And back to work we go. I always feel strange when Monday is a holiday. Today is fine, but I suspect tomorrow there will be panic about it being the middle of the week and things not being done that I planned. even when I see it coming, it happens every time. But that is okay. I just finished a draft of a novel and am setting it aside to wait before I begin the first of my revisions so I am in a good place. I just need to remember that tomorrow morning. For now though, the morning prompt. Fifteen Minutes on the timer please. Let’s begin.
I like the placement of someone involved yet not involved in an ongoing crisis. Usually with such things you are either the insider scrambling or you are an outside observer. I like the thought of someone with a foot in both camps, sort of. I thin I might play with that idea.
Tuesday, May 28th: There was nothing amusing in the conversation.
There was nothing amusing in the conversation. It was a grim breakdown of what needed to be done with the company and it’s assets. Despite the grim nature of the discussion there was an element of dark humor about it. He knew that to even crack a partial smile at the thought of it would rain down a tirade of condemnation. While he agreed to show up to the meeting in a show of solidarity, he was not willing to tolerate such a verbal torrent.
As he listened to the dour breakdown, he wondered if Stephen even realized how little Mike was involved. Shortly before their grandfather stepped down from head of the firm, Mike reached his breaking point. He argued and in the end was relieved of his position with the family firm. The argument was such that he also relinquished his place on the board at the same time. Mike was certain that the others believed he was shifted into silent partner mode.
‘At least if all the jokes were any indication.’ Mike didn’t know if anyone realized that his anger was such that he sold all of his shares in the company. He sold them when the stocks were at their highest, making quite a profit as he divested himself of the company.
They remained high and even for a short time grew higher when the transition was made from his grandfather’s leadership to his father’s. There was no hint of any insider information. It was clear to anyone monitoring anything that he was simply making a break with his family. The fact that he lost out on the bonus profits that came in with several of his father’s more inspired moves was the source of some sharp mocking from his grandfather and father.
‘But it hadn’t been about money,’ Mike thought as Stephen stepped aside to give Keith a chance to explain his sector. Once he sold the shares Mike began slowly separating everything about his life from the rest of the family. It wasn’t just the company he reached a breaking point with. The separation had been slow and steady. Now, he rarely even saw the others in passing and had little to do with them.
Things had not been going well for them I his absence. Like knew he could take no credit for that. They hadn’t fallen apart without him. He had been a cog in the machinery and as soon as he left, he was replaced by a different cog. Mike had just been a very unhappy cog who wanted to find a different piece of machinery in which to function. He had hoped his replacement would work out well, if only so that he didn’t get called back.
Now he was being called back. The family was circling the wagons. He was somehow still considered one of the wagons. It was from this that his current dark humor stemmed. After a decade and a half of being reminded he was no longer one of them, he was being brought in during their hour of need. Curiosity brought him in. Manners made him stay, but Mike knew as soon as the explanations finished, he would be gone.
Ten til Midnight 