"This adaptor doesn't work," Carl said to Sam, handing him an adaptor. "I just plugged my phone into it and nothing happened."
"There goes another one," Sam sighed, putting he adaptor in a box marked "eWaste".
Before the pandemic the eWaste box had been in the supply room. The supply room had been home to notepads, pens, pencils, erasers, and highlighters. There had been two printers, a mail box, a shredding box, envelopes, post-it notes, and stamps. There had been first aid supplies, paper cups, and disposable utensils. And there had been recycling boxes for batteries and electronic waste.
Before the pandemic lock down, back when everyone thought they could weather the impending storm with proper hygiene and good vibes, the company closed off the supply room. They said that it was a temporary measure because they couldn't guarantee social distancing in the room.
Before the office reopened, an email was sent out explaining that the company was rolling out a new environmental sustainability initiative, phasing out paper products and disposable items. Because of this, the supply room would be repurposed, and the eWaste and recycling boxes would be relocated near the IT desk.
Carl rummaged through the adaptor box looking for an adaptor that didn't have a sticker on it. Even though he knew there was no way these were meant to indicate that they belonged to someone specific, he still felt strange taking them.
"Does anyone besides Alison ever take the ones with stickers?" Carl asked, picking up an adaptor with a yellow happy face sticker on it.
"Sometimes," Sam said. "The ones without stickers always go first. Once those are gone, people start taking the ones with the stickers. The ones with the red hearts seem to get used on Wednesdays. I think that someone wants to make sure that they're always available, and has put these red heart stickers on them assuming no engineer in his right mind would use it."
Carl put back the happy face adaptor, and took a red heart sticker adaptor. There only seemed to be four in the box.
"Why wouldn't they just keep them instead of banking on engineers not wanting heart stickers on their adaptors?" Carl asked.
Sam shrugged. "I don't know. Why are you still not bringing in your own adaptor from home?"
Carl smiled. "Yeah, I see what you mean."
"You going to take one of those red hearts, then?"
"Yeah. I'll see if it's any better than the others. It can't be worse than the one that I just brought back."
"OK," Sam said. "Let me know if it's any different."
"Will do," Carl said.
YOU ARE READING
Missing Things - FIRST DRAFT
Ficción GeneralA first draft of a mess about a guy, a pandemic, and an empty office. It's about missing things. One of the things that's missing is a plot. As I said, this is a first draft and it's here for funsies. At some point it'll be taken down because I'll w...
