Morning all. It is bright and the sun has finally reappeared after a week long absence. It is also cold. Colder than I expected it to be. Apparently when the clouds left they took the remaining heat with them. So let’s warm up fingers and brains by jumping into the writing prompt and then diving into a vat of coffee. Anyone with me?
I am not entirely sure where this is going. I suspect the people he is leaving are about to make him the fall guy. But I would need more time to figure that out.
Tuesday, December 13th: He chewed on his lip as he thought about the situation.
He chewed on his lip as he thought about the situation. He had two options as he saw them. He could go along with everything or he could leave. George turned to the window. He didn’t have the million dollar view of the top tier execs but his view was still pretty spectacular. And it was his. He earned it through years of hard work. He loved this view. Having started out in a windowless and wall-less cubicle in the center of a room full of waist high cubicle walls, he was especially proud of the view.
If he left he would give this up. He would have to start over somewhere else. He looked out over the familiar contours of the cityscape. He would be leaving everything he worked for. Would anyone else even want him? Would he end up back in the windowless room? In the center of a maze of waist high walls that didn’t really separate anything, just made him feel like a part of some strange herd?
It was possible.
If he left he didn’t know what the future would hold.
But if he stayed…
His gaze flicked along the building tops. They were now more familiar to him than his own neighborhood. Long hours, late meetings. He knew when the lights went on and off in those buildings. He knew when their heat vents turned on. He even knew the times when people sl=pilled in long rows from their doorways far below, either coming into work or leaving. He wasn’t sure he could pick out his nearest neighbor out of a line up if he had to.
If he stayed this would be at risk as well. What they were asking him to do was illegal. He knew that. They knew that too even if they cloaked it in more appealing terms. They were counting on no one finding out. But he would know, even if it never came to light. His name would be in the files, on the papers. He would be complicit.
And he had seen too many corporate giants fall over the years to think something like that would never come to light. It would surface, eventually. In his mind he stopped seeing the buildings below and let the scandal play out. The fall out, the recriminations.
‘The potential jail time,’ he thought.
He shook his head. ‘No.’ He realized his decision was made. He would be resigning within the hour. With the decision made he turned away from the view. There was nothing left to do but put thought into action. He strode to his desk.
Despite the amount of time he spent here, there were few personal items in the office. In the end there was little that he cared to take with him.
Ten til Midnight 