Like Old Times .... Sort of

I spent today with Nick. You remember ol' Nick, Ms J? The man whose negligence got me fired last winter? Well, I worked with him today. I had dreaded the day I'd work with him again, but in Truth, it wasn't too bad. Nick was off work and without pay for more than four months. He's been allowed back to work, but is restricted from operating a locomotive for two years. It's a huge cut in pay.

We sat together on the engine and followed the same route we'd travelled together that fateful morning last November. He had been preoccupied with his cell phone and had failed to stop at a red light. Very serious, Ms J. Veddy, veddy bad, indeed. We made some small talk, discussed the weather and our mutual disdain for both union and management, but steered clear of discussion involving the shameful incident and its lasting repercussions.

At first it seemed as though Nick was reformed, repentant, accepting of his fate. But soon, and with neither cause nor warning, his temper erupted. He bellowed obscenities at a fellow employee who he believed had failed to ring the engine bell to warn him as he crossed the track on foot. There were perhaps a dozen guys present and I'm sure everyone was as uncomfortable as I was.

Yes, Nick, your wife threw you out. Yes, you are ordered to pay her alimony. A lot of alimony. And you've been demoted at work and so things are tight financially. And of course, you're as upset with management as the rest of us are.

But man oh man! You've got to learn to curb your anger. Anger turns people away. It's hideous. And its ripples are far-reaching.

Angry Bob is slowly beginning to regain his emotional stride after an ugly divorce six years ago. Nick doesn't know it yet, but he's become Bob's replacement. The lads are beginning to talk about "Angry Nick."

It's an epithet I wouldn't wear gladly.

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