In 500... (or less)

Special Assignment

It felt odd to go to his first day of work in pajama pants and a T-shirt, but his new boss had insisted Josh wear something comfortable.

The job description was a little vague, but the pay was great. For $75 an hour, Josh could have cared less what he would be doing on the job. The help wanted job posting provided no details either.

"Good morning, Mr. Reynolds." Amy greeted the new employee with her perky smile, while holding out a clipboard with a badge and some paperwork on it. "Just fill this stuff out, and we'll get you started right away."

"Um, yeah. Ok." He paused for a second, wondering if Amy knew what exactly he'd be doing. 

"Excuse me," he finally said, letting his curiosity get the best of him. "Any idea what I'll be doing."

"Absolutely none," Amy said in the same perky voice. "'Special assignments' is all it said." What Amy didn't tell him was that "special assignments" hires rarely lasted long.

"All done? Ben will take you to your office. Room 12, Ben."

After walking through a maze of corridors, the pair arrived at Room 12.

"Go on in and take seat, someone will be in shortly to talk about your assignment." Ben said flatly. "Oh yeah," he added as he opened a small tray near the door. "No personal property of any kind inside the room."

"Even my keys and wallet?"

"Nothing at all, just the clothes on your back." Ben could sure use a little bit of Amy's bubbly personality, Josh thought.

In the room sat a lone chair. The room was white and completely featureless. When the door closed, Josh couldn't even pick out the outline of where it had been. 

There were no windows, no real light fixtures. He couldn't see where the floor met the wall. Josh plopped into the chair.

Must be some kind of waiting room, he thought. Someone would surely be along soon.

At first he occupied himself with dreams of how he would spend the money. Next he concentrated on what time he thought it might be. Soon, it took all of his focus just to stay awake.

"Hello!" Josh finally yelled, wondering if they had forgotten about him. No response. 

"I have to go to the bathroom!" He heard a sliding sound from behind him, a toilet and sink seemed to appear by magic.

Time seemed to lose its meaning in the room, but as if on cue from his rumbling stomach, there was another sliding sound and food appeared from seemingly nowhere. There was a small note attached to the tray.

"All lunches are free of charge. Enjoy."

His full focus had to be directed at keeping himself awake most of the afternoon, as a food coma was about to set in. Thankfully, the door finally opened.

"Quitting time," Ben droned, motioning Josh toward the exit.

"Think he'll be back tomorrow?" Ben asked the boss, who'd just walked up behind him.

"They always make it through the first day or two," the boss answered. "I'll give this one five days, tops."