Do You Feel Lucky?

(and feel free to comment! My older posts are certainly no less relevant to the burning concerns of the day.)

Friday, June 18, 2010

Another Fiction Friday Exclusive!

Once again I bring you a story featuring a character you won't read about elsewhere. Her name's Dawn Pitteau. She works at a Business Development Consulting Firm where there are offices and desktop computers, and problems to deal with and clients and they pay her. She's good at it. She has pretty gray eyes, and a dream for the future that just won't quite come into focus. She's a well-rounded character, and you feel for what she goes through. You pull for her. As the reader, you find yourself "on her side." Maybe something about her reminds you of your own struggle. Plug into that aspect - feel the empathy.

That's good stuff.

So anyway, the scene opens on a typical day with its vicissitudes. You may have noticed that about your own life? Typical days, always making with the fucking vicissitudes! So Dawn's arrived at the office, 10 minutes later than usual which means she's right spot on-time: 9 AM Central. There's a coffee stain soaking into her black skirt, but she's not badly scalded and it should be relatively inconspicuous as it dries. Muttering under her breath, she unlocks her office door just in time to catch her 9AM conference call. She deftly handles the first part of the call as she waits for her computer to boot up. The call is a tough one, but the way she responds to the client showcases her warmth and genuine caring, while certain remarks and turns of phrase give you an impression of her off-kilter sense of humor. At the end of the call (crisis averted!), you find yourself pulling for her even more than you already were (from where I told you up at the top, that you were pulling for her).

Then Brob pokes his head in, seeing that the call is over (Dawn's office door has a window in it, and in fact it's the little descriptively-drawn details like that that make the whole scene come alive very vividly for you; in your mind you can see the whole office setting, down to mundane items - spurred by these little descriptive touches, your imagination just fills in the rest!). Brob's actual name is B. Robert Isling, but Dawn calls him "Brob" as a joke name / pet name situation. Their office relationship is a bit flirty. So anyway - they have a quick talk about something work-related, a bit of "how was your weekend?" and then Brob's off like a shot. He's got to track down company Controller Bart Haeckle about a credit hold issue.

Dawn has a whole list of things to do that day, about 12 things. She gets through approximately 7 of them, because 10 other more urgent things come up (of which she completes 5). How many things does that leave for the next day?

She works at her desk until about 5:30PM. She saw Brob walk by with his hat on to leave for the day a little after 5PM - she saw him through the window. He didn't say goodbye. Brob looked preoccupied.

The drive home is mostly uneventful. The car that had been tailgating her was pulled over by the police! Which was satisfying, but Dawn suspects that it was probably for expired registration, or a broken tail-light. That officer didn't come up to the offender's window and say "Sir, do you realize you were tailgating Dawn?"

At home, Dawn cracks open the bottle of red wine she'd been saving. She pours a glass, and settles into the sofa cushions to watch the food network, hoping for some inspiration. Alton Brown is discussing Peking Duck. To Dawn, this just seems impractical.

The phone rings.

5 comments:

Caz said...

She's got her own friggin' office.

And you want me to pull for her?

In your dreams!

dogimo said...

!

But ---!

Dawn worked hard for that office, Caz! She kicked ass for years, pushed when she had to and made a particularly killer presentation when it counted the most.

Nobody gave her that office! She earned that office. Look, she practically lived outside the doorstep until finally, they had to break down and put her name on it. She sweat blood, cried on the inside and maybe overprioritized work at the expense of things that should maybe matter more (or she did short-term at least - she's begun seeking some much-needed perspective corrections). Brob doesn't have his own office - she beat out Brob for the spot!

Behind her back to others, Brob was like, "I've got to give it to her, she deserved it. She busted her tail."

Caz said...

Brob would never say such a thing, even behind her back!

He daily enacts small sabotages, such as putting on his hat and leaving the office early.

dogimo said...

LOL!

I think you might have a better bead on Brob than I do!

dogimo said...

Caz, I love that last little comment of yours so much.

That fuckin' Brob, man. I tell you.