Never Buy A Stripper A Drink

*-author’s note-
Alright, sorry for the delay between posts for anyone whose been keeping up, but I’ve been . . . well . . . I’ve just been lazy about getting the new post up, but no more. Anyway, here is part 3 an I assure you I shall keep this section updated regularly from now on . . . semi-regularly . . . semi . . .
-jw

Catch up with part 2 here:
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“Company Loyalty” - Part 2
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John-7 sat at his desk, his briefcase in front of him; the locks unclasped ready to be opened. The intercom fired up and as he stood to join in the singing of the loyalty song he opened the case. Taking a quick look around, he could see that Richard-1 was across the office not paying any attention. Mary-4 placed a cup on his desk without so much as looking at him, and as soon as she was safely past he took action.

He already had the lid of the thermos unscrewed most of the way so as to save time, and it came off quite easily with a flick of his wrist. He gave one more careful glance around before pouring the contents of his small cup into the thermos with one hand, and then immediately screwing the lid on with the other. John-7 then brought the empty cup to his lips pretending to drink for the sake of anyone who may be watching. As he sat down he closed the lid of the briefcase and placed it at his feet, scooting the empty cup to corner of his desk to be collected. His body was pulsing at the very rebelliousness of his act. His heart raced as Mary-4 took his cup and continued past him as if nothing was wrong and he nearly squealed with excitement.

Unable to sit still he decided he would get a cup of coffee, and as he rose from his chair and exited his cubicle he ran right into an approaching Richard-1. His heart sank into the pit of his stomach and burned in the churning acid. He thought for sure he was caught, he didn’t know how but it didn’t matter. He didn’t figure there was anyway to fool the company and he was right.

“John, I was just coming to see if you’d made any progress on those proposals. Say, what’s that on your sleeve?” Richard-1 gestured down to the cuff on the right hand sleeve of John-7’s shirt. There, screaming up at him from his wrist were several bright orange stains. It must have splashed on him when he was pouring the drink into the thermos.
John-7 opened his mouth to answer, but all that came out was a soft cracking noise.
“Did you have a little accident with your orange drink this morning?”
“I was . . . uh . . . picking it up and . . . I . . .” John was fumbling with his shirt now, tugging at the stained sleeve trying to think of the simplest explanation for this.
“Is Mary filling the cups up to high again? I’ve talked to her about that before you know one day mine was filled to high and when I picked it up, it sloshed all over the front of my pants. Needless to say, I didn’t come out of my office too much that day. You should consider yourself lucky it only got on your sleeve.”
“Well, I guess I certainly am lucky.” John-7’s heart rate was beginning to slow now and his breathing returned to normal. “Anyway, I’m working on a few ideas right now. I could have something rough ready for you at the end of the day if you like.”
“That’s not necessary John, I’m just happy to see your still cranking ‘em out. Just have me a final version by Friday.”
“I will sir. I was just about to get some coffee, would you like some?”
“No thank you I have some things I need to take care of. Keep up the good work.”

Richard-1 slapped John-7 on the back hard as he turned to walk away. John-7 watched him head over to Mary-4’s desk and she looked up at attention as he approached. Richard-1 started saying something to her, gestured over to where John-7 was standing, and then down to his own pants. John-7 guessed he was recounting his spill story to her as well, and he looked away continuing into the break room. It was empty and the fluorescent lights buzzed softly over head. John-7 poured his coffee and headed back to his cubicle. He didn’t look in Mary-4’s direction but he could feel her glaring at him as he passed.

Once he was safely at his desk he examined the stain on his cuff, and saw that it was very bright against the grey color of the shirt. He wasn’t sure if it would come out or not but he also didn’t particularly care. He sipped his coffee as he booted up his computer and noticed something he hadn’t ever noticed before. The coffee had a strange taste to it. Not just different from how it tasted at home, but different then it usually tasted at work. He wandered if it was just the coffee from that day, like it was a bad batch or something. Just then Adam-10 passed John-7’s cubicle carrying a fresh cup of coffee. John-7 talked to Adam-10 on occasion in the break room or on the elevator, and he thought he was a fairly decent guy.

“Hey Adam,” said John-7 leaning back in his chair trying to flag him down as he passed. Adam-10 stopped and turned toward the opening of the cubicle.
“Hello John, how are you this morning? I saw you talking to Richard earlier, is everything all right?”
“Oh yeah, he was just checking on my progress. You know how he is.”
“I know all to well my friend, all to well.” As he spoke he took a sip of his coffee.
“Say Adam, do you notice anything different about the coffee this morning? I mean, does it taste a little off to you?”
Adam-10 sipped, thought for a moment, and sipped again.
“No not really, tastes like the same old stuff to me. Why, does it taste bad to you or something?”
John-7 took another sip, and then shook his head.
“No, your right I guess I was just imagining it. Well, I’ve got to get started here so I’ll talk to you later.”

With that Adam-10 nodded and continued on his way to his cubicle. John-7 took another sip of the coffee and decided once and for all that there was something different about it. It had sort of a sour taste to it. He pushed the cup to the corner of his desk and there it sat until he trashed it on his way out of the office that evening.

To be continued…

Let us know what you think. Leave feedback in our “J-Dub’s Freaky Fiction” thread in our forum or via voicemail @ (206)339-7771

*-author’s note-
hello again all, in case you’re just joining the ‘Freaky Fiction’ category before you read this part go back and read part one. Otherwise you’ll be all sorts of confused! Anywho, thanks for coming back, and remember I welcome all feedback on these stories good or bad. Drop me a line in the forum and we’ll talk. Enjoy!
-jw

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Read part 1 of “COMPANY LOYALTY” here
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The button marked “7” lit up red and the shiny steel doors parted allowing John-7 to step off the elevator and into his office space. Mary-4 was at her desk as usual with her head down studying some form of work she had started for the day.

“Good morning,” she said mechanically as John-7 passed by. He said nothing figuring that she didn’t pay attention anyway. He noticed the same K-Tall cup on her desk in front of her filled to the top with orange drink. She took a sip as he continued on, her eyes never wavering from the documents in front of her.
John-7 was in a dismal mood this morning. When he had gone home the night before he couldn’t sleep very well, and the little sleep that he did get was black and dreamless. In fact, John-7 couldn’t remember the last time he had dreamt or even what it may have been about. He took his seat and booted up his computer. The familiar K-Tall logo appeared on the screen while he placed his briefcase on the floor at his feet, and attempted to mentally prepare himself for the new day.

Rick-12’s voice sounded over the intercom at exactly nine on the dot and Mary-4 was already pushing her cart down the aisle dispensing the orange drink to the other employees. She placed a cup on John-7’s desk without making eye contact and continued to the next desk. The company loyalty song was beginning to play and Richard-1’s voice was loud and booming as he sung along from the other side of the office. John-7 stood up, but did not even make an effort to pretend he was singing. As the song approached it’s end he picked up his small cup and held it to his lips like the rest of his fellow co-workers, but as they all tilted their heads back in unison to drink he stopped. He had decided right then and there that he was not going to drink this anymore simply on the grounds that he had to. Still holding the cup to his mouth he closed his lips tight and made a quick head motion to make it look as if he drank. John-7 sat down quickly behind the safe cover of his cubicle walls and looked the small space over.

His first instinct was to dump it in the trash can, but he knew that he would be easily found out doing that. He was sure that Mary-4 probably emptied each one herself and would surely turn him in. He could already hear the cart approaching to pick up his empty cup. One of the wheels squeaked as she pushed. John-7 grabbed the briefcase at his feet, opened it, dumped the contents of his cup into it, closed it again and set it back at his feet. He placed the empty cup on the corner of his desk just as Mary-4 appeared to collect it as usual. He typed on his keyboard pretending he didn’t even notice her in the same way she acted when at her own desk.

After she passed he glanced cautiously down at his briefcase. The beginnings of a small orange puddle were already forming around its base. He knew he was going to have to act quickly before the leak got out of hand. While still pretending to type something he decided he would get up, go to the break room for a cup of quality K-Tall coffee, and bring back pockets full of paper towels to clean up. John-7 swiveled his chair to the side and was about to stand when Richard-1 entered the tiny opening of his cubicle. John-7 could feel the blood rush to his face immediately as his heart jumped into his throat. He was unsure if he should remain seated hiding the leak with the position of his legs and chair, or try to stand leading Richard-1 out of the cubicle all together.

“Good morning sir,” said John-7. He stood quickly unable to yield to the adrenaline that had flooded his system. “I was just about to grab a cup of coffee, would you like to join me?”
John-7 was still standing in front of the slowly growing puddle, but was gesturing toward the break room.
“Actually, no thanks John. I’ve already had my coffee for the day, but I’ll walk you there.”
Relief washed over him as Richard-1 turned and exited his cubicle with him close behind.
“I just wanted to tell you,” said Richard-1, “not to be discouraged by those bastards rejecting your proposal yesterday.”
“Oh, no sir you don’t have to worry about me. I understand its all part of the job. You win some, you lose some.”
“That’s the attitude I wish everyone in this department had. I’m sure that what you’re working on now is going to knock them on their asses. Keep up the good work.”

With that Richard-1 headed in the direction of his office, leaving John-7 at the door to the break room. He watched his director walk away, and proceeded to the coffee machine. Minutes later he was back at his desk with a cup of coffee and half a roll of paper towels stuffed into his pants. He checked the aisle to make sure no one was approaching as he conducted his clean up mission. When he was sure the coast was clear, he turned the laid the briefcase down on the floor and opened it. The interior was a complete mess; the contents were soaked through and stained orange.

John-7 first went to work on wiping up the remnants of the puddle, and then set to work lining the case with towels to soak up the remainder and prevent any further leaks. John also placed all the towels he used to clean up with in the case before shutting it up and returning it to its home at his feet.

For the rest of the day he worked as usual, checking the floor around him ever so often for any further evidence of his deed, but there was none. As he became more comfortable he found that he was actually able to get some work done. He started the outlines for three more proposal ideas, and they were all pretty damn good. One was an elongated bastardization of his picnic idea in which you saw, through a series of jump cuts; the mother and newly added father figure grow old while the kids grew up. It was along the same lines as the first idea, but not so abstract so he thought they might buy into it. The second featured a woman going through belongings in the house of her recently deceased mother while a voice over told us so, reiterating the importance of having insurance for the benefit of your loved ones. The third idea featured an older couple traveling across country showing, once again through jump cuts, all the places they had stopped. The magical voice over would once again tell the viewer of how care free you can be when your covered by the K-Tall insurance umbrella.

John-7 hated all of these ideas, but he was sure that his director and the directors of the insurance division would love at least one of them. He thought of ways to look busy for the rest of the day as he went to the break room for another cup of coffee. Just as he neared the doorway he ran into Mary-4 coming out of the room he had been reprimanded for entering. They both stopped and she looked at him momentarily startled; her eyes widening then returning to their normal glaring size. She continued on her way without saying a word. John-7 noticed she was holding her K-Tall cup filled to the brim with orange drink.
John-7 sat at his desk for the remainder of the afternoon drinking coffee and doing half-assed rewrites of his proposals. As the work day dwindled down John-7 was sure of one thing; he was not going to drink that orange drink ever again. Even now he could glimpse Mary-4 at her desk sipping from that cup. Something just wasn’t right about her.

At home that night after a solid hour of cleaning out his briefcase and having to trash nearly its entire contents John-7 devised a way to dispose of his daily orange drink. He dug out an old thermos that he hadn’t used since he was in college that was perfect. It fit just right in his case and he was sure he would be able to get away with it. Not partaking of the daily drink seemed like a small thing, but it was the only time John-7 had ever done anything to go against K-Tall and it made him feel good.

He was so excited about the whole thing that he had trouble falling asleep that night, but when he finally did something out of the ordinary happened. He hadn’t had a single dream in as long as he could remember and this was no exception, but as he slept that night he could see something dancing on the horizon of where dreams live. He saw colors.

To be continued…

Let us know what you think. Leave feedback in our “J-Dub’s Freaky Fiction” thread in our forum or via voicemail @ (206)339-7771

“Company Loyalty”
-John Wayne Comunale-

“You’re listening to K-T-A-L the official radio station of K-Tall the company everyone wants to work for and everyone does. I’m Rick-12 and following this tune, a nice little swing version of the K-Tall loyalty song, we’ll have your weather.”

It was at this point that John-7 would have turned off his radio if he could, that is if he were allowed to. Everyone had to listen to Rick-12’s morning show on their way to work; it was just one of the rules. John-7 was zoned out as he followed behind the silver colored Chrysler that was very much like his own silver colored Chrysler. Behind him another similar car followed suit. They were all going to the same place, and they were all listening to Rick-12 drone on about who-knows-what. Coming up over the horizon John-7 could see the top of the glass building that was the K-Tall Corporation. It was the only company in town and everyone was employed there.

At first John-7 was happy to work there; it had its quirks, but what place didn’t. He used to tell himself over and over that at least he had a job, and that this wasn’t what he was going to do all his life. He had dreams, high hopes, aspirations, but as the weeks turned to months and the months into years he forgot what those aspirations had ever been. He even forgot how to have aspirations. Now he had been working at K-Tall for over two years. To be exact it was twenty-six months and fourteen days. He didn’t mean to keep track like that. At first it was a subconscious thing, but then it became something that cycled through his mind every morning when he woke up.

He could see the shiny, glass, pillar shaped building almost in its entirety now and Rick-12 made a reference to how he could see all the approaching cars from the studio window which was on the twelfth floor of the K-Tall building. The traffic moved slow as he approached the gate where everyone had to be checked in via their identification badge. A rather large, non-descript guard scanned the barcode on the back of everyone’s card as they entered the parking lot. This was a practice John-7 thought of as a waste of time since he couldn’t fathom why anyone would want to come here when they didn’t have to.

He flashed his badge to be scanned and the gate rose as the light turned green signifying that he had been approved to enter. John-7 steered his silver Chrysler in the direction of lot 7 and parked in his usual space. It wasn’t assigned to him or anything like that, but everyone just always parked in the same place everyday. Even the people who were always at the very far end of the parking lot kept parking there, and seemed happy to do so. John-7 took the briefcase emblazoned with the K-Tall logo from his passenger seat, placed it on his lap, and drew in a deep breath before exiting the car. It was Tuesday and he was wearing the same thing he wore every Tuesday: grey slacks, white shirt with a charcoal tie, and a grey blazer.

John-7 entered the thirty story silver-glass building through the revolving doors as did everyone else. A large group of people were gathered in the lobby waiting for one of the five oversized elevators to whisk them away to their designated floor. John-7 didn’t mind waiting. In fact, he often would let other people on ahead of him in an act of faux chivalry but he was really just trying to waste as much time as he could before starting the day.

John-7 nodded a greeting to the few people he saw waiting that worked on the same floor as him, but no body verbalized anything. For as many people as there were gathered in the lobby it was unusually quiet. The only sounds came from the rustling of clothing or shuffling of feet, but John-7 didn’t notice things like that too much. He was already preparing himself for the day. He stepped into the elevator with twenty or so others and called out seven to the man who was unlucky enough to be closest to the buttons. Every floor of the K-Tall building was responsible for one aspect of the business such as; the first floor was accounting, the twenty first floor was product development, the twelfth floor was the media department including the radio station, and the thirteenth floor was the legal department.

John-7 worked on the seventh floor and they were responsible for the advertising and promotion of K-Tall. Every week John-7 had to come up with various ideas to promote a company that he hated, and he was damn good at it too. The stainless steel doors opened and John-7 stepped off the elevator onto his floor. The first thing he saw every morning was the secretary for the director of the division. This was as close to a boss as John-7 had. All of the real bosses had offices up on the thirtieth floor. They rarely ventured from there, and kept tabs on all the divisions through bi-daily reports that were sent or dictated to them by the directors. John-7 passed the secretary, Mary-4, and nodded a greeting.

“Good morning,” she said. Her voice was monotone and she never once even cut her eyes up to see who it was. It was the same generic greeting John-7 was sure she gave all of the employees as they walked by.

John-7 walked past the door of his director, Richard-1, and shivered praying that the door would not open. The less he had to see his director the better, but then in a cruel twist of fate the door swung open just as John-7 was in front of it.

“There’s my man,” said Richard-1. He was pointing at John-7 with both hands in a mock gunfight manner. “How’s the old idea box working today?”

Richard-1 was in his early forties, short, overweight, and balding. He stood there with a huge dopey smile on his face that caused John-7 to cringe. He swallowed hard, took a deep breath and then smiled as big as his face would allow while thrusting his free hand out shaking Richard-1’s.

“Good morning sir,” he said. “How are you today?” John-7 was being as upbeat and cheery as he could, and he felt the bile churn in his stomach.

Richard-1 smiled, shook, and spoke. “I’m doing very well, very well. Now, the big guys upstairs want at least five fresh ideas out of us by the end of this week, so let’s go get ‘em today.” He slapped John-7 on the back hard with this last remark, and then walked off to “motivate” some other employee.

Once he was gone the smile left John-7’s face and his mouth assumed its usual expression of indifference. He walked over to his cubicle, set his briefcase down and sat slowly, easing into his chair as if it were a warm bath. After comfortably reaching the sitting position he opened the case to remove his documents when the intercom crackled to life, and the familiar voice of Rick-12 made its presence known.

“Good morning K-Tall employees it’s another fabulous day here at K-Tall, so lets all stand up for the company loyalty song.”

John-7 placed both of his hands on his desk and pushed himself up as the song began to play. As it did Mary-4 walked the aisles between cubicles with a large pushcart setting a small cup of orange drink, one of the many great K-Tall products, down on each desk. She placed one on the corner of John-7’s desk and he stared at it sighing as the song continued to play. He could hear some of his other co-workers humming along with it and some were even softly singing, but there was no mistaking Richard-1 who belted the words out proudly as he did each and every morning. When the song was finally over everyone was instructed by Rick-12 to raise their glasses in a toast to the success of the day.

Drinking the orange drink was mandatory, and all the empty cups were picked up by Mary-4 as she made her way back through the aisles. John-7 swallowed the liquid he had grown to hate and sat back down to start his day. He spent several minutes watching the screen saver of the K-Tall logo dance across his monitor before he finally started up his computer. He briefly went through some of the ideas he had started to work up from the day before, and thought about how much he would let himself get done today. He was staring blankly at his monitor when he felt someone’s eyes on him. He looked to his right and saw that Mary-4 was standing there with her push cart holding his cup of orange drink.

“You have to drink it all,” she said as she held the cup out to him. John-7 looked into the cup and saw that he had left a little less than half of the liquid inside.

“Sorry about that,” said John-7. He took the cup from her outstretched hand, downed the rest of its contents, and handed it back to her. Mary-4 did not respond as she mechanically took the cup and placed it in her cart with the rest.

John turned his head to watch as she passed the remaining desks picking up the cups. When she was finished she pushed the cart through a door to the left of the break room, and emerged several minutes later. John-7 had never really noticed the door she had taken the cart into. Actually he figured he had probably noticed it before, but had never really cared enough to give it a second thought. He didn’t really pay too much attention to anything while he was at work. He did just enough to keep Richard-1 happy, and meet all of his deadlines, but he never actually went above and beyond.

He turned his head back around to face his monitor and was startled by Richard-1 who was standing at the side of his desk.
“Jesus,” said John-7. “You scared me Richard.”
Richard-1 had his head cocked curiously to one side and looked like he was thinking very hard about what he was about to say.
“John, old buddy, I heard you didn’t finish your orange drink this morning.”
John-7 was taken completely off guard since the incident had just occurred. He swung his head back around to look at the door Mary-4 had taken the cart through before turning back around to answer.
“I . . . uh . . . I’m sorry about that Richard I guess I was just kind of in a daze there for a sec, but I was going to finish it.”
“Also, it wouldn’t hurt you to sing along with the rest of us. You know what I mean?”
“Well, I’ve got a bit of a sore throat this morning, but tomorrow I promise I’ll be leading the choir.”
“Well that’s all the more reason to finish your orange drink, its chalk full of vitamins that’ll clear that throat up in no time.” Richard-1 locked eyes with John-7 for a beat before patting him on the back once again. “Alright, let’s get those ideas going.”

Richard-1 walked down the aisle of cubicles and John-7 was left sitting there wondering how he knew that quickly that he hadn’t finished his drink. He looked back over his shoulder and saw Mary-4 sitting at her desk, head down, and writing away no doubt on some idiotic assignment that Richard-1 had given her. There was no way she could have told him already, so how did he know? John-7 labored over it for a minute more before finally letting it go. He figured that Richard-1 was probably close enough to witness the whole thing and that he just didn’t see him.

John-7 returned to his work of shaping up the ideas that he had started on earlier in the week; one in particular he was sure Richard-1 was going to love. He actually had several but he was very careful as to when he presented them. He didn’t want to blow his wad in a matter of a few weeks, and then be tapped out with Richard-1 breathing down his neck everyday wanting the next great idea, so he spaced them out. He usually let one out if he needed the heat to be taken off of him, and he decided that after the orange drink episode that this was as good a time as any.

John-7 began typing up his idea to be presented to Richard-1. This particular layout was for a T.V. spot and it went like this: camera fades in to a lush green meadow, perhaps it’s a park or the edge of a forest. A mother is spreading a large blanket out for a picnic. The camera is tight on her face and as it begins to pull back we see children, a boy and a girl, playing in the background. We also see a large picnic basket off to the side. Light music, something with strings, is playing and the mother is now watching her children play with a look of genuine love on her face. A voice over starts up and says, “Trust K-Tall, because you care about their future.” Then, the K-Tall logo will fade in on the screen as the children run to join the mother on the blanket for their family picnic. Fade out.

This particular ad was for the insurance division of K-Tall, and although it was sappy as hell John-7 knew those clowns would eat it up. They loved anything that would draw attention away from the fact that they wanted your money, and things like this, tugging at the old family heart strings, was just the way to go.

When John finished with the proposal it wasn’t quite lunch time yet, so he decided to take a much deserved break. He got up from his desk, stretched, and headed for the break room which was empty since most of the other employees visited it in the earlier hours of the morning before the daily announcements were made. John-7 poured a cup of stale coffee and took a drink right away despite the high temperature of the beverage. He allowed the coffee to linger on his pallet and analyzed the flavor. He couldn’t put his finger on exactly what it was, but something about the way they made the coffee here gave it a different taste than when he made it at home on the weekends. He used the same K-Tall brand coffee they used, but only because he was given a bag of it for free at work with every paycheck.

He took another sip of the coffee before setting the cup down on the small, round table. John-7 put his hand to his mouth and used the other to open the small refrigerator that was supplied for the employees to put lunches or snacks they had brought. John-7 knew he didn’t have anything in there, but he still felt the compulsion to check it out every once in a while. The contents included an old withering apple, two brown paper bags that were rolled up at the top and labeled Steve and Jack, and a few random cans of soda; all K-Tall brand. John-7 closed the fridge and turned back to the table to pick up his coffee, but then stopped flashing back to earlier that morning. Through the break room entrance John-7 could see the room Mary-4 had taken her cart into, and the door was ajar.

John-7 took his coffee to the edge of the break room door and looked out to the rest of the office. Everyone appeared to be working busily at their desks not coming toward the break room at all. John nonchalantly stepped out of the room, strolled over to the other door, pushed it open, and walked right through it. The room was smaller than the break room, but big enough to house the push cart and a drink fountain very similar to the ones in the cafeteria on the third floor that dispensed fruit punch and lemonade. There was nothing in it now, but John-7 could tell by the way it was stained that this is where the orange drink was made up every morning.

“What are you doing in here?”

John-7 spun around to the voice, some of his coffee spilling over the brim of the cup as he did. Standing at the door was Mary-4 scowling, her hands on her hips.
“I was just . . . getting a cup of coffee,” said John. He held his cup up to reassure her, and himself, that was his reason for the trespass.
“Coffee is in the break room,” she said. “This area is off limits.”
“Oh,” said John-7. “Sorry about that.”

He walked past her towards the cubicles not once looking back at her. He was quite sure that she would tell Richard-1 immediately and that he could expect him at his desk momentarily, that is, if he wasn’t already there waiting for him. He would definitely have to show him his proposal today. Once he was at his desk John-7 brought the commercial idea up on his screen and started to print it out. The last page of the proposal was working its way out of the printer when Richard-1 darkened the small opening of his cubicle.

“Oh, hey Richard I know it’s still pretty early, but I just finished this proposal for you and I really think you’re going to . . .”
Richard-1 cut him off.
“Come meet me in my office please John.”

With that said he turned and headed to his office closing the door behind him. John-7 remained seated for a moment puzzled. Richard-1’s tone had been serious before when work needed to be done, but there was a trace of urgency in his voice this time. John-7 picked up the pages of his proposal out of the printer and walked toward Richard-1’s office. As he passed Mary-4’s desk she didn’t even bother to look up at him. She stared down at the work in front as if it were all that existed in her little world. John-7 noticed that on her desk was a rather large cup bearing the K-Tall logo filled with the orange drink.

“You can go in he’s expecting you.” She said the words without looking up.
John-7 approached the door and decided to knock lightly anyway. He heard a hard sigh followed by, “Come in please.”
John-7 opened the door slowly, his freshly printed proposal in hand. Richard-1 was sitting at his desk facing him, but much like Mary-4 his head was down focusing on work that was on his desk in front of him.
“Sit down please, John.” Richard-1 still did not look up.

John-7 sat down in the chair positioned in front of the desk. Richard-1 finished what he was writing and looked up. A beat of silence hung in the air around them seeming to thicken the atmosphere. It was in this instance that John-7 realized that Richard-1 reminded him of so many of the comic book villains from his youth. He had the same pointy eyebrows, perfectly groomed beard, and a look of sincere consternation while a touch of evil danced lively in his eyes.

“So John, Mary tells me that you’ve been snooping around restricted areas of the office. I have to say this is behavior that I wouldn’t expect out of you.”

“Sir, I think she may have blown this a little out of proportion. I mean, I just sort of wandered in there. I didn’t do it on purpose or anything like that, I mean, I didn’t even touch anything.”
“That is not the point here John, the point is that you were somewhere that you were not supposed to be. Whether or not you touched anything is irrelevant.” Richard-1’s voice was rising.
John-7 opened his mouth to reply, but thought about it before he did so.
“I understand sir. I’m sorry and it won’t happen again.”

John-7 was burning on the inside as he delivered this line. He thought it was absolutely ridiculous that Richard-1 was overreacting like this. It was bad enough he had to sing their stupid song, drink their stupid juice, and hock their ridiculous product but now he was being disciplined for looking in a room. He swallowed and allowed his frustration to fall down into the pit of his stomach where he liked to keep it.

Richard-1 locked eyes with John-7 once again for a beat of silence before the seriousness washed from his face and he sat back in his chair.

“Good man, John. I know you won’t let me down. Now, what is that in your hand there?”
He was gesturing to John’s proposal which he still gripped in his hand.
“This is my idea for that commercial for the insurance division.” John-7 held it up now.
“What, you have that finished this early? Let’s have a look.”

Richard-1 reached across the desk taking the pages from John’s hand, and started scanning over them.

“Oh, this looks good. You know they love that family stuff, and the picnic is priceless. I’m going to have this up to them before lunch. Thanks again for the hard work, and remember what we talked about, alright.”

With that Richard-1 picked up the phone on his desk to no doubt call the director of the insurance division on the twenty-seventh floor. John-7 got up from his seat, nodded to Richard-1 and walked out of the office closing the door lightly behind him. Once outside the door he was looking at Mary-4 from the back. She was hunched over her desk as always not bothering to look up at him or anyone else walking by. John-7 wavered for a moment behind her wandering just what it was like to be her. She had no personality and she never socialized with any of the other employees on the floor. In fact she was always at her desk when John-7 arrived every morning and when he left every evening. He imagined that she was probably dead on the inside, basing her entire existence on this company and the role, albeit a small one, that she played in it. He thought this about Richard-1 as well.

John-7 proceeded past Mary-4 and just as always she didn’t budge. He continued to his cubicle, sat at his desk, and stared. He had his fingers on his keyboard in the typing ready position with a fresh blank document opened on his desk top, but he was paying no attention to it. Darkness descended on the mind of John-7 turning his thoughts in a different direction.

He is sitting at Richard-1’s desk again. Richard-1 is the same but his suit seems slightly dirty, disheveled. His coloring is poor, and there are huge bags under his eyes that are deep purple in color. There is an unbearable stench in the room of which he cannot pin point the origin. Richard-1 has both arms on the desk in front of him as if he is gripping it to stay seated. His eyes are glazed, his hair is matted; his skin hangs in clumps from his face. John-7 is sitting patiently awaiting whatever nugget of knowledge his director his about to impart to him. The unidentifiable stench hangs thick in the air, and John-7 decides that something inside the office is rotting. A fly buzzes by his head, he waves it away.

The two’s eyes are locked in a moment of extreme intensity before Richard-1 finally opens his mouth to speak. When he does the fly lands on his face, but he does not move to shoo it. Another fly joins that one, and then another joins the two before John-7 realizes that the flies are coming out of Richard-1’s mouth. He moves his head in closer opening his mouth wider revealing what looks like hundreds of flies inside. They are churning together as one dark, vibrating, hairy hole.

Some of them fly out of the opening only to return directly to their host perching on his head and face. John-7 continues to look at the fly filled opening unaffected by the shock of it. It’s actually what he expected.

He thinks he hears Richard-1 trying to say something through all the flies, but he can’t hear anything through the constant buzz. He leans in to try and hear better.

“What was that? What’s that you say, sir?”
Then he hears it, but it’s not Richard-1 who is making the noise it’s the flies. They are buzzing in unison one audible word over and over.
“John,” they buzzed. “John”
John-7 became fixated on the large, black gathering of flies in his director’s mouth that were calling his name.
“John. John. John.”
The buzzing became louder and more distinct, and John continued to lose himself as he fixated on the pit of flies.
“John, John, John.”
“John, are you awake?

John-7 was thrust into the hole of flies and came out the other end aware of his surroundings. He was sitting at his desk, hands on the keyboard, blank document staring at him from his desktop monitor.

“I said are you awake?”

John-7 turned around to see Richard-1 in the opening of his cubicle.

“Sorry about that sir, I was . . . uh . . . really caught up in this idea I’m working on.”
John-7 turned to face Richard-1 hoping that he wouldn’t notice the blank screen on his computer. He saw that Richard-1 was holding the proposal he had turned in to him during their earlier “discussion”.
“You’ll have to rework this.” Richard-1 let the papers fall from his hand to the desk in front of John-7. “They said the family angle has been done to death. They want some fresh new approach. Are you feeling alright? You look a little pale.”

John-7 became aware that he was slouched in his chair and had been staring at Richard-1’s mouth the entire time he was talking. He barely registered what was being said to him. He immediately straightened up and began flipping through the pages of his proposal as if studying some imaginary notes that had been given to him.

“Did they say what exactly they were looking for?”

“Are you kidding me?” Richard-1 took a step back away from John’s cubicle. “It’s your job to tell them what they’re looking for.” Richard-1 turned around and headed back down the aisle of cubicles to his office.
John-7 placed his rejected proposal in the small file cabinet that lived in his cubicle and stared at a blank computer screen until the end of the day.

* * * *

To be continued ….

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