desk she quickly sent her finished task to Payu and tidied up before grabbing her stuff and heading home.

At home, she had the quickest shower of her life before heading back to work managing to only be 15 minutes late. She crept in hoping that her mentor wouldn't notice as she knew that he was a stickler for being one time. Dropping her stuff at her desk, she went to the break room to get a drink and luckily there was a pastry left.