Little Things In The Office

Just as clarification, this is not an unknown entity wreaking havoc in my office, this is Charlie being mischievous when he seems to get bored. I do feel that I should give a little background on my work environment.

I work in an office building with three offices, and two open areas. When you enter through the front door, you have the kitchen part to your right, this is also where the clocking machines are kept. On your left is a wall, behind it is the tool store room. As you exit the passage you enter the first open area. This is where the meetings are held. To your right is the toilets (unisex I might add). To your left is my office, the General Manager's office and then the Logistics Manager's office. This leads into the second open space where our weighbridge is located. From where my desk is situated, I look into the back part of the first open space, and have a clear view of the table where coffee is made. I can also see to the weighbridge area.

It just so happens that, a year or so before I started working here, one of the General workers was caught between a skip and the wall when they were moving the skip, and he was crushed to death. As he was African, his family had requested to come to the site where he died, with incense and flowers, and they prayed that his soul find rest. Since there are so many African cultures, they all handle death, be it natural or accidental, in different manners, and it is only respectful to allow them their customs when such tragedies occur. In September this year one of my ladies in the office passed away after going to see a traditional healer, and her family took much the same approach, attempting to safeguard the building from her spirit returning. She had an exceptionally sweet disposition and it was really tragic that we lost her.

Ok, that is just for interest sake. Keep in mind that Charlie follows me basically everywhere, except anywhere that I need to be private. Since I have been made aware of Charlie's presence, I have noticed little things in the office. The kettle gets flipped on and off very quickly. It has a distinct click as it is switched on or off, and since I face the table, I don't miss that sound when it happens. It never scares me though, and it generally only happens when the men are outside in the yard.

Last Friday was an exceptionally boring day for me at work, and Charlie must have felt the same way. I was sitting behind my desk, leaning back in my chair and I heard my drawer open. So I looked at it and it slowly crept open, about half way. I actually got a mental image of Charlie hitting the front of the drawer with his fingertips and the drawer slammed shut. This made me giggle. I told him I knew how he felt and could feel him smile.

Then today, as I was sitting reading ghost stories, the paperwork on my filing cabinet moved. I heard this, did not see it, and as I looked over to where the pile is I saw the stack of unfolded filing boxes slide to the left. Sceptics could argue that it might be the wind. I have no window in my office; in fact, the only place where a breeze could enter the building is from the front door, very unlikely that the wind could blow papers from through a concrete wall. We work in a very dangerous part of this town, gang and taxi violence is rife here, so we are very fixated on security.

The only thing that I find unsettling at times is that, I am usually alone in the office for half an hour to an hour in the morning, and on many an occasion I have been in the toilet, and the window will suddenly sound like someone hit it. This is the only window in the entire building that can open. Now, I'm still thinking it could most likely just be Charlie, getting up to "Bart Simpson" type mischief, I'm hoping something else does not emerge here though.