The Name Badge at the Toll Booth

Wanda arrived at the Long Bridge toll booth at ten to six. She had a coffee in one hand and a name badge in the other. The badge was blue plastic with white letters. It said WANDA, and under that, in smaller print, TRAINEE. She tried to pin it to her jacket, but the pin bent twice and fell on the floor.

"Let me help you," said the woman inside the booth. She was about forty, with short black hair and a mug that said WORLD'S OKAYEST COLLEAGUE. "I'm Dina. I've been here nine years, and I still bend my pins. Use a safety pin."

"Thank you," said Wanda. She stepped inside and looked around. The booth was smaller than she had expected. There was a cash tray, a screen for the card reader and a big button for the barrier. A little fridge hummed in the corner. Outside the window, the bridge stretched over the dark water like a long grey ribbon.

Dina showed her the log book and the spare coins. She explained that cars paid at the window and lorries paid double. Nobody ever won an argument with the barrier. Then she stopped in the middle of a sentence. She put a hand on one jacket pocket, and then on the other.

"Oh no," she said.

"What's wrong?" asked Wanda.

"My badge. It's on my kitchen table, next to my keys." Dina sat down heavily on the stool. "And a man from head office is coming at seven to check every booth."

"Is that a problem?"

"The rule is simple. Everyone in the booth wears a badge. I forgot mine in March, and again in June. After the third time, they move you to the night shift." Dina looked at the fridge. "I hate the night shift. The bridge is empty and that fridge hums at me."

Wanda thought about it. She had been in the job for ten minutes, and she already wanted to fix something. "Then we should call the office," she said. "They can send a spare badge before seven."

"A spare takes two hours," said Dina. "And they will ask why I need one."

"Then you tell them why. It's only a badge."

"It's never only a badge." Dina shook her head. "I have a better plan. You work the window, and I wait in the supply cupboard. The man stays twelve minutes. He sees one person with one badge, and everybody is happy."

"But that's a lie," said Wanda. "He will ask who is training me."

"Then say I'm on my break."

"On the first morning of a new trainee?"

Dina laughed, but she did not look happy about it.

They did not finish the argument, because the morning would not wait. At six, the cars began to line up on the bridge. Wanda counted coins, tapped cards and handed out receipts. A cyclist paid with a bag of small change and apologised twice. A lorry driver asked her to repeat the price, and then asked again.

Between the cars, the two women talked in low voices, like people at a very polite meeting.

"I don't want you to lose your job," said Dina.

"I won't lose it. I haven't started it yet," said Wanda. "But I can't hide you in a cupboard. If he asks, I will have to say something, and I am a terrible liar."

"I have noticed," said Dina. "You blink when you almost say it."

Wanda blinked and decided not to answer.

At twenty to seven, a delivery van stopped at the window. The driver counted out his coins one by one and looked from face to face. "You two look serious," he said. "Is this a robbery?"

"We are planning a badge," said Dina.

"That sounds harder." He glanced at the dashboard. A roll of white sticky labels lay there, next to a fat black marker. "I write on these all day. Take them, if they help."

He pushed the roll and the marker through the window and drove off before they could thank him.

Dina picked up the label roll and turned it over. "Here is my new plan," she said. "I write DINA on one. I stick it on my jacket. The man is in a hurry, and he will never look closely."

"He will look. That is why he's coming," said Wanda.

"Then what do you suggest?"

Wanda took the marker. She tore off a label and held it flat against the edge of the cash tray. She wrote slowly, in neat capital letters, and then she held it up.

It said: DINA. REAL BADGE IS ON MY KITCHEN TABLE.

Dina read it twice. "You want me to wear a sign that says I forgot?"

"I want you to wear a sign that says the truth. It is better than a cupboard."

"A cupboard has a door," said Dina.

"A cupboard also has mops."

Dina made a noise that was half a laugh and half a groan. She took the label and looked at it for a long moment. Outside, two cars honked, and she pressed the button without looking.

"It's honest," she said at last. "But it makes me sound like a child who lost her gloves. If I wear this, it must say something else too."

"Like what?"

Dina took the marker and wrote a second line, in her own sloping hand. Then she showed it to Wanda. It said: NINE YEARS, NEVER LATE.

Wanda smiled. "That's not a badge. That's a small speech."

"It's a very good speech," said Dina. "Nobody argues with it."

Neither of them had expected this. Wanda had come with a plan to follow every rule. Dina had come with a plan to hide. Now they stood side by side with a piece of sticky paper that obeyed no rule at all.

Dina pressed the label onto her jacket and smoothed it down with her thumb. Wanda straightened her own crooked safety pin.

At seven, a small tidy man in a dark coat stopped his car by the booth. He carried a clipboard and had the face of a person who had heard many excuses. He checked Wanda's badge and nodded. Then he looked at Dina's jacket, and his eyes stopped moving.

Dina held her breath. The fridge hummed in the corner.

The man read the label from top to bottom. He read it a second time. Then he took out a pen and made a small tick on his list.

"Nine years, never late," he said. "Is that true?"

"Ask the log book," said Dina.

"I will." He tapped his clipboard. "Bring the proper badge tomorrow, please. And I will say this once, as a favour. Your trainee has beautiful handwriting."

"Thank you," said Wanda. "It was a team effort."

When the man had gone, the booth was very quiet. Dina let out a long breath and sat down on the stool. Then she took a safety pin from her pocket and fixed the label firmly to her jacket. She pressed the button for the next car.