She wants to scream. She wants to scream so often that she doesn’t notice when, finally, she does. She is asked to speak to the HR Manager.
“It was just a scream. Screaming’s not against company policy, is it?”
It turns out that it is.
“What about sighing?” she enquires, carefully holding it in.
This piece of flash fiction is available to download as part of my collection of short stories, Office Life (and Death).
Consuldictation (noun): A process whereby someone or some people (usually in management) dictate a change (usually negative) which is about to take place whether you like it or not, but present it as a “consultation” so that your frustrated opinions can be heard, though not acted upon. It seems to be happening a lot these days.
I woke up this morning with the title and basic premise for a story in my mind. It’s nice when that happens, and even nicer when you can write it down before you forget it. It’s called “Cheque 100” and … Well, I’m not giving the rest away because it hasn’t been written yet, but suffice it to say that it has a beginning, middle and end and some tension. Hopefully it will turn out well, but I won’t know for a while because, obviously, this stroke of luck came when I’m much to busy to do anything about it. Never mind, it’s sitting in my wee book of scribbles and ideas and will see the light of day someday. And then I’ll start the long slog to try and get it published… Oh well, at least the inital idea was easy!
K C Murdarasi 