A Nice Day
by Joey To
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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