A Nice Day

Rafaela barged into Larry's office and dropped the data-pad on his desk. "My resignation."

The woman in the pantsuit shot a glare at her. "Excuse me."

Rafaela thought of answering with "You're excused" but, as it was a cheesy line, simply shot back a glare… an abstract threat of something involving a stapler. And possibly internal bleeding. The woman shuffled out while Rafaela eyeballed her boss.

He avoided eye contact and glanced out the window at the clouds far below. The traffic of hover-cars seemed like a stream of mere dots from this floor. Larry reached for his pipe and lighter. "Why?" he asked, lifting the former to his mouth.

Rafaela raised an eyebrow. "Oh puleez."

Larry sighed as he clicked the lighter and tried to get the pipe started. He couldn't. "Look, you're still young. I'm about to go downstairs for lunch. Let's talk about that new software manager posi—"

"Thanks but no thanks. And I want my package. It's all there, just need your authorization."

Larry laid down the lighter and forced a smile. "You know you don't get the package for quitting."

Rafaela returned the smile. "Do you want me to spill all the negligence of this place to the government regulators? especially those bugs in the weather-mod control software? And you have a habit of summoning me to your office here at least once a week requesting favors."

"Hey, that's not—"

"Now would be nice, unless you wanna hear from my lawyer and every government agency. You do understand the gravity of what I'm saying, right?"

It was, in a sense, a bluff for Rafaela knew that the government bureaucracy was just as incompetent as this place and would never actually fix anything. Of course, she nonetheless stared down her boss as he chewed on the mouthpiece of his still unlit pipe.

Finally, he held up the data-pad to his face for the retina scan and submitted his thumbprint. "You're a real bitch."

Rafaela waved her hand, snatched the thing off him, skimmed the document and stomped towards the door. She even broke wind as she crossed the threshold. It was one of those chunky ones too.

One minute and forty-four seconds later, she successfully sent the documents to HR and made her way to Elevator B. She didn't say good-bye to her loser colleagues. She didn't even bother clearing her desk. As far as she was concerned, she was already being nice by not turning up with a 30-megawatt plasma rifle.

The doors slid open and Rafaela stepped inside the empty elevator, hitting the door-closing button just as Larry approached. She waved to him—"See ya!"—then the doors were sealed.

She glanced outside. "Computer, run Rafaela Subroutine Seven and confirm."

"Express to Car Park Level Two," answered the computer as the elevator descended with a soft hum.

Rafaela bathed in the sunlight and enjoyed the blue skies. Her lips curled just a little. The numbers on the display dropped steadily: 355, 350, 345…

She peeked outside again as the elevator dived through the clouds and droplets spattered against the glass until it was just an ashen haze, all thanks to those professionally run atmospheric processors. Oh well, it wasn't not her problem anymore.

"Computer, run Rafaela Subroutines Eight-Alpha and Eight-Beta for Elevator A and confirm."

There was a beep followed by a chirp. "Elevator A protocols and safety features have been altered and all security logs erased."

"By whom?"

"Unknown."

Rafaela grinned as she felt the elevator decelerate. The display read: 002, 001, G, CP1…

"Car Park Level Two. Have a nice day."

She stepped out to the sound of whizzing which got increasingly louder… then a deafening crash and several metal plates streaked by her.

"That was quick," mumbled Rafaela with a shrug, "I'm hungry now."

THE END

© 2015 Joey To

Joey wasn't interested in writing when he was young. However, he was always the creative type, enjoying visual arts. In recent years, he developed a penchant for creative writing, partly to amuse himself. One day, he was told his writing "wasn't that bad" and so he made submissions. Website: www.joeytoey.com

E-mail: Joey To

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