Jeff pulled into the parking lot, hoping for a convenient spot. He found one, four rows in. Someone must have recently left. He swung in, facing the five-story, concrete daycare. It blocked the sunrise, even absorbing the pink sky.
Eyes closed, Jeff took three deep breaths, venting each to the count of his heartbeat. He opened his eyes, but the hulking brick was still there. Jeff got out of his car, stood up, and stretched. He stretched so hard his arms quivered above his head. Once the feeling returned to his legs, Jeff started the march to work, shoulders slumped.
Reaching the third floor, he saw a level of activity that he couldn’t explain. It wasn’t December, so that Jeff could think of no reason for the festivities. Heads popped up over their cubes to talk to their neighbors, then disappeared. Jeff thought it looked like an arcade game. He went over to the nearest face he knew.
“Charlie! Hey, what’s going on?”
“Hey, Jeff, you missed it! Alice got fired! Embezzlement!”
“No,” said Jeff, with an intonation like a quiet steamboat horn.
“Yeah! It was crazy. FBI, cops. Security escorted her out before you got in. Surprised you didn’t see her,” said Charlie.
“Wow, but,” Jeff paused, “that’s not funny.”
“It was from our perspective, man,” said Charlie, half-shouting. As if bored, he returned to his previous conversation – likely less judgmental.
Unsure of what else to do, Jeff set off for his cubicle. On the way, he passed Alice’s old cubicle. He looked in. It was empty. Broken glass, from something delicate, lay on the floor. Her chair, on its back, still rocked from earlier activity. Jeff tried to imagine how the scene had played out.
Shaking his head, Jeff cleared the horror from behind his eyes. He continued to his cubicle.
Seven more spaces down, he arrived at his cell. He spun his chair around to sit and found a broken Christmas ornament on his seat. It was a pile of red and silver, and someone had placed the hook in the center. After a moment, staring at the display with an empty mind, Jeff picked up the mess and set it to the left of his keyboard. He then went to the supply closet to get some superglue.
