“S-s-s-s-!”

After we lost sight of the sorry-boy, Linda and I stood still for a while enjoying the quietness. “Oh my!” Linda remembered suddenly, “I completely forgot to introduce this employee to you, Miss Klim. His name is Caesar, Caesar Rey, director of statistics and market information department. Our association keeps track of all the products we have ever developed, produced, advertised and promoted, and Caesar is in charge of this part of our business. He also runs the international statistics data release. Bebbie Darson is his right hand. Caesar is a very nice guy, but . . . ,” Linda searched for a proper word, “but too-o-o-o fast.” At this moment, Caesar became “The speedy department” (in my mental database, of course).

On the way to my (personal!!!) office Linda gave me a tour of the company’s facilities: their two meeting rooms, a conference hall, a lunch area, supply cabinets, a shipping station, a storage space, and the brand new hi-tech copy machine in a separate corner of the main work area.

“And this is our server room,” Linda explained as she pointed at the heavy door between the storage and conference hall. “It pretty much remains locked at all times as there is nothing fun to see there. Just a bunch of metal shelves and boxes, and knots and knots of wires, the stuff only our computer guys understand and enjoy.”

I heard some “S-s-s-s-!” coming from behind the door, “Sh-sh-sh-sh! D-d-d-d-d-d! R-r-r-r-r!”

“What about these sounds? Is this normal?” I asked. But Linda didn’t seem to be surprised at the sounds and just answered: “I guess so. I think this is something the back-up system does occasionally. If there had been anything wrong, our computer wizards would have let us known.”

“I see,” I said but thought that the sounds were kind of weird. Some hybrid of hissing and rattling I’ve never heard before. I wanted to listen more, but had to follow Linda who could not wait to impress me with my new office.

“Sh-sh-sh-s-s-s-d-d-d-d-s-s-s-s-d-d-d-d-r-r-r-r!” I heard again behind my back as Linda and I walked away from the server room.