A Fateful Day

24^th of July was one of the worst days in my heretofore sunny life. My misfortune had it roots in the preceding day, the 23^rd. As usual, I was the last creature to leave the office and I decided to work up a little on my lung capacity at the office gym. 2 hours later, drained and starving, I hurriedly left the office and headed straight to the nearest eating place to treat myself a hefty dinner. Afterwards, I went home, sated and drowsy.

The next morning, I woke up to relentless ringing of my phone. I glanced at my watch with my still half-sewn eyes, and discovered it was 8 in the morning. Who in the world would call me persistently at 8 A.M.? Mind you, my bio clock has smoothly adapted to my job as a government slave, err…employee, and daily business did not usually kick-start before 9 A.M. To my dismay, I uncovered more than 30 missed calls on my log and 10 messages. They were sent by the people in my office, demanding my whereabouts. Then I read the enlightening sentence: The night before, I had forgotten to return the office keys to security, and now no one could enter the office, including my boss who apparently had been waiting impatiently for my homecoming from Oh La La Land.

I jumped to my feet, scrambled for my glasses, frantically grabbed any clothes within reach and ran to my car. No bathroom karaoke session this morning, vraiment désolé. The traffic was somewhat light, and I managed to reach the office by 8.45, only to find my boss sitting sulkily at the office stairs like some rejected door salesmen. My my, I didn’t even have the courage to put on an apologetic smile.

My boss did not utter any reproach, he just stared at me and mumbled some unintelligible words. Maybe sitting on the stairs for almost an hour was too much for him. In any case, I was grateful for getting away with my negligence. If I had been working for a private company instead of a government agency, surely my ass would have been fired faster than I can say “Ouch”.