Coffee Black

“GOOD MORNING, welcome to your first day on the job at the Control Panel. Bathrooms are down that way, very private. We like to treat our employees well. All five are purely stocked with the best products from across the world. Top feminine products for our ladies, some perfume, cologne, bamboo toilet paper, those dude wipe things –all the good stuff, it’s perfect, let me tell you, gorgeous.” He pinched his fingers, kissed them, and shook them in the air, making a satisfied hum in his throat. He is the Supervisor for this level; everything ran through him, the pick-ups, switches, lunch, days off, everything, and his assistant, of course. His name was Bob. Bob motions for you to follow him down the hall. His shoes click with a sort of graceful flow. You notice the floor is perfectly clean and white. The walls were bare with just a few pictures of some distant land you’ve probably never heard of or seen. He stops and points to a new room.

“So, in here is the break room, you can put your lunch in the fridge, please label it. No label free for the table, am I right?” He chuckles. You probably giggle. “We have a brand new microwave, all kitchen utensils to cook with if you need to. Sometimes the big boss comes down and cooks for us. It’s amazing what he can do with five loaves of bread and two fish. Let me tell you, amazing.” The space is immaculately clean. Besides the white walls and floors, at least this place has color: two mustard yellow couches, a coffee table, and a red high bar table with stools. The refrigerator has pictures and magnets on it from places you’ve never heard of, and everything has some sort of polished stainless steel. A worker is there in the same uniform as you. Khakis, a white polo black shoes, and a crisp silver name tag with their name engraved in it. You look down at yours and adjust it to make sure it’s perfect. Then you continue to follow Bob. As a supervisor, his uniform is a little different. Khakis, a white button-down shirt, black shoes, a tie, and a golden name tag.

“Alright, so next we have where you’ll be working. The job is easy, just like the description. You’ll be there with four other guys, all great people, let me tell you.” He opens the door to a room, and you guessed it, it’s all white. There is a table with a chair and a red rotary phone plugged into the wall. Across from it, on the other side of the room, is a control panel with dials below words you can’t make out yet. In front of the panel are four weird-looking swivel chairs and four men sitting in them. All are wearing the same uniform as you. When they introduce themselves, you feel like you may have heard their names in this particular order before. Their names are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Your job, according to the ad on Indeed, is to sit by the phone, answer, and then tell them what to change the dial to.

“Let me tell you, these guys are great, and you’re gonna do great in here. If you need anything, shoot me an email, and we can talk about it.” He points at you with finger guns and moonwalks his way out. The guys give you the ten rules.

1. If you need a nap, let someone know so they can sit by the phone.

2. We do a rotational nap time if necessary.

3. Only bring black coffee.

4. Repeat back what you hear on the phone to confirm you heard it correctly.

5. If you don’t want coffee, bring water.

6. We don’t question what the phone tells us to do.

7. We share snacks here.

8. No music, we need to hear the phone.

9. Tactically acquiring is not stealing.

10. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever touch that dial.

That dial was taped over; above it read FLOOD.

You sit in the chair by the phone, and they talk to you, trying to get to know you. You answer some basic questions about yourself, like your name and where you’re from. You ask them some questions too, but their answers are outdated. Then the phone rings. Your time has come. You answer. A soft, feminine voice says, “Change nuclear energy from ten percent to twelve percent.” You repeat what she says. They hang up the phone. You tell the guys what to do. You look over and see Luke change the dial marked NUCLEAR ENERGY. When he changes it, all the other dials move to adjust to the increase. WAR goes up a little, EMPLOYMENT goes up a little, SOCIAL MEDIA goes down a notch. You wonder why. Why are these all connected because nuclear energy went up? You ask how the panel works. They tell you they don’t know, they do as they’re told. But they know the choices are just what the observer sees. What does that mean? The observer watches humanity and how they act. Their actions cause them to change things. War never went up until Cain did something, now it won’t go down. Fresh water steadily goes down, too. Sometimes the observer will bless them and have them increase good things like HAPPINESS. Other times, he has to do the opposite. He has them destroy things. That’s why FLOOD is tapped over. He flooded it once, then promised never to do it again, so we never touch that dial.

You can’t control the panel. Your job is to just tell them what to do. Above the panel, high on the wall, you see a clock that you didn’t notice before. It’s counting down. You ask about it. It’s counting down to what? John points to a switch on the side of the panel. To when they turn the panel off. And what happens when it’s off? They look at each other, then back at you, and say, “The end.” They turn around to face the panel. The door opens, a woman comes in with a cart of coffee. They greet her as an old friend, you saw her briefly before in the hall. She takes their order, all of them order black coffee. She pours the coffee in the paper cups. They each take a lid and sit back down. The woman comes back to you and politely asks what you would like. You ask for black coffee.