Free This Too Shall Pass by S. J. Finn

even more paper piles than me he was exceedingly impressed and, taking in the children’s drawings, the little city a client had built from blocks, the array of puppets sitting up open-faced and ready for a day’s work of hard play, he complimented me on its fullness and inviting feel.
    â€˜Thanks,’ I said, not showing how chuffed I was.
    â€˜I’m on a mission.’ He rubbed his big hands together. Elliot loved dramatics, and, now, he looked as if he was about to seal a business deal. ‘Decay is upon us.’
    â€˜Oh? How do you mean?’ I took a last sip of my coffee and threw the cup into the bin. I had to draw my eyes away from my wad of phone messages that often meant the difference between a hectic day and a decent one, to show interest.
    â€˜The northwest team are sinking, on a road to obliteration, to major collapse. Anton (Elliot wasn’t in the know about using the name Antwerp) has asked me to do a patch and repair job.’
    Elliot’s way of talking was so convoluted I couldn’t always be sure what he was getting at.
    â€˜A deployment,’ I said, catching what he meant in the last second and willing to play along.
    â€˜Yes, although secondment sounds better.’
    Elliot liked to crack jokes himself, but, if someone else did, he would, more likely than not, butt them out.
    â€˜So, you’re happy to go?’ I asked, aware of Elliot’s suspicions of Antwerp, based on their opposing political views. Elliot was a leftwing radical compared to Anton, whose glowing view of global economics and blatant adherence to capitalism put him into a category so far to the right that, metaphorically speaking, his desk was sitting somewhere in the Indian Ocean.
    â€˜I am if you’ll be team leader while I’m gone.’
    You could have sideswiped me and I wouldn’t have noticed, such was the state of my astonishment at this.
    â€˜I haven’t been here very long.’
    â€˜Anton’s got this thing about you.’
    I frowned, probably too intently.
    â€˜Nothing untoward.’
    â€˜No, I know,’ I said tacitly, ‘I’m just amazed.’
    â€˜You stand out. You’re not afraid to try things differently, to get out of the building, create working relationships with schools, to network. What do you think?’
    I leant back on my desk, propped there for a minute, trying to run through the possible catches. When I came up with nothing, I shrugged.
    â€˜Yeah, sure, why not? Get to see from a closer range how the wheel of the mighty machine turns.’
    â€˜I’ll get Carmen to draw up a contract.’ Carmen was the team’s secretary.
    â€˜It’s as easy as that?’
    â€˜Because you’re only acting. It’s not permanent.’
    I nodded.
    â€˜You’re still accountable,’ he said.
    I laughed. ‘Oh, well, in that case I can’t possibly—’
    â€˜Come on, it’s a branch stacking operation, the vital shaking up of the organisation. It’s going to be fun.’
    â€˜I was joking. I know I’ll be accountable.’
    Relieved, he smiled and shook my hand as if he’d delivered a major change for the wellbeing of children all over the world. I was left wondering what this new path of power would bring. Had I been too hasty to agree to it?
    That night when I told Renny, her strength folding around me in congratulations, she said she wasn’t surprised at all. There were, however, things to consider. Was I over-committing myself?
    â€˜With the weekends we have Marcus,’ she said, ‘and our fulltime jobs, where’s the time for us? My lot is the thin end of the wedge. In fact, it’s past that, I get only the very tip of you.’
    This was not a joke. I bowed my head, feeling heavy, caught between responsibility and… responsibility. Work, in some ways, compared to the maze, was far more straightforward. But then, as I’ve found out,