The Home Office (453 hits)
Category: Quotes & StoriesRating: 1.91 on 10 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by <laladestrukt.at.gmail.com> (View user info) at 2006-10-13 00:58:24 EDT
(this is unedited, mostly un-spell checked, long winded, redundant, predictable, and probably complete crap. It's my first real attempt at creative writing that I can remember in at least a decade, so, yeah, tell me I suck nicely)
"Here you go Kathleen, your Tub O' Pizzas, thanks again for supporting the Dupree High School Band!"
Kathleen wished it had been some scout cookies being dropped off. She could use an evening munching on frozen Samoas with Butterscotch, her old orange tomcat, curled up on her lap while watching today's tape of Days of Our Lives. She couldn't even tell you why she bought the pizzas, other than office peer pressure, Jeremy wasn't around to eat them anymore. In fact Jer hasn't been around for a few years now, tonight she'd have to throw last years full bucket out to make room for this one.
When she was 22 the idea that Jeremy Pierce wanted her seemed to be the most amazing thing that could or would ever happen in the history of time. In high school he'd been one of the stars of the football team and every girl from the cheerleaders to the plain Jane boring nobodies like Kathleen thought he was just dreamy.
In the few years since high school his broad shoulders seemed slimmer, offset by a notable beer gut, his fine brown hair with a slight wave that glittered in the sunlight had become a greasy mop than couldn't seem to stay out of his eyes. And worst of all, the dimple, only in his left cheek, that used to give him that prize winning smile, it seemed to have vanished, or maybe it was still there, but you couldn't tell because he didn't smile anymore. But it took time to see that.
He took her home from the local bar after the first real conversation they'd ever had. She'd been out celebrating, finally having gotten promoted to secretary after working as a file clerk at Viogen almost since the day she got out of high school. While she was giving herself to a man for the first time she thought it was the luckiest day of her life, this must be what it feels like to be prom queen, but she pushed that thought away realizing he surely slept with their prom queen.
Through a haze a whiskey he thought he'd better not come too soon, she wasn't going to supplement his measly income trucking milk from the local Dupree farms to the big processing plant in Pierre if he didn't show her a good time. When he saw the blood on the sheets the next morning he just got mad that the bitch hadn't told him she was on the rag so he could have put a towel down, now he'd have to do laundry.
Kathleen wasn't stupid; she figured out quickly that Jer didn't really have any feelings for her, but he was a man, a man her age, with a job, and in a town like Dupree, that could be a lot to ask for. Viogen only opened up the year before they graduated high school, it popped up virtually out of nowhere.
Why some modern high-tech company would want to open on the west side of their little 500 person town, no one could say, but it provided a great opportunity for the smarter citizens. Even as a high school graduate with good grades, no one got the education needed or had the money needed to get out of Dupree. You were born in Dupree and you died in Dupree. At least until Viogen came along.
"Five o'clock, time to get out of here!" Janice cheers from the next desk over.
Janice and Sandra are the other two executive assistants Kathleen works with. Still only secretaries, they are the highest ranking secretaries and therefore the three top women at Viogen.
Kathleen's promotion last year was a saving grace. It had been a year since she and Jer had broken up. Five years she had put up with his drinking and infidelity, turning a blind eye, until one day he brought home a scrawny girl that Kathleen could only pray was 18. He claimed she was a friend who needed help out for just a little while, but Kathleen would be damned if he was going to cheat on her, under the roof of the apartment she paid for, with some little child whore.
The first year she was alone she eyed a bottle of valium with hope every evening, but could never bring herself to take more than 1, let alone however many it would take to kill herself. But this last year, with the new job, there was hope again. Being an executive assistant didn't just mean a significant pay raise, it meant, if the bosses liked you enough, that you could be transferred, transferred to the home office.
As the three women walked down the hall towards the main office and the exits they passed a line of framed pictures on the wall.
"You know, just six months ago, there was nothing in the world I wanted more than to follow in those ladies footsteps," Sandra said as she looked at all the former exec assistants framed along the wall. "Meeting Stephen and getting little Peaches here started sure put a stop to my wanderlust" she said cradling her belly that was only slowly becoming similar to a house.
"I don't see any good reason they shouldn't give you the transfer Kathleen, they all know I don't want it either" said Janice. She'd hit it big in a multi-state lottery, got a cool million, plenty enough for her and her next 10 generations to live off of around Dupree. Everyone expected her to quit when they saw her interviewed on the news, but Janice said she just didn't know what to do with all that spare time, so she kept coming in every day.
Kathleen didn't dare let herself get hopeful. She'd only been in the position for a year, and was pretty sure one of the bosses didn't like her. The huge vacant field they built Viogen on had been her playground when she was little. Lost out in the high grass she'd imagined every exciting life she knew she could never have, everything from being a wild game hunter in the jungle to being a rich artist sipping champagne in Manhattan.
Having spent so much time in that field she knew the huge man made lake the sprawled out in front of Viogen's door was not in fact man made, at least not entirely. There was a pond, only 30 feet wide or so, but a pond, right where that massive lake with its beautiful shooting fountains is now. Once she told one of her bosses that, thinking it was a nice piece of trivia to open up a rapport with him, but he did not seem interested, in fact he seemed rather disturbed by the comment, and seemed to make a point of ignoring her thereafter.
So the three women shuffled out the door that evening, Sandra to her man and dreams of motherhood, Janice to her big screen tv and cozy new couch, and Kathleen to her cat, her frostbitten pizza, and her taped soaps.
The next morning it took every bit of will Kathleen had to go into work, chit chat with Janice and Sandra like everything was normal, and get thru her day without collapsing in tears. As usual, when she walked in the door last night she hit the rewind button on the vcr and proceeded into the kitchen to give Butterscotch his dinner. When she sat her bucket o' pizza on the counter to open the fridge for the half full can of wet food she heard a painful screeching noise that made her shoulders writhe up and her eyes clamp down. Forcing herself back into her senses to see what it is she turned to see her vcr spewing ribbons of black tape. She runs over to the vcr grabbing at it all and hits the eject button but doesn't accomplish anything more than further crinkling and eventually outright ripping the tape apart. It's only a soap she tells herself, she can ask any of the girls around the office about it tomorrow, right now she needs to feed Butterscotch.
But this time as she enters the kitchen she notices that Butterscotch's dish is still half full. That old tom cat has eaten every morsel she's put out, as often as she'll put it out, for as long as she'd had him. Maybe he's just been really lazy lounging in the sun today, she tries to tell herself and opens the back door to call him. The words don't make it out of her mouth though, she can see him already. Nailed by his back feet to a tree right outside her door, he's been eviscerated, a ropey tangle of blood and guts hanging down his body, down the tree, and into a pile on the ground. Shock hits her so hard she just turns back into the kitchen, seeing the bucket o'pizza, she opens the freezer, pulls out last years and tosses it in the trash. She starts to put in the new bucket but stops, what's the point, no Jer, no cat, no tapes, why should there be anything. The new bucket follows the old into the trash, there's no home for it here.
That's the last thing she remembers before her alarm went off this morning. Now she's midway thru her day, and no one even seems to notice she's practically catatonic. Going thru the motions of her day, because it's what she knows to do.
"Hay, Kath." Kathleen loathes being called Kath, but she recognizes the voice, Doreen, a new file clerk, right out of highschool, hoping to climb the ladder like she has over the last 10 years. Kathleen hopes it works out better for Doreen than it has for her.
"Yes Doreen, how can I help you?"
"I have the McKerricher file for you, here ya go!"
Kathleen looks at the girl, so sweet and young. I really hope her life turns out better than mine, she thinks.
"It's that time again" Janice chimes.
Sandra and Janice pause going down the hall, Kathleen knows they're waiting for her. "Go on ladies, I'll be a few more minutes finishing up." And they head off down the hall.
Staring at her computer, not knowing what she was doing or if she actually has anything to do, she hears office doors opening and closing. The office doors of the bosses. But she's beyond caring if they catch her clocking overtime while doing nothing. I'll get fired in a moment, she thinks, it only makes sense, it's the only thing left that could fuck up my life more.
"Kathleen, we're glad you're still here, we've been meaning to talk to you." one of the bosses says.
"Oh, yes, we have an exciting opportunity for you." says another.
Opportunity? Her mind reels, getting fired is an opportunity?
"We're very pleased with you, Kathleen. So much so, that we've decided to transfer you." says the third and last.
____________________________________________________________________________
Jer loads the last of Kathleens belongings into the back of his truck. He lost the dairy job after his 2nd DUI, but he's been doing ok. Between the five dollars a pop he was charging making that little slut blow his friends, and the ads he's been running for his "moving service" in the local handyads, he's keeping himself wet. The two grand he was paid to clear out this place and take all the belongings to the dump make him overlook any curiosity he had about this job. Kathleen was a cunt anyway, she probably did something to deserve this, and this was six months worth of pay, he could drink good whiskey tonight.
______________________________________________________________________________
Kathleen was in a daze. The bosses had brought out a bottle of champagne, she only drank of special occasions, but if this wasn't a special occasion, what was? They told her all about the home office, how elegant it was, how big of a city it was in. Adventure and opportunity would be waiting at her feet. She didn't need their words though. She was again that little girl, lost in the fields, anything could happen. Dapper men that smelled of aftershave and touched her softly. Music and art that made her heart soar. Coy looks and highrises, taxis and exotic food.
She fell again into a catatonic state like she'd spent the day in, but this one of dreams and hope. The bosses lifted her by her elbows, time to go to the limo, time to get started on the transfer. Oh yes, everything she'd ever wanted or needed would be there for her when she arrived.
As they exited the front door Kathleen looked at the sparkeling pool in front of her. The dirty and sad little pond she'd known, that she'd once been, was now an oracle of beauty, triumph over what nature had meant for it. For the first time she didn't just know, but actually believed that she could be everythign she'd ever wished to be in life.
The serpent rose quickly, it was hungry and could smell its feast. It devoured Kathleen almost before she could see it. He knew they lost flavor when they got to think about him. He was pleased, she was the best meal he'd had in centuries.
_____________________________________________________________________________
The bosses were blown back, a sizzling stream of energy rushed thru them, ran up and thru the whole Viogen building. On the way back it lit up like lightning. From the sky it had to be more noticable than a nuclear bomb blast. But that's why they set up in the middle of nowhere. No one would see or notice. And in nowhere, there was more desperation, if you could find it, and only the deepest desperation could give enough hope to appease the serpent.
"Whew, that was a good one, think it bought us two years?" one of the bosses asked.
"No, we'll have to do as good or better next time, we raised its expectations." said another.
"Well, you know, that new file clerk, Doreen, she was actually being recruited by colleges, genius writer, should be getting published all over the place. But her dad pimped her out, she ended up pregnant at 17 and missed her senior year while he hid her at home. That one has potential."
_____________________________________________________________________________
Doreen pushed her file cart thru the office wracking her mind on how she could afford the new day care rates. She'd have to get a second job, but that would require more babysitting, it was a downward spiral that seemed to have no end.
"Oh, sorry miss!" the janitor said. She hadn't even seen him, but was sure she'd ran into him, not him into her. "Sorry" she said as he raised his arms again and tried to get the picture properly aligned. Doreen saw that Kath's picture was being hung up, holy shit, what a success story, good lord she wished she could be like Kath when she was older.
"Doreen, do you have a moment?" one of the bosses asked.
User Reviews
Submitted by scourge (user info) at 2006-11-02 10:17:38 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Maltese (user info) at 2006-11-02 02:43:03 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by St_Jimmy (user info) at 2006-10-13 11:15:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This is a pretty decent first post. Have a +2.
Having said that though...
First of all, never preface a post with how bad and crappy you think it is. Obviously you didn't think it was that bad, otherwise you wouldn't have posted it. You should let the reader make up his/her own mind. You didn't spell check?! Come on, it takes 30 seconds to spell check.
Couple of things about the story. Kathleen's reaction to the very violent death of her beloved cat was to throw away pizza?! You developed her character pretty well only to have such a shallow response to such a horrific event. I think you were trying to illustrate her extreme hopelessness, but I don't think it played well.
As for the ending, and this is just a personal opinion of mine, but I don't like when a realistic story has a supernatural ending. Again, I think I know what you were trying to do with the serpant, but it could have been done without appealing to monsters. There's really no need to switch genres at the very end.
Ok, that's my bit. Keep up the good work.
Submitted by MadameDestrukt (user info) at 2006-10-13 11:07:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Was the end confusing? Really?
Yeah, sorry about the double spaces, for some reason this went thru a few different programs and one of them put the whammy on it, and I was to lazy to fix it up. They hurt my head too. Or maybe it was just the booze....
Submitted by jack11058 (user info) at 2006-10-13 08:01:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
hmmm
Submitted by redskieslookfake (user info) at 2006-10-13 05:18:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I appear to be clicking randomly
Submitted by redskieslookfake (user info) at 2006-10-13 05:06:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
1.5
Submitted by redskieslookfake (user info) at 2006-10-13 05:06:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Little bewildering at the end.
Submitted by redskieslookfake (user info) at 2006-10-13 05:06:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Little bewildering at the end.
Submitted by stevie_says (user info) at 2006-10-13 04:36:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
The double spaces hurt my head.
Or that could be the booze.
Other than that, quite um...entertaining?
Yah.
Fun.
I like fun.