Stop and Stare

1

Flat on his back, barely able to move a muscle, Mahony allowed his eyes to drift shut and wondered how did it get like this.

There was no better place to start other than at the very beginning. It was a Friday morning at the beginning of the Summer. The weather was pleasant with a hint of humidity in the air that gave his hair just enough freedom to have a slight natural wave that's perfect for the office. He never wanted to come across as the uptight with his walls up at all times kind of a guy. Despite the easy-going appearance that he had tried to maintain he made a point to get to the office about an hour early to get a jump start on the day. Most of his co-workers didn't know how early he gets to work other than the boss's secretary, she usually clocks in five to ten minutes behind him. He remembered earlier on, Lisa Donovan, the boss's secretary, asked him why he would come in this early since his position didn't pay overtime. He told her the absolute truth, that this was the only way to get some work done before the day's meetings parade through. There were days where the only change of scenery throughout the day consisted of rotating among the conference rooms and the occasional trips to the washroom.

Mahony remembered Lisa half chuckled in disbelief and said something generic along the line of "I know how it is" before turning away to start her morning routine. In Mahony's assessment, as far as secretaries went, Lisa tried to be diligent but with her priorities skewing heavily towards self-preservation. People quickly caught on that her diligence only extended as far as making things looked like she was diligent. The rest of the time Lisa was mostly about Lisa, to put it simply, every time she blinked, her fake lashes were enough to keep herself pleasantly ventilated all throughout the hot and sticky summer months.

The first thing Mahony did when he reached his desk after the hour-long commute was to get a cup of water and drained it in one go, morning rushes were thirsty affairs, especially now that the temperature was heading in the predictable upward trajectory. Just as predictably, in came Lisa as soon as Mahony's computer booted up, today in her form fitting designer jeans and a slinky top decorated with all sorts of shiny beads. However, unlike her usual relaxed and sometimes almost sleepy entrance, she was in a huff, "That babysitter of mine, she nearly made me late. I really wish she would at least call ahead to let me know if she's going to be late," she dropped herself into her office chair, "honestly," still in a huff. She pulled opened the bottom drawer to her desk and dumped her purse into it. The bag landed with a dull thud.

Mahony looked up at the office clock, it read seven precisely, "You are exactly on time. Nothing to worry about," he said pleasantly.

"I know, but I had to rush, and rushing disturbs one's inner wellbeing, stuff like stress will lead to a slew of health problems." Lisa looked straight at Mahony and blinked a few times, her eyelashes fanning herself dramatically. "Besides, unlike you, I'm on the clock, I prefer to leave the office at precisely five o'clock and not a minute more if I can help it," she added with emphasis.

"I doubt Leland would care," Mahony said. Leland, their boss, was a fairly pleasant guy that, in Mahony's opinion, did his best to be with it, be one of the common folks, but never quite succeed in removing that silver spoon from his mouth. What resulted was a leader with his head in the clouds, grand ideals that the common folks simply ignore, effectively turning himself into a figurehead that people placate in the laziest way possible to get him out of the way.

"Oh, he'll care, all the bosses do when it comes time for the annual evaluations." Lisa plumped her hair, checking herself from the reflection of her computer screen. "I don't want to leave room for excuses when it comes to my bonus."

"I guess you're right," Mahony answered noncommittally, his mind already back to the report he's been working on for the past week. The growing beast had now gone from a twenty-page report into eighty and counting. Mahony really wanted to get this thing out of the way, knowing that reports like this would more likely than not turn into a paperweight then something informative, since no one realistically would read through it. Ultimately, people would just come up and ask him to give them the answers even though it was all available in the report. One would reasonably think that since no one wanted to read through a report why not just save the effort and not do it? As it turned out, these reports other than being nice paperweights and office decorations, made handy shields. Since no one reads it, all one needed to do was wave it around the next time the boss wants to see some work done, he or she would crawl quietly back to their offices, they didn't want to read it either but would acknowledge and find comfort in that something hefty was on paper.