Member-only story
Falling Down On The Job
Gravity of Employment
It began with my turning over and ignoring the morning alarm clock. It ended with my contacting lawyers. We are such stuff.
Moving along, there was a passing remark from my supervisor, Peter, in the cafeteria—we were both getting a coffee. I sensed it was a Monday.
He said something about the job market being better these days and my possibilities of finding something “better than this humdrum”.
It stuck with me all day, gnawing away as I picked the orders, packed them, and set the filled carts by the back docks for pickup. Trancelike repetition.
When we’re asleep going to bed to go to sleep seems odd. And thus that night I didn’t sleep well—the weird dream continues—rolling around, restless.
When I arrived the next day I saw that someone had put an X over Monday on my work calendar.
Tuesday and Wednesday were just a blur as my thoughts grew more panicky. I couldn’t afford to be without a job. Even for a short time.
To make things worse, for some reason the orders were not coming in. Whole chunks of the day went by without my having anything to do. I thought I saw Peter looking in on me a couple times but he faded and said nothing.
