the initial initiation

after a short interview with a tired regional supervisor who had travelled three hours to talk with a dozen of us about whether we had ever just walked off a job before and if so, why? i was hired, at long last. the question about whether we had ever walked off a job before without giving notice should have been a telling one, but i chalked it up to the usps' grand large scale interrogation of potential members. the supervisor was happy that i had never been fed up enough with a job to simply walk off and gave me a check mark for good character. afterwards, we instructed to walk down the hallway to the other end of the complex for photo id badges. we walked on past the swinging doors beyond which the sound of thrumming and constantly running machinery lay hidden. the machinations of the blue cult were patrolled by the security guard dressed in a t shirt at the front door. he was busily at work playing solitaire on his laptop when we walked by. after we had our photos taken by a digital camera that produced an off center fuzzy mugshot in which i was looking overly cheery like a mass murderer, we then had to make a final trip down another hall to medical. in the medical room we were given questionnaires to carefully fill out as to whether we had ever had any problems with our lower backs, legs, feet, arches, hands and any other body part that may interfere with us giving our 110% to our new jobs that offered no health insurance or medical benefits or worker's compensation. for the most part, my form was filled in with a perfect succession of no's checked off for the offending medical problems, until i got to one question which i didn't understand. it asked whether i qualified for class 8e status under military guidelines. i didn't know. this threw me, was this a trick question? was class 8e status desirable or not? i asked the nurse what it was. she stared for a second stonily. "i can't answer that for you," she told me with a tone that suggested that if i were intending upon bribing her for a satisfactory report, then i was not the special sort of candidate that the usps was looking for. but i don't understand i said, if i qualify for class 8e status or not. and if i did not know, never having been tested for class 8e status, how was i to truthfully give an answer to which the usps would hold me up to the highest sort of scrutiny for the whole truth and nothing but as to whether i qualified? "i CAN'T answer that for you." her tone told me that we were then being taped for future considerations and that i should know better than to ask her how to answer the question. end of story. i checked off 'NO.' reporting time was to be at 12 midnight the next night. they were softening us up through sleep deprivation to see whether we were fit to work for the blue cult. if we could stand up to reading stacks of badly photocopied copies of 20 year old mimeograms on everything from postal code dress regulations to the history of the zip code system, then maybe we were fit to stand up and be counted among the ranks of the casual workers. it began the next night.