Age has its compensations. Oscar’s suit, a dapper, baby blue summer Brooks Brothers, in the $750 range, looks tailored and nicely hides his sizable paunch. After all these months, I’ve only seen the man not wearing his suit coat in the bathroom.

“Martha and Gideon,” he begins kindly, “I’ve got some bad news. Our profits, as you know, are way down, and we are letting you both go. Your work is fine. It’s merely a question of finances. I’m really very sorry.”

I remain perfectly still, trying to maintain my composure.

My spine is so straight and rigid a bone in my lower back pops in protest. Surely this can’t be happening. I’ve worked my butt off for this place. This time next year I had hoped to have paid off enough of my debts to be able to incur some more in order to send my daughter to college. I am gripping the sides of the leather chair and trying to relax.

Martha, who could have paid off a sizable chunk of the savings and loan bailout with what she spent for her recent wedding, begins to cry just as she did two weeks ago this past Sunday at the front of the Pine Bluff First Baptist Church.

Pleasant, but with a headful of gray hair (the firm apparently likes the mature look), Martha was thrilled when her recently unemployed boyfriend of five years caved in and accepted her last ultimatum.

As if he is consoling a newly rich widow, Oscar stands and pushes a box of tissues from his desk at Martha. She snuffs loudly. I feel like joining her. Oscar, his voice registering disapproval, as if this won’t do, says ruefully, “In retrospect, we should have waited to take on some new people, and of course, you’re aware of the setbacks we’ve had recently.”

The man has a nice gift for understatement. Since the place has been like a tomb the last couple of weeks and a copy of the most recent court reversal is sitting on my desk, I feel like saying that we’ve had an inkling that year-end bonuses might be down this time around. Yet, there is no point in leaving on a bad note: we’ll still be here for a while, and I’ll need a reference.