Writing Prompt: It is a priority.

Morning all. ready for the morning prompt? Excellent. Timers set to fifteen minutes and off we go.

I think I would need to find out what sort of business this is and tailor in some specifics, but I like the set up of the person in charge making every issue a priority that usurps what came before so nothing gets done.

Wednesday, July 29^th: It is a priority.

“It is a priority,” Kyle said.  Anna smiled. 

“Of course, sir,” she said her face fixed into polite lines.  He nodded , turned and stalked out of her office.  She let her pleasant expression slide now that there was no one left in her office to appease.  She looked down at the sheet he handed her. 

The priority.

‘The new priority,’ she thought.  She shifted the page to the side to look at the stack beneath.  She had several more top priority sheets from Kyle.  He seemed to be delivering them once every hour today.  Anna frowned. She stared at the pages and made a decision.  She stood, walked around her desk and picked up a piece of paper from the stack by the printer.  She then picked up a pen and in bold black letters wrote “Working on a priority incident and can not be disturbed, please try again shortly.”

To soften it a little she put a small smiley face towards the bottom of the note.  She then took a piece of tape and stuck it to the outside of her door.  She saw it was flapping about in the gusts from the air vents and didn’t want it to fly off so she added a couple of more pieces of tape to make certain it didn’t come loose. 

Satisfied the sign was in place, Anna closed the door and locked it.  She then went into the window that looked into the hallway and closed the blinds.  Given the light in the hallway, she knew that she would see the shadows of anyone walking by and she would see the outline of anyone approaching her door.  For nw, it would give her piece.  She knew if any of her team needed her they would send her a text or even an e-mail.  Kyle always came in person.  It was him the sign was meant to deflect.

Certain she bought herself a little time, Anna returned to her desk and lay out all the priorities Kyle gave her.  Many were partially finished.  She never managed to complete a single one before Kyle interrupted her with another. 

“Start by finishing the ones started clicking them off the list,” Anna decided.  “Then I’ll rotate the newer ones in.”

If she could keep Kyle away for the rest of the day she was certain she could get through the list before the end of her shift.

Ana pushed up her sleeves, took a sip from her coffee, grimacing as it was now stone cold. She set the cup to the side and got to work.  The earlier issues were soon cleared away and it gave her the feeling of finally managing to get something done.  By the time three of the priorities were cleared away, her phone signaled a text.  She looked at it, checked her accounts and e-mailed the files to the person needing them.  She then dove back into the priorities list.

Occasionally she would look up and see a shadow approach her door.  She saw the outline move to the door, read the sign and then try to peer through the blinds.  She knew it was Kyle as no one else came in person to her office.  She was in general like a spider in the center of a web.  She sent out information through the network, but no one entered her parlor.

‘Except Kyle and he is not to my taste,’ she thought as Kyle’s shadow disappeared.  ‘Draining him to a husk and leaving him somewhere else does have some appeal.’

She got back to work.

An hour later, Kyle returned.  He repeated the same procedure with the door and the window as though he expected things to change. 

Then he returned forty-five minutes later.  Then thirty minutes later.

By the time he got to fifteen-minute intervals, Anna was finishing up the last of the priorities that Kyle gave to her. She let him go away as she sent the last of the information out.  She waited until she was certain he was no longer in the hall and then she opened her blinds and unlocked the office door.  She took down the sign and went back to her desk.

‘At least I have fifteen minutes to get some of my regular work done,’ Anna thought.  While her priorities were punctuated by texts and the occasional e-mail, she knew she would be swamped if she didn’t get her own tasks done.