Forgotten Stories

Jack

The sound of alarm clock startled Jack waking him up jumping from the bed. He looked at the time; it was seven in the morning. He let out a long sigh, turned the alarm off and then with slow movements he made his way towards the bathroom. He systematically did his morning ritual, a shower, got dressed made a coffee and on he went to his work.

When he entered his car and put the keys in the ignition it didn't start. He tried again and again but the car didn't seem to be on his side today and refused to start. He looked at his watch and it was now seven forty five, he let out another long sigh, exited his car made his way towards his work by foot. On his way there he thought of how his life been the years since he got his "dream" job. He was living alone on a small house far away from the city, he didn't have a romantic relationship and all his friends seemed to have forgotten about him. Another sigh came out and looked at the sky as if he was waiting for help from the universe.

He was deep in thoughts when he arrived at his office. The movements and things he did everyday had been so impended under his skin that he himself didn't realize when he reached the place of his work, the place of his everyday torment. He sat down on his desk, fired up his computer and started working relentlessly for the next eight hours. Numbers came up on his screen, he made them "better" as he thought to himself, made the charts look fancier and off it was to his supervisor's mail and again from the start a new sheet would appear and he would diligently work on it with the same expressionless face.

A little after four he was finally ready to go back home when his supervisor called him in the office. He went inside and sat on the big armchair in front of his boss' desk. He watched her as she pushed buttons on her PC fast and calculating. After she was done she turned and faced Jack. "Mr. Rodriguez you know why I called you here?" Jack looked everywhere but her eyes and didn't answer "I called you here today to congratulate you; you are one of our most average people in this company and I called you here today to give you this ribbon" she extended her arm and gave Jack a Blue and Red ribbon with a silver medal on it, the words "Congratulations you are average" written on it. Jack felt a strange happiness, he took the ribbon and thanked his manager but she didn't even reply, she was back to pushing buttons faster than before. Jack got up, left his work and made his way home.

As he was walking the way back he looked at the ribbon, a realization came to his mind. His supervisor called him average and gave him a "reward" which means nothing. A ploy that the corporation he was working for used to keep their workforce in check or simply an act to ridicule. He put the ribbon back to his pocket and thought about all the aspirations he had. The struggle to climb the chain of command and eventually become one of the best investor's in the city, yet all he managed to do for the past fifteen years was to simply wake up, go to work, come back home and waste his life away on television and cheap food. He decided that would change, once he would return home he would get his life together, he would learn new things, he would exercise, he would become the man he was destined to be.

When he entered home he threw his bag on the corner as usual, took a pre-made dinner from the fridge and put it on the microwave. He watched the food as it turned around. His mind filled with all the things he was about to change, how better his life would be. The sound of the microwave snapped him out of his day dreaming. He took the plate and sat on his sofa, fired up his television. "I will start once I eat" he said. Once he was done eating his favorite show came up on the TV, "I will start once it's over" he said and sat on his couch without moving for the next six hours changing channel after channel. "I will start tomorrow, I will do this and that it will be awesome" he said as he went to bed.

The next day he again did his ritual, shower coffee and off to work all the while he was saying he would begin working on himself after work. He came home prepared his meal and sat in front of the TV in his cozy sofa until he once again spent the day doing nothing, "Tomorrow for sure" he said as he closed his eyes.

Thirty years past since the day Jack made the decision to change his life and now it came to an end. The coffin he was buried to was covered by a tombstone, big enough to be seen. On it the words Gone but not forgotten were written by the office that took the job of sending him off to the afterlife. In his funeral there weren't more than ten people including the priest and the men that was their job to fill the grave. No one from his work came to the funeral and only one of his friends appeared only because he was happy that Jack was gone, the rest simply came in to see who died. Jack was gone now; his life for forty-five years was the same. He always said he would change things but never did until the day he couldn't change anything anymore. Truly a tragic man in this tragic world.