Stanley is Sorry

Boredom

"This is the story of a man named Stanley. Stanley worked for a company in a big building where he was employee # 427. Employee # 427's job was simple: he sat at his desk in room 427 and he pushed buttons on a keyboard. Orders came to him through a monitor on his desk, telling him what buttons to push, how long to push them, and in what order. This is what employee 427 did every day of every month of every year, and although others might have considered it soul rending, Stanley relished every moment that the orders came in, as though he had been made exactly for this job. And Stanley was happy. And then one day, something very peculiar happened, something that would forever change Stanley, something he would never quite forget. He had been at his desk for nearly an hour when he realized that not one, single order had arrived on the monitor for him to follow. No one had shown up to give him instructions, call a meeting, or even say 'hi.' Never in all his years at the company had this happened, this complete isolation. Something was very clearly wrong. Shocked, frozen solid, Stanley found himself unable to move for the longest time, but as he came to his wits and regained his senses, he got up from his desk and stepped out of his office."

Stanley had lost count of how many times he'd heard that monologue. It never ended, did it? He would forever be trapped, reliving the same 42 endings over and over again.

Instead of getting up, Stanley just sighed. He didn't want to go through this again... He was just so bored of it all.

"Stanley?" The Narrator's familiar voice called to him. Stanley sighed again and looked up where The Narrator's voice seemed to be coming from. "Well, aren't you going to get up?" Left with no response from Stanley, it was The Narrator's turn to sigh. "What's gotten into you? Why are you just staring at me like that?" Stanley just shrugged. "Well then, come on. No reason for you to be sitting there doing nothing."

Stanley rolled his eyes and stood up with another sigh. He supposed he could go to the Zending room and just admire that for a while... but he really hated hearing the desperation in The Narrator's voice as he begged for Stanley to go back to the room after he's had his fill.

Stanley had grown quite attached to The Narrator, despite his bossiness. He didn't like to see him suffer. Although, a while ago he really couldn't care less about The Narrator.

"Stanley! Come on, what are you waiting for?! Stanley got up from his desk and stepped out of his office!"

Stanley flinched, realizing he'd been lost in his thoughts and quickly snapping out of it. He walked out of his office, hearing a loud sigh from The Narrator.

"Finally! What took you so long?!" Stanley flinched again and covered his ears. "Oh- Stanley, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you... I'm not quite sure what came over me. I just-..." Stanley slowly removed his hands from his ears, cautiously looking up at where The Narrator was. "L-let's just get back to the story, yes?" Stanley slowly nodded. The Narrator sighed softly before continuing.

"All of his co-workers were gone. What could it mean? Stanley decided to go to the meeting room; perhaps he had simply missed a memo."

Stanley followed his routine of walking through the office to the room with the two doors.

"When Stanley came to a set of two open doors, he entered the door on his left." Stanley completely ignored The Narrator and chose the door on the right. "This was not the correct way to the meeting room, and Stanley knew it perfectly well. Perhaps he wanted to stop by the employee lounge first, just to admire it." He then went into the employee lounge while The Narrator continued. "Ah, yes, truly a room worth admiring. It had really been worth the detour after all, just to spend a few moments here in this immaculate, beautifully constructed room. Stanley simply stood here, drinking it all in." Actually, Stanley walked right through the lounge, only stopping to wait for The Narrator to finish his ramble. He then left the lounge. "But eager to get back to business, Stanley took the first open door on his left." He just went straight ahead. "Stanley was so bad at following directions it's incredible he wasn't fired years ago." Stanley just shrugged as he walked onto the platform.

"Look Stanley, I think perhaps we've gotten off on the wrong foot here. I'm not your enemy, really, I'm not. I realize that investing your trust in someone else can be difficult, but the fact is that the story has been about nothing but you, all this time. There's been someone you've been neglecting, Stanley, someone you've forgo-" Stanley jumped off of the platform to the catwalk. "What-really? I was in the middle of something; do you have zero consideration for others? Are you that convinced that I want something bad to happen to you? Why, I don't know how to convince you of this, but I really do want to help you, to show you something beautiful. Look, let me prove it. Let me prove that I am on your side. Give me a chance." Stanley was only doing this so he could get to the Zending room. That's the only reason he was basically ignoring The Narrator the whole time.

He knew what he was doing.