Ah take a deep breath and smell that fresh July air. Sure it is filled with wasps and humidity and pollen but it is a fresh new month nonetheless. Let’s see what the first prompt to kick off the month brings to us. Timers set and off we go into July.
Again I seemed to have just reached the point where something is about to happen when the timer went off. Not sure where this is going though, but calamity is about to propel him out of the office in one way or another.
Wednesday, July 1st: It took six months.
It took six months. Six long months of early mornings and late nights, even a few weekend days, but the project was complete. The clients were happy, the upper echelons of CEOS and COOs were happy. It was a success and it came in under budget. Not by a lot, but still underbudget.
John considered that his greatest triumph.
He was exhausted. As he filed the physical contracts in the drawer and then turned to his computer to move the electronic files the project generated to the official document storage and thus clear his desk top, he felt a flash of exhilaration followed by a sense of emptiness.
He loved the challenge of the projects and believed in the work. He wouldn’t do it otherwise. However always when he finished, when the long nights and extra hours were done, he had that moment where the victory faded and he wondered if it was worth it.
He was engaged by Shelby soon saw what life with him would look like and took off for different pastures. There was nothing acrimonious in it, she just wanted to be married to a man and not a man and a job. She hadn’t left him for another man. In fact she was leaving because he left her for his job. She was sad to go but he understood why she didn’t stay.
He hoped that it would just be for a little while. He told her it was just until he got settled in the job. She told him to look her up when he did step away. That was more than ten years prior. He lost track of her in that time and doubted she waited.
The company became his life. Friendships withered and he had no time for hobbies, at least not those he liked. He occasionally indulged in the hobbies that his clients enjoyed, if only to spend time with them when they came to town. He was good at golf, even though he considered it pointless. He didn’t drink so all of the bars he took his clients to served him what they called the special, which was Pellegrino with a fruit slice in it. Often the glass was colored to hid the fact that it was simply water.
Lately several of his clients were eschewing alcohol so he hadn’t bothered with the pretense. He hadn’t found a special to replace some of the smoothies his clients insisted he try when he went out with them, but he was working on it. In the end everyone was happy, the company made money, he received a hefty bonus for his work and diligence and he had the small moment of victory followed by he emptiness he never could shake.
As always he tidied up the computer files regardless and knew that he would go home and make a list of all the things he could spend his bonus on. He would make long lists of vacations and expensive toys. In the end he would go nowhere, by none of them. Before he could make up his mind another project would come along. He had never managed to even buy the big house he thought he wanted. He stuck with his apartment thinking the house would be pointless as he would never have time to be there.
Ten til Midnight 