Morning everyone and welcome to Friday. Once I’ve posted today’s fifteen minute prompt I’ll post a second prompt with all of this week’s prompts listed (without my fifteen minutes of writing attached) for those who just want to see the prompts. There will then be a seperate post listing out next week’s prompts. Next week of course I will only post the upcoming week’s prompts. I am only posting two this week because I didn’t put it up last Friday. Okay, enough Friday housekeeping, time for the writing. Set your timers and wiggle your fingers in anticipation. Ready? Go!
Friday, October 9th: There was a certain logic to his pattern of employment.
There was a certain logic to his pattern of employment. Charles studied the timeline he created, his eyes tracing the line. He often found it more convenient to draw things out this way, to look at a person’s life in terms of eras and epochs. This man, was an interesting case. Charles deliberately blocked the man’s name from his thoughts. The name belonged to the file his employer gave him. It contained current information and details gathered from other sources. While Charles would get to that, he wanted to figure out the man before he looked at his current data. While it was important to know where someone stood, it was just as important, if not more so in Charles’ mind to know how he arrived at that point. Most took a logical, predictable, path.
This man was not most.
There was a logic at work, but it was not predictable. Pinned to another wall were the timelines of those surrounding him. Their paths were both logical and predictable. Even the run ins with the law and bad decisions were, when looked at in entirety, predictable.
While starting from the same place the paths diverged quite quickly and arrived at very different, yet related destinations. Charles’ had been studying this time line a while. He could see there was a logic to it. Could see that there was some sort of pattern, but couldn’t see it, not yet. He knew his employers were becoming impatient. They set him a certain set of questions they needed answers to and they wanted those answers. They were patient with him, mostly because none of the others were able to provide the answers they wanted and he was their last resort. He smiled and shook his head. His record was impressive and his costs reflected that. It didn’t surprise him that his employers sought other, cheaper and less reliable sources before seeking him out. It was a process he had seen many times and no longer took offense.
“Process,” he repeated aloud. The sound of the window air-conditioning unit seemed to dim as it listened to the word. When he didn’t continue, the sound once again filled the office space. Charles started at the beginning and looked at each element of the man’s life, his employment, his choices. ‘Its about processes,’ Charles realized. Each job, from the part time work after school to his post university positions, were ones designed to teach him how something worked, the processes and parts that put it together and made it what it was. Charles followed the progress, excitement building as he saw the mind at work behind the choices, catching the scent of the man himself. This was a man who wanted to know the ins and outs of things. He wanted to see the details, to feel them, to be a part of them. Charles allowed his eyes to drift from the time line of employment to the other details, investments, activities. He never invested in anything until he managed to study how it functioned from the inside out. He learned how things worked before changing them. Charles ran a finger over the list of accomplishments, the flashes of brilliance set down in print. This man was known for innovation but looking at the pattern Charles understood, the man may be brilliant, but he was like a chess master. He took a move only when he understood the ramifications of his actions. Brilliant, yet controlled. Charles smiled. “I know you now,” he said tapping the wall. “Now, we can really begin.”
Ten til Midnight 