The Vow

How loyal could you be to a new job? If it was a celebrated company would you go as far as vowing to remain there forever on your very first day?

The Vow 

 

My first day.

I am utterly thrilled and thoroughly motivated because I am headed to my job in that company so many covet. I vow to exert myself and promise to do my best to ensure I’ll make it a successful, rewarding, and permanent employment. I pledged to get my foot in the door and never look back making it a dream job for the rest of my life.

To make a positive first and lasting impression I arrive early, but as I pull into the parking lot, I find it vacant. Flustered, I check my watch and find that I’m not that early.  Stepping to the front door, I find it unlocked so I let myself in, but with a shock, I freeze in my tracks with the blare and glare of the security alarm going off.

                My head spins as I back toward the door wondering if I should bolt and make a run for it. No one comes running, no one’s there to tell me what to do, but I’m not throwing the job away just like that. I tell myself to suck it up even though this is a crisis in the first degree. As far as I knew, there wasn’t a mass alien abduction or a biblical rapture because I drove in with traffic and could still see and hear traffic out on the highway. So what was going on here? I whipped open my wallet to check the important numbers the RM gave me. There was the security code. I ran to the terminal. As I began punching in the code, a whoop from a police car outside stayed my hand. The alarm continued. The terminal squawked telling me that insufficient numbers were entered. No s�"t! The blare went on and on.

                An amplified voice boomed. “We know you have a hostage. Please remain calm and do them no harm as we mean you no harm, but you must release the hostage and give yourself up peacefully. We are sending an unarmed agent to the door to negotiate terms and conditions, so do not make any sudden or rash actions.” 

                Suddenly, I heard a pair of running steps coming up behind me, and I spun about. I expected to see armed SWAT agents with pulled guns but instead saw the CEO and the receptionist. He was buttoning up his shirt and she was tightening a belt around her waist. Their hair was a mess.

                “So you’re the culprit!” The boss yelled out of breath. “Ah, ah who are you?” He asked with a finger point in my face.

                I told him my name, that it was my first day, and that the police were sending in a negotiator. “You remember me right?” I shouted at the teary receptionist over the alarm, but she shook her head.

                The voice boomed outside making the three of us flinch. “The negotiator poses no threat to you, so do not harass or threaten him. He only wants to assess the health of the pawn.”  A few seconds passed.  “We pose no discrimination to you or whatever principles you may stand for. Full diplomatic immunity is guaranteed if your hostage is released unharmed. “

                I made a step toward the front door, but the boss grabbed my arm and dragged me backwards.

                “What do you think you are doing?” He asked.

                “Ah, hmm,” I stammered. “Explaining the situation,” I managed to say while noticing the receptionist now sitting on the floor with her head in her hands sobbing.

                “The h�"l you are!” He shouted, and then he lowered his voice. “My wife and her husband can’t get wind of us here together!” He poked himself in the chest and thumbed toward the sobbing receptionist.

                “BUT!”

                “But nothing! If you want to remain with this company, solve this predicament!”  The boss extended his height and stuck his chin out, obviously flaunting his ‘boss persona.’ “In fact,” he added, “you can start by first disarming that damn alarm!”

                I gulped, abruptly undergoing an about-face from my earlier ‘high on life, top o’ the world, happy to be employed’ state of mind.  My mind whirled like a squirrel cage. As I punched in the security code on the key pad, I saw the representative negotiator, I assumed, approach carrying what looked like a handwritten manuscript. Wearing a ludicrous marshmallow-like suit with quilted padding, I assumed for protection from explosions, he wore thick heavy boots that skidded along the sidewalk with every trudging step. Suddenly, he tripped on a seam and went down. The alarm continued to blare with a flashing indicator that the code was incorrect. I sweated as I tried to enter the numbers again figuring I wouldn’t get a third chance. The frowning CEO looked at me, and I looked at the receptionist who cowered in the corner.

                I managed to get the numbers right and silenced the alarm, but now heard a cacophony and saw a circus-like gathering outside with all kinds of hoopla taking place. My knees knocked together, and I wiped the cold sweat from my brow.  

                “You’re on your own,” the CEO said. He grabbed the receptionist’s hand, and they trotted away down the hall. “Make it sound convincing�"give yourself up if you have to�"but don’t say a word you saw us!” He said over his shoulder.

                The negotiator rolled back and forth to get to his hands and knees and managed to, after several long seconds, get to his feet. He stumbled up the three steps to the glass doors and faced me though I couldn’t make his face through the thick tinted glass of the helmet. His helmeted head swiveled about apparently checking out the situation behind me. I think he acted confused because there was no one else there but me. Did he see the two run away, I wondered.

 After a few seconds of scanning his manuscript, he said in muffled words, “MMrrrrrff Ruuurrrnn Saaahhaa uumm  mmuurrross.” 

                I shrugged and pointed to my ears and shrugged again. He checked the manuscript and then pressed a button on the helmet.

                “Can you hear me now?” He shouted with a strange sounding, nasally voice amplified so loudly the glass vibrated in the door frame.

                I jumped back, grabbed my ears, and nodded after recovering. I reached for the door, but all the officers outside raised their weapons and took aim. I retreated. The negotiator raised the manuscript to read, but his hands trembled so violently the sheets ripped and the breeze blew the pieces away. He watched them go before looking at the manuscripts remains.

                “Ah, ahhhh, ah,” the negotiator’s voice echoed as he apparently sought something appropriate to say. He sniffed before continuing. “Ah, I can mitigate a lesser offense than you now face which is, ah hmmm, terrorism, and ah, ummm, intent to do bodily harm, ah to a hostage�".” He peered around me and sniffed. “Ah, where is your hostage? A certain�"” he added my name. 

                “That’s me!” I said excitedly. “I’m not holding anyone hostage!”  In my excitement, I thumped on the glass with both hands with splayed fingers.

                He jumped back, crouched and covered his head before peering up at me. ”Whhaaatt? Calm down please. You shouldn’t try to intimidate me.” He said quietly.

                “Don’t let them intimidate you,” the CEO shouted from behind me somewhere out of sight.

                And behind the negotiator, the police, media, and a couple low-key politicians moved around like pieces on a large humanized chessboard.

                “Ah, can you pay attention to me? Don’t mind the armed and bulletproofed officers and the armored vehicles back there. They’re only here in case�"things�"get�"messy.”  He sounded as he wished he hadn’t said that. Same with me.

                “This is all in jest,” I said with a gesture.  “I’m not serious, no�"with the hostage�"there’s no hostage!�"just go away�"please.” I pleaded and waved him away, but he only flinched and crouched again.

“Whhaaat?” He asked.

There were shrieks beyond out of sight.  I craned my neck around him and assessed the growing crowd. Strangely, a monk held an open bible and mouthed something as he looked directly at me. A hermit did the same showing me his bag of pickings. They stood off to the side, but incredulously the police did not order the pair to move away. The resident politician looking for votes evidently said something jolly enough to cause the crowd to laugh despite the serious goings-on.

                “So did you�"off the hostage?”  He asked.

                “NO!” I shouted, and he flinched. Listen,” I said calmer and the negotiator snapped to and moved in closer with his helmeted head turned to the glass. “No, and I’m not going to surrender, but I am a modest person. I’m low-key and reasonable, but you need to tell the police to leave. I can’t tell you any more details other than this is my first day.”

                “Yes, this is the first day of the standoff, but it could be the last day as well.”

                “NO!” I shouted again. “I want to stay here�"work here.”

                “Whaaattt?” He asked. I repeated myself.          

“Ah, ahhhh, you’re doing this for a job? Employment?  By taking a hostage and seizing a building?”         

Despite the fat man suit, I saw him tremble in the knees and hands. I envisioned a young nervous man fresh out of the police academy inside that suit who was never exposed to a ‘situation’ before. Obviously, he was not a very stoic individual probably not suited to his job, but I was meant for the job that waited for me here. I made a vow after all.

He reached into a packet built into the suit on his thigh, and I expected the worse, but instead he withdrew an emerald stone.  I interpreted this as his lucky stone acting as a metaphor for nature and peace, though I could’ve been way off base on that. As the negotiator stood there figuring out what to say next, the grand affair seemed to reach an impasse.  He looked at me and then plunged his hand into his other overlarge pocket while I had a precognitive forecast of ultra-short-lived employment.

“Now, listen,” he said; he took a deep rattily breath and sniffed that sounded like a jet airliner through his helmet communication. “I can tell you’re nervous about what you did. You know this is a bad situation and there is no good way out except by giving up the hostage and giving yourself up. This can end well for all of us.” I assumed what training he had was to implant notions of agreeable outcomes in bad situations.  “Please,” he pleaded with a sniff. “Make it easy on me, you’re my first negotiation. The motto of my police service school was that everyone is ethical deep down.  I can tell you are an ethical person.”

I remembered my vow and really wanted this to end well with me staying here with the company and not in prison. I had to steer this situation so I am a hero to the CEO who was hiding somewhere.

“Now, you listen,” I said raising my voice and gesturing. “This is a complete mistake. Just send all them away and there’ll be no harm, no foul”

 “Whhaaat? Oh! Can’t do that.” He said succinctly. “I know you feel bad and prickly, like, like you are stuck in a bramble.”

Bramble? What is with this guy? “No, it’s all mistake! No hostage, no situation, just leave!” I pushed on the door. At that exact moment, the negotiator bent over with a sneeze.

“AHHHHH! CHOOOOT!”

The flow of time slowed to a crawl.

The negotiator froze bent over revealing the whole unreal scene.

A single muzzle flash flared from a police rifle.

A hole punched through the glass door.

Splinters of glass spit and showered my body.

The door glass spider webbed into a million pieces of broken glass.

A red-hot fire pierced my shoulder.

The shards of glass flowed like a waterfall.

Second and third muzzle flashes erupted before the blast of the first.

A multitude of flashes flared.

The first blast assaulted my ear drums.

I felt the second shot pierced my left chest.

The third shot hit my right side.

I sensed nothing else.

Darkness set in. 

Time stopped.

A whisper of a strange consciousness resurfaced that had to be me. As I tried to comprehend, one and then two glows moved toward me becoming the nebulous figures of people. For some reason, I knew these had to be the monk and the hermit. Hands with arms, if you could call them that, reached out for the essence of me. They told me in unsaid speech that they would guide me to a wonderful place just as a glare of a brilliant white light shone behind them.  I felt no emotion, perceived none of my senses to convey what to feel. We moved toward the light. I could feel the monk and the hermit, but they presented no emotion, not sad, not happy, no joy just the essence of their tranquil being. I paused, and they let go. They understood what I desired as I turned back to the building where my dream job would have been. 

Time didn’t exist; at least it didn’t flow anymore. A crowd materialized with the CEO standing at a podium. The receptionist was near him, but not as close as another woman. He said a misunderstanding resulted in a needless death, and he spoke words describing me with glowing flowery reverence.  He said I would be missed by friends, family and coworkers though I knew no one in the company, except for the two whose secret I kept.  He said I had promise and would have gone far in the company, but the words didn’t seem to mean that much to me.

I see my old physical likeness on a cool metal plaque near the entrance where I spent my final sentient day and first day on the job. I watch the other employees I never knew. Some are young; some are old and some near retirement going about their daily high-pressure tasks. They nervously look over their shoulders or shiver when I’m near and pull their suits tighter as if keeping out the cold.

I fulfill my vow as I glide dreamlike through the halls, cubicles, and offices of my dream job on my first day, forever.

 

 

               

Author's Note

Another story written using the monthly writing prompt and random words from the Warsaw Writers Group. Somehow it works!

Reviews

[Doyen-Cimdhog]

I'm quite new on this platform, and this is actually the first writing I am reading here. I'm blown away literally. My head is spinning with a lot of questions like, what about the negotiator?, what's the source of the blast?, where did the employees com from?