Every workplace environment has that one unique individual.

          Some make us laugh...some make us mad...and some just simply push us to the break of insanity.

          But at Cineplex Pary Royal and VIP, there was one employee that did all three of those.

          Yes...it was the legend of Arad.

          Like everyone, Arad started off as another employee hired at the theatre, hoping to make money like the rest of the cast crew. But it didn't take long for him to become legendary at Cineplex, yet for all the wrong reasons.

          Nicolas had experienced the utmost honour of meeting the legendary Arad in person, just once. It was early into Nicolas' Cineplex career. He had just been recently hired at the theatre. It was so long ago that everyone was still wearing masks for COVID, and the floor team was using the ticket podium back near the freestyle machine, as proof of COVID-19 shots were being taken at the front.

          "Jesus Christ, man," Nicolas specifically remembered Arad saying behind his mask, not even properly introducing himself yet at this point.

          "What's up?" Nicolas replied. 

          It was a hectic shift that day, with people rushing in and out the theatre doors like a hive of angry bees.

          "My fucking ex is coming in to work today," Arad confessed.

          Nicolas raised a brow. He had only been working at the theatre a month or two at this point, but even he knew that Arad had gotten himself into a sticky situation.

          "Dang. Who's your ex?" Nicolas asked.

          After disclosing who it was, Nicolas confessed the name sounded familiar and rang bells, despite being so new to the theatre.

          The rest of the shift was a disaster, with Nicolas trying to calm Arad down, the panic of seeing his ex more clear than a new glass window. They talked and chatted more about how he would deal with the reality of working with someone who had once been so special in his heart, yet now was just a longing, familiar face.

          And then it happened. The infamous ex of Arad walked in, motioning right past, both ghosting each other like a scary movie. Nicolas felt second-hand embarrassment for them both. It wasn't even his relationship, yet even he couldn't cringe at how awkward that just was.

          After talking more and chatting, Nicolas' shift gradually came to an end, as that would be the only, and last time, he ever saw the legendary Arad in person.

          As time passed, Arad's presence at the theatre was less than none. If the job were equivalent to his school attendance, he would have been expelled and banned from ever returning, and known across the entire mainland. He never showed up.

          At first, his excuses were valid and somewhat believable. Alright, everyone gets sick here and there, or has something scheduled throughout their week they have to swap a shift with. We all got it. As great as the people were, working at Cineplex could get tiring, and we all understood that.

          However, Arad always had an excuse. And the managers, naive as could be, were believing all of them.

          Nicolas could remember Gregor walking up to podium in that COVID mask he wore so damn long (too fucking long) and crossing Arad's name out on the floor schedule with a pen, over and over and over.

          "Arad can't make it tonight."

          "Arad has a makeup exam."

          "Arad booked the dentist."

          "Arad missed his bus."

          "Arad couldn't log in to his schedule."

          At first, and naturally, Nicolas grew a great resentment for Arad. Of course, people calling in last minute meant more work for others. There were so many times were Arad would be scheduled for a closing shift, and Nicolas, along with all his other coworkers, would have to stay hours longer than their original shift, all because of Arad's inability to show up. And, most importantly, the managers too fucking stupid to realize he was playing them like a game of chess.

          Nicolas once texted his buddy Ryan B in a fit of rage, going off about how Arad was such a bum, as Nicolas' late-night plans had been ruined due to him calling in yet again and making him stay longer.

          The magnificent Ali would often roast Arad with Nicolas together, cooking him like bacon sizzling on a frying pan. "I thought the whole point of working was actually coming to work."

          "He works here but he doesn't work here," Mia the CL would joke, before shortly transferring to Brentwood Cineplex in Burnaby. Too bad she couldn't yell at him, the way she yelled out those OutTake orders.

          The intrinsic Lauryn even asked Gregor about Arad's presence in front of Nicolas, to which he simply replied, stonecold with no emotion, behind that black COVID mask, "It's complicated."

          But how? How on earth was this motherfucking pulling this off? People were being written up and fired for poor attendance left right and centre.

          Yet every other shift, somehow, someway, members of the floor team would pick up the schedule and see the name listed: Arad.

          However, that's when Nicolas' attitude towards Arad changed. Rather than be salty and bitter for him calling in constantly, Nicolas found a way, in an infamous way, to admire Arad's ability to hold down a job, with not ever coming to the job. It almost got to the point where you had to have that attitude with Arad, or you'd let him get inside your head with his frustrating, yet humorous excuses. 

          Someone who had once pissed Nicolas off so much, was now slowly becoming a legend in his eye—again, for all the wrong reasons. Unlike in the past, where'd he give angry shakes of his head, Nicolas would now find himself bursting into laughter when Gregor crossed Arad's name out on the schedule with a pen. As horrible and immature as it was to say, Arad almost turned into a rebellious badass, kind of like a young James Dean cruising the 64 highway in a Harley Davidson, with slicked-back hair and two cigarettes behind each ear.

          It became so comical that everyone knew, no matter how much he promised the group chats, no matter how many J.K. Rowling novels of excuses he could write, Arad wasn't coming in tonight. People were making lowkey $5 bets (AKA hotdog money for OutTakes), shaking hands with a clasped fist, whether or not Arad would show up one of these days. Of course, those who betted rarely that he would show up, always fell short, walking home empty-handed like an unlikely night at the casino on Las Vegas Boulevard. 

          It was just mind-boggling.

          How were the managers not catching on to this?

          What about all the people who got fired but actually came to work?

          Was that not a slap in the face?

          And so the emphatic question remained...

          Who was Arad?

          And of course, the answer always remained the same.

          Nobody knew.

          However, as time went on, almost sadly at this point, due to all the great laughs and stories people came up with about him, Arad's name was gradually beginning to fade from the floor sheet. Slowly yet surely, the number of times that Arad was skipping work was ending, due to him simply not being scheduled anymore. Perhaps someone had knocked some sense into the managers finally, reviving them back to real life, like a Call of Duty Zombies game. Gregor finally realized his days as an ancient Viking were sadly over, now having to return to the 20th century, and realizing that scheduling Arad would no longer bring gains to his tribal crew of Terabithia back home in the descending woods.

          And that was the last the casting team heard of Arad...gone in the blink of an eye.

          Ever since then, The Legend of Arad began, his name only ringing bells to the OGs of Cineplex themselves. Sometimes when Nicolas walked by the freestyle machine, he could almost feel his spirit himself. Reminding him of the one and only time he met Arad in person, back that busy weekend day, desperately trying to calm him down, due to seeing his ex. It was almost as if you could sense the energy and pain he caused the cast crew, calling in sick every shift, but also giving us great laughs and times to reminisce at the theatre.

          Legend has it, he's still calling in shifts to this day.