Earl chose a grape soda for himself as well, before making himself comfortable in one of the chairs around the small table in the break room. This Pam lady seemed real nice, and he already felt pretty bad about what he’d done to her all those years ago, so he was hoping to scratch this one off quickly. He watched as she made herself a cup of tea, which Randy found particularly interesting, then settled into her own chair to listen.

Earl was quiet for a minute, trying to decide how to explain his list to her, when one of the other office people walked in. The Pam lady got a little distracted when he came in, so he decided to just dive right in.

“Okay, look,” he started. “This is gonna sound a little odd, but just let me explain everything, and hopefully it’ll end up makin’ some kinda sense.” He had her attention now. “Awright,” he continued. “Well, I used to be a pretty bad guy. Did a lot of bad stuff, and had a pretty good time doin’ it, too. But all that changed a while back. You hearda karma?”

She nodded. Good. These educated types made things a lot easier on him with the explanations.

“Well, I made myself a list of all the bad things I’ve done,” he continued. “And I’ve been makin’ up for ‘em all, one at a time.”

He held up the list, as proof of his plan, since she’d gotten a little worried-looking when he’d mentioned the bad things he used to do. A lot of people got a little worried at that part. But she seemed okay now. Sorta interested. So he wasn’t too surprised when she leaned forward and asked him a question. He was, however, slightly surprised at what she asked.

“And is it working?”

He sat, silent and pensive, for a bit, but she didn’t push him for an answer. It was kinda strange, but nobody’d ever asked that before. They always wanted to know how he was gonna help them, and why’d it take him so long, and why should they help him feel better about himself when he’d done so many terrible things? Nobody ever asked him how he felt about it all.

“Well,” he said, slowly. “Actually…yeah. I think it is. I’ve been feelin’ a lot better about myself lately, you know? And I kinda like the feeling I get when somebody gets all happy about something I did for them. Even if it was just to make up for something else I did wrong. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I still think about doin’ bad stuff, but…it just isn’t as much fun as it used to be. You know what I mean?”

She was quiet for a moment. She looked like she was thinking. Then she brightened.

“Yeah,” she said. “I think I do.”

She smiled at him, and he couldn’t help smiling back. Randy happily slurped at some grape soda next to him. The office guy in the corner seemed pretty interested. Looked like this would be one of the easy ones. He was actually looking forward to helping this Pam lady out.

“So,” she said. “It sounds like you’ve got a pretty good thing going here…so what do you need me for? I mean, I can’t be on your list, can I? I’ve never even met you.”

He gave a little half-shrug. “Yeah, you’ve never met me. But the thing I did to you was kinda…indirect. Like I made somebody else do something to you. But as far as karma’s concerned, it’s still  y fault, so I still gotta make up for it.”

Her eyes got a little bunchy, like she was trying to figure things out. He looked over at Randy, to gauge his expression. He was smiling happily, his teeth purple, rubbing at his nose. He really does like the way it fizzes in there.

“So…you were the catalyst for something bad that happened to me?”

He nodded, not entirely sure what she was talking about. “Uhm…yeah. Sure.”

“So then…who was the person that actually did this terrible thing to me?”

“Oh. Well, I mean, you probably won’t even remember him. I mean, it was a really long time ago. Like a really long time ago. And it was just the one time, you know? But, uh…lemme think. His name was…Troy? Tray? Wait, that doesn’t make any sense. Ray? Crap. I’m really bad with names. Anyway, it doesn’t really matter. I mean, it was pretty much my fault. So…just tell me how to make it up to you and I’ll cross you off my…”

Uh-oh. She was really quiet all of a sudden. Kinda…shocked. “Uhm…are you okay? Did I explain it wrong? I mean, cuz the whole reason I came here is to make it up to you. You get that, right? Pam?”

He looked over at Randy for some help, but he’d disappeared. He looked around and noticed that he was back out in the office, talking to some funny-looking guy with glasses. He looked to the office guy for some help, but he was leaning forward, with his eyes all big and round like Pam’s. What the hell?

“Roy?”

“What?” he asked, slightly confused. “No. Earl. I told you, my name is Earl.”

“No,” she whispered. “The man who did the thing to me…was his name Roy?”

Earl thought about it for a minute, really hard. He’d been pretty drunk that night. And he’d met a lot of people. But…actually, the name did kinda ring a bell. “Yeah. Maybe.”

He was unfortunately interrupted when Roy walked into the break room. “Hey, Pam. What’d you bring for lunch today?”