Black Harvest

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Billy Elroy worked as a janitor for Dansinger Enterprises. It was a pretty good job. He had health insurance, a 401K, two weeks off a year, sick days if he needed them, and $13.50 an hour, 40 hours a week, time and a half for extra hours. Some people thought Billy wasn't the brightest bulb in the pack, but he was smart enough to know a good thing when he saw it. Working here was a good thing. He was careful about what he pilfered.

He never took anything important. An extra package or two of toilet paper. Soap. Sometimes a little food from one of the refrigerators in the lab. Billy liked a good salad with his barbecued ribs, and a lot of times he had an assortment of greens to choose from. No one ever missed a bowl of salad fixings.

Billy worked the last shift, from four in the afternoon to midnight. He liked the quiet of the big place after everyone had gone home. There were other janitors, of course. Everyone usually got together in the main cafeteria around eight for their meal break. The cafeteria was closed at night, but people brought their own food. Machines provided hot coffee, snacks and sodas, if you wanted something.

At the end of the break everyone went their own way. From meal break to quitting time, Billy worked alone. His job was building four, including the meeting rooms and the lab. Each building had it's own laboratory, where Dansinger's plant geniuses did their thing. Billy had a key card that granted access.

Billy had a regular routine. He always started with the meeting rooms. Then he'd move on to the bathrooms and halls and offices, then the lab to finish up. The lab had the refrigerators. He never had to go in the largest part of the building. Billy didn't know exactly what went on in there, except it was where they experimented with growing things. He didn't really care. He was just grateful he didn't have to clean it.

He finished ten minutes before the end of his shift, which gave him time to see if there were any goodies in the fridge. Five huge refrigerators lined one wall of the lab. He ignored the first four. They held test tubes, vials, small round dishes with weird stuff. Nothing edible. Sometimes the fifth had good things in it.

This time the fifth had nothing green. It was filled with row upon row of pepper jars filled with black grains, just like the ones in the store. They had blank red labels, waiting for whatever would identify the contents, like Cayenne or Black Pepper or Chili.

He was almost out of pepper at home. Billy liked a lot of pepper on his food. He chose a container from far in the back of the lower shelf. He opened the lid and shook a little on his hand to make sure. Fine black grains settled on his palm. He sniffed it and sneezed. Pretty fine grind, but it would do. No one would miss one jar. He put the jar in his pocket.

Time to go home. It was Friday. He had two weeks of vacation coming. Tomorrow he was headed to Nebraska to visit his brother and help with the spring planting.