Practical Penumbra

Manager Susie and Ms. Hyde

Something odd has been going on at work for weeks now, and there seem to be only three possible explanations, none of which make sense.

It's about switches. They're getting switched. Things that are supposed to be on have been turned off, and things that are supposed to be off have been turned on. Sometimes there are minor consequences, but occasionally, like yesterday, there are fairly major ones.

Yesterday I started the first show, and the movie had no sound. I checked everything--the breakers were on, the amplifier was plugged in, the sound reader was projecting light and the film was threaded correctly. I had to give everyone in the theater passes, cancel the rest of the shows in that theater, and call our projector technician. For once he was able to come within a few hours, and you know what? The amplifier was turned off.

Now ordinarily you would just dismiss this, as the owner did, as somebody having just flipped it off for whatever reason. The thing is, though, I closed the night before--was the one to turn off everything and lock up behind me--and I opened the next morning, and I did not touch that switch. Heck, I didn't even really know there was a switch! Whoever switched it had to have done it between midnight and noon, and must have had not only a key to the building but also a key to the projection booth. Either that, or our poltergeist did it, or I have a covert second personality that's messing with me.

The suspect list is small in this case, since only I and a few trusted employees have both those keys (the cleaner and several vendors have a building key, but not a booth key). So, unless I am suffering a split personality, or the theater's ghost has taken to playing with switches instead of plumbing, one of my trusted employees is not only untrustworthy, but something of a saboteur. That's pretty disturbing.

I think I really rather would prefer it to have been my evil twin...