The search for hidden secrets Aug. 16, 2012

  

I caught the owner seated at my computer in the auxiliary office yesterday morning, directories and subdirectors open all over the screen.

He seemed to be searching for something and looked startled when I came in unexpectedly through the back door instead of the front.

“You have programs loaded in your computer I don’t recognize,” he said, almost angrily.

“Yes,” I said. “I installed extra antivirus and anti-snoop software.”

“Why would you need anti-snoop software?” he asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

“Just a precaution,” I said.

His needing to get past those extra safeguards had taken him additional time, otherwise, he might have done his snooping and taken off without me knowing about it.

What was he looking for?

If it was anything about her, he wouldn’t find it.

I hand write my journal into blank hard cover notebooks, and anything personal I type, I saved to an external or a thumb drive, which I carefully detach from the computer when I’m done.

I don’t do this to be sneaky, but rather because I move from computer to computer, here, and at the main office, as well as at home and want those things with me wherever I am.

Anything I wrote to post on my log I saved directly to a thumb drive, never to the hard drive, and any communication with Mary Ann or GA about her I did not access from any of the work computers.

But seeing him snooping made me grateful for the habit.

I kept thinking about the personal phone call she had left the meeting to take on Tuesday, and wondered if he was from him, wondered if she complained about me, and that this search of my hard drive was a product of that.

Despite being away for a week, he had not come to the meeting on Tuesday at all.

Was last week the five days she meant in the poem, and the sixth day the day he returned?

He relinquished my computer, obviously satisfied after his search. Again, he didn’t seem himself, a bit bewildered, and he refused to look directly at me as if he was guilty of something.

His motivation for searching my computer confused me. Had she urged him to find her more proof of stalking when there was no proof to be found?

Why would she disturb the peace like that now that we’d found detente?

Or was he acting on his own, looking for an excuse to back track on his promise not to fire me with the excuse found evidence supporting her accusations.

What did he have to gain by it all?

One thing for certain, I’m going to have to be very, very careful not to give him any excuse to fire me, whether in regard to her or the job in general.

 

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