NORTH COUNTRY MORGUE – It is not without a doubt that entitled patients and customers make the workplace a debilitating and toxic environment. What are they best at? Registering their conniving demands with customer service folks and expecting them all to be one at once and with the utmost respect. The case is the same when it comes to Crystal Phelps.
“Wipe down the counter, you filthy mugwump!” she yelled over the glass case filled with the most enticing chocolate assortments, from Bonbons to the tartiest pecan tarts.
Charlotte, who had walked backed onto the platform, saw her, and all excitement on her face was immediately flushed away like a lottery winner having their money taxed in full – unpleasant, unnecessary, and absolutely ruthless.
“And change your gloves while you’re at it. I don’t want to catch any of your germs.”
Charlotte, soon overcome by redness in the face as the anger within seeped to the top, said, “Listen here, woman! I just put on these gloves, so I’m not going to change them just because you said so.”
“I ought to talk to your manager and see what he thinks about it. I’ve talked to Karl a few times, and he’s done me some huge favors over the years.”
Charlotte stormed across the platform, her footsteps intensifying with every step as if she were a wave at sea strengthening to tsunami potency.
“I’m sure you used your-” she erected quotes out of thin air “-charms and galore to get his attention and to get him to do whatever you wanted him to do. Because I’ll have you know, there is not a single one of us here who likes to see your face. I’ve heard you say it before, ‘I come in here, and they start wiping down the counters for me.’ You know why? It’s because no one, and I do mean no one, wants to see your ugly little face on your ugly little body bustle up in here and boss us around like you own us. Because you don’t! You’re a no one, and I’m leaving it as that.”
“That you would have the audacity to say such a thing,” Crystal began. “Back in my day, if you talked to customers that way, you’d be fired on the spot. I had to learn that the hard way.”
“Oh, boohoo, cry me a fountain, why don’t you? You’re just trying to cover up something that that wicked soul of yours did back in the past. And the past always comes back to haunt you. So you take it out on everyone you can. Not your family since they’ve rejected you because of your attitude. But your local morgue who actually likes serving its patients with sweets, sandwiches, and more to comfort them for their loss. But what have you lost? Your mind.”
Crystal was taken aback as if she just had her whole life story spilled out to her. “Well, my. Oh, my. I still have my mind, at least-“
“Stop right there because. No. You. Don’t. Just stop with the lies and the excuses. You’re not better than anyone else just because your name is Crystal Phelps. No one gives a crap about you, so why don’t you just go home?”
“I have every right to be here as I please, so while I’m here, why don’t you treat your patient with respect?”
Charlotte sighed deeply. “For one to give respect, they must first be respected.” She looked Crystal squarely in the eyes, penetrating the egotist’s glasses and making them fog up. “And you, Crystal, deserve none of that, for you are a piece of trash!”
She swiftly slides off her gloves and hops off the platform toward Crystal, resting quivering hands on her shoulders.
In her ear, she said, “So why don’t you back up and try this again, Crystal, with some good manners like a civilized human, and maybe I’ll consider serving you. Until then, get out.”
“Karl!”
The man who could not be bothered came to the scene, clipboard in hand with papers folded and ripping apart.
He turned toward Crystal, eyes as cold as the dark oblivion outside the morgue. “Are you harassing my employees, ma’am?”
“I just wanted-“
“That’s not what I asked you. As a former police officer, I want clear answers. Are you harassing my employees?”
“Well, she started yelling at me.”
“I don’t care who started what.” Through clenched teeth, he asked once more, pausing with every word as the vein in his forehead throbbed.
Exasperated, Crystal whipped around started toward the door.
“You people are all criminals. The customer is always right, and you know that.”
With that, she left. To be seen again or to not be seen again? That is the question, but it is not one that Charlotte would not have wanted the former as the answer.
“Charlotte, are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
“That nitwit is always causing trouble here, and she found you on your not-so-best day. I’m going to give you a bonus for standing up to her – I watched from the security footage – and ban her from the morgue. I don’t care if she’s mourning a lost one or not because she has no right to be here. And who’s ever heard of ‘The customer is always right’ mumbo jumbo? Whoever said that has not met her.”
The morgue was clothed in peace, or what you could call peace for a rather morbid place, and all was back to normal. But something lurked in the shadows of the morgue, a grim-faced wielder of the scythe…
North Country Morgue 
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