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The Worker

A Short Story

By James CrawfordPublished 2 years ago 3 min read
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The Worker
Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash

One more task today is one less task tomorrow chimed one of many various thoughts dancing around in The Worker's mind. There was lots to do and very little time. Seconds ticking away on the digital clock display on her computer monitors. There are not a lot of seconds contained within the 15 minutes that remained in her shift.

Pretty soon, yet another dreaded knocking was heard from The Worker's wooden door. Without glancing, The Worker held out her hand and, within seconds, another task-filled document was placed on her palm. One swift motion and it was placed in her task inbox on her desk. The Worker motioned for her coworker's dismissal and to close her door on the way out of her office.

Finally The Worker thought to herself back to one more simple task. Unfortunately, the task was barely 50% complete when she noticed the digital time. 

"6pm…" she said in disgust of herself. "You already have enough overtime hours as it is! Why do you do this to yourself?!?". She was preparing to throw papers within arm's reach in random directions when the all-too-familiar thought blared out in her mind.

One more task today is one less task tomorrow.

"Yeah, yeah I get it" she said as if her thoughts were another person in the room witnessing her demise. "Just like how one more doughnut today is one less doughnut in your house tomorrow".

Touche the blared thought replied as it disappeared into the corners of her mind.

It wasn't that much longer before The Worker could pause, make note of the current task's final steps and start closing down her programs for the day. She let out a long, deep sigh as her computer began the log off sequence.

It was now 7pm and she was exhausted from the day. Grabbing her keys and coat in some more somewhat-swift motions, she left her office and began the journey from her workplace to her vehicle.

Just as she pressed the unlock button on her car fob did she soon realize a detail about her current task. One detail that hit the forefront of her brain almost as fast as she whipped out her smartphone. Soon, she had punched said task details into the glass slab's virtual keyboard, locked her phone and slid it back into her pocket.

"Finally" she whispered after another long, deep sigh. "Now I can go home."

Mere seconds later, after opening the car door and collapsing into the driver's seat, she had to rinse and repeat the same phone-punching-details exercise again. Then, she could finally start her car and begin the commute home.

You might be able to leave work… her thoughts rung through her emptying cranium … but work will never truly leave you, my pretty.

She knew it would not be long before her work alarm would sound off in the darkness. Signaling for yet another day. Another crack at her corporate can of fulfilling her upmost duty. Another chance to try and complete one more task that day so she has one less task the following day.

After all, isn't that the whole point of a career? Getting that one additional task done before your next day? Next Year? Your last year? Your retirement?

She dismissed how rapidly that last thought was summarizing the rest of her life as she approached her familiar street. Her home street. Not her work street.

Pulling into her driveway normally brought a sense of ease, but the later work night today didn't seem to help much. Combo that with her last train of thought and she was really in the mood for a couple episodes of a really hysterical sitcom.

Might even need to be something dark and harsh to really help me forget the day.

After settling into her comfy clothes, with pizza in hand, she began binging a random show that seemed to contain dark comedy. Pretty soon, her mellow facial expressions turned into occasional grins. Random laughter would escape at times, but not repetitively.

Soon, The Worker powered down her television and navigated to her bed. One last thought came into her mind: 

One more sad day today is one more happy day tomorrow.

Short Story
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About the Creator

James Crawford

Just a simple Christian/techie/gamer that also goes by the musical artist name "newbjamsir" as well as "newbpcsir" on Twitch and YouTube. You could say I've got a thing for music, gaming, sci-fi, technology and writing stuff.

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