Dreams of the Quill

Masshiro na START … janee.

After his conversation with Ms. Harris, Joe had gone home at midnight, the same time she always quit the office. Nine hours later, he was in the office once more. The odd sight of light streaming through his window caught Joe unawares and at first he thought he must have stepped into the wrong cubicle.

He had barely managed to sit down at his desk before he heard a tap on his cubicle wall. He swiveled his chair around and then rose abruptly, knocking his chair into the desk.

Just outside his cubicle stood a man who could only have been a couple years older than he, trim and with glasses and spiked red hair.

“Howdy,” said the man, smiling.

“H-hello,” uttered Joe.

“Name’s Dan,” he continued, extending his right hand. His left clutched a cup of Starbucks latte. His employee badge, clipped to his chest pocket, read “Dan S.”

“Joe,” said Joe, timidly taking the proffered hand and making a meager stab at gripping it.

“Nice to meet you, Joe!” Joe frowned inwardly. He took a step back and touched his forehead discreetly to check that he wasn’t frowning outwardly as well. This Dan guy’s exuberance was annoying to say the least. “You’re the new guy, hm?”

“Indeed,” said Joe.

“Well, it’s good to have you on board! Our team’s been really short-handed since our previous director—well, it’s a long story, involving marmots and internet drama taken a tad too far, but… yeah. I imagine boss lady’ll be by momentarily to describe the situation. I also imagine that we’ll be talking again very soon. Ciao!”

In a whirlwind of words, Dan was gone.

Joe breathed a sigh of relief.

“Oh and Joe!” Dan trotted back and popped his head into Joe’s cubicle. “There’re some fresh-baked scones up front, brought in by JP. Help yourself!” Dan smiled before exiting once more, and Joe could swear he’d never before seen a human face resemble an emoticon so closely.

Joe sighed again and turned back to his desk. He was inches from flipping his dinosaur CRT on when he heard a painfully familiar voice call his name.

“Joe!”

Joe promptly propped his elbows on his desk and buried his head in his hands.

“Hey, don’t be like that,” chided Ms. Harris. “It’s a brand new morning on a brand new job and you’ve got friendly new colleagues!”

Joe looked up at these words. He had never heard Ms. Harris so optimistic in all the months he had worked the night shift. Had she seen the light? Had she changed? God could make a person change in one night, Joe knew. He turned around to face his boss, sure that he would find righteousness and peace and faith in her features.

“Good job looking up, Joe, that’s the first step to interacting with colleagues.” Joe recoiled in horror. Ms. Harris was waving a fat stack of papers at him, precariously bull-clipped together. “If you ever take it upon yourself to enjoy conversation, feel free to ask me any questions you might have regarding these documents.

She strode over to Joe, slammed the papers down on his desk, and then marched out of his cubicle in a huff.