Well, hello! This is becoming a bit of a regular thing, isn't it? I'm not complaining- I quite like getting stopped on the street to be grilled about Cassie's disappearing act and Ben's mysterious stamp. Makes me feel needed.
Here's the next installment of Stamp for your perusal. Let me know if you get bored and I'll stop posting them. Alternatively, beg me for more and I'll happily oblige. Enjoy x
Missed out? Catch up here:
Stamp part one
Stamp part two
Stamp part three
*****
Stamp- part four
“Boss wants to see you.”
Ben started, jolted out of
his stupor. He’d been staring at the screen for fifteen minutes, not seeing a
single number on the spreadsheet before him. He looked up at Neil, his
line-manager.
“Me? What about?”
“He didn’t say.” Neil
walked away, his face impassive.
Ben pushed his chair away
from his desk and walked to the small office that was separate from the large,
cubicle-filled room where the drones worked in isolated cages. He knocked on
the door and Andy’s voice barked at him.
“Come in!”
Ben opened the door and
entered the room. Andy, his boss, was sitting at his untidy desk, tapping a
pencil against his teeth. A neglected pot-plant gathered dust on the
window-sill that was home to a collection of photo frames and ornaments
declaring that Andy was The Greatest Dad
EVER!!! Ben cleared a pile of papers from the chair and sat in it.
“Alright, Andy?” he said.
He wondered why he had been summoned. Andy stopped tapping and glared.
“No, as a matter of fact,
I’m not alright, and neither are you. You’ve made a right mess of this-” he
gestured at a folder containing the documents Ben had placed on the desk just
after lunch “- and you look like death. I’m fed up with you rolling up on a
Monday in a state. Where the hell is your head at?” He paused, hoping for,
rather than expecting, an answer. Ben didn’t fill the silence. Andy continued.
“I was young once, I used
to be out all hours, but I never turned in shoddy work. It’s not good enough.
If you’re serious about your career, you need to take more pride in yourself
than- this.” He gestured with his pen
to Ben’s appearance. Ben shifted uncomfortably in his chair. His trousers were
crumpled and he had a stain on his tie. Andy’s eyes fixed on the stamp.
“What is that? Is that a tattoo? You know our policy on acceptable presentation. What are
the clients supposed to think when they see you looking like you’ve slept in
your clothes and with a dirty great tattoo on your fist?”
“It’s not a tattoo- it’s a
stamp from a club. It won’t wash off,” Ben muttered, rubbing at the offending black
ink. Andy frowned.
“Then I suggest you get
your backside home and into the shower- put some effort into sorting yourself
out. We have a reputation- an image to project to clients- and, right now, you
do not meet standards. Sort yourself out and get back here tomorrow or I’ll
have to seriously reconsider your suitability for our company.” He turned away
to his screen. The meeting was clearly over.
Ben stood up and walked
back to his cubicle. He collected his things and left the office. A few curious
glances were thrown his way but he kept his head down and ignored them. He
pushed the button for the lift down to the car park level, feeling stares
stabbing his back as he waited.
He felt better once the
lift doors closed and he descended. Andy was a jobs-worth, but he needed to
keep him sweet and he hadn’t enjoyed his dressing-down. Ben looked at the stamp
on the back of his hand and rubbed it with his thumb. He resolved to buy some
bleach on the way home, see if he could burn the thing off. Andy would flip his
lid if he turned up tomorrow with it still there. The stamp seemed to stare
back at him, taunting him with its refusal to shift. Ben shoved his hand into
his pocket so he wouldn’t have to look at it.
When doi get to read it all?
ReplyDeleteWhen you bring me cake ; )
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