Morning all, another Monday another prompt. I hope you had a fabulous weekend and are ready to roll out the last of February in style. So timers at the ready and let’s kick off the week.
This is one where I will need to think about the business. I like the idea of a character who knows someone is attempting to use him as a scape goat though. even if I don’t use it in this story, I think I’ll use the idea elsewhere.
Monday, February 26th: His hair stood up in rough spikes.
His hair stood up in rough spikes. He caught sight of himself reflected in the glass of the window and tried to smooth them down. It was no use. Kevin spent far too much of the day running his hand through his hair for it to attempt laying down flat now. It was an old habit and no matter how hard he tried to break himself of it, whenever his thoughts were occupied elsewhere, his hand would begin it’s way to his head, fingers combing though his hair and pulling the strands upwards.
An old girlfriend once told him that it looked as though he was trying to pull the thoughts out of his brain by extracting them through the roots. Kevin was never aware of the action until later and never felt as though he was actually pulling his hair. Certainly, none of it ever came out in his hands.
His thoughts never scalped him bald.
Today though it felt as if his memory was showing blank patches. He turned away from the window and hurried on. No matter how many times he went over the report, entire sections of it seemed off.
‘And not like something I would write. He went through it multiple times and in the end concluded he hadn’t written them. He found an old draft of the report that he saved for his files. It had all but the cover page and filing document attached. It too was missing those extra addendums that were in the final report he was asked to sign off on.
Not knowing exactly what to do about it, Kevin stared at the report for longer than he intended. So long n fact that Mr. Watkins actually sent him a direct e-mail asking about it. Mr. Watkins wasn’t his direct supervisor. He wasn’t even Kevin’s boss. He was his boss’s boss.
‘Possibly my boss’s, boss’s, boss.’ Kevin thought. He was so far above hm on the food chain that Kevin didn’t realize Mr. Watkins knew he existed. When Kevin explained the discrepancies causing his delay, he was asked to send a copy of his edit along with the final edit so that he could find out who added the sections and why. Kevin did as he was told. He didn’t have the authority to do otherwise, and both his direct supervisor and his boss were out of the office and unavailable.
Now, as he made his way home at the end of the day, he wondered what would happen. He doubted those other sections mysteriously jumped into the report for no reason. Kevin knew the items those sections referred to, but they were not projects he had any involvement in and wouldn’t know anything about.
‘That report would come from elsewhere.’ Kevin thought. ‘An entirely different department.’
As Kevin walked he found himself turning over possible reason for their inclusion. There was one thought that kept cropping up. One reason for them to be in his report.
‘Scapegoat.’
He hated the thought. Hated that it was circling. Hated that he couldn’t shake it.
‘It wouldn’t be the first time.’ He finally admitted as he reached his apartment building and let himself in. he picked up his mail from his box and continued on, typing his code into the box. Th door buzzed, he opened it and stepped inside, making sure it closed behind him. He walked to the elevator.
Three weeks ago his friend Troy was fired for falsifying data for a report. While Troy was able to find work elsewhere, he was not pleased with the hit his reputation took. ‘But that’s not even my department.’
The elevator dinged and the doors opened, Kevin stepped inside and pressed the button for his floor. Troy swore up and down that he had no knowledge of those numbers. That an entire column was added that he didn’t know about as well as a project he had never even heard of.
‘And I had several sections. He had been obsessing about it all afternoon and Kevin knew there was nothing he could do now except wait for Mr. Watkins to review the material. Somehow, that didn’t stop him from worrying.
Ten til Midnight 