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Paul’s music choice for his ride home from work was a religious experience. Whatever track he decided to play came as a direct result from his day of calling clients, listening to his coworkers tout the benefits of l-theanine, and a series of conference calls and meetings with men and women in overly starched clothing. Those first thirty seconds from when he left his office building to his car involved a series of prayers, meditations, and ultimate decisions about how his day played out.

Nina greeted him with a professional smile, which meant she had woken up in time to get her morning coffee from the Starbucks down the street, and Paul was immediately greeted with five urgent emails from the Seattle branch to attend to within an hour. Tim from accounting kept pestering him about his expense report that Paul procrastinated doing because he despised any and all forms of paperwork, especially the financial types.

The morning dragged due to his drudgery through paperwork deserts, trenches, and outskirts of numbers crackling under the pitter-patter of his typing. Paul tried to remain calm by drinking several cups of green tea and taking intermittent two minute breaks to look out through his office’s window, which he had stopped doing as often when a construction crew started building an apartment complex within his view, and rather than a great expanse into the horizon that he normally saw, his view now consisted of concrete slabs, empty Quicktrip cups littered throughout, and heavy machinery.

Paul went through the motions of his day, sending out emails and playing online chess with strangers. It felt all around rather relaxing compared to some days. But of course he knew that only to be a precursor to a disaster of an afternoon.

Gary, Paul’s supervisor, rounded the corner to his office and poked his head in to say, “Conference room in five,” before shooting over from one office to the next to relay the same message to all of Paul’s coworkers.

The conference room was built for approximately five to ten people to sit in at once. But the entire company of twenty-five employees made it feel cramped. Everyone stood, though most could not tell who was leading the meeting until Gary’s voice carried through the room and out the hallway. 

“All right, guys, listen up. I got some bad news. Our parent company has been bought out by a liquidation firm, and we’re a bit unsure of what that means for us on the floor level. We’ll more than likely be merged with a similar company as ours, since our new parent company, Vyomir Holdings, owns I believe a competitor of ours. As soon as we find out more information, we will let you know immediately if it will affect you.”

“Are we going to lose our jobs?” a question popped through the minds of everyone in the room but was only voiced by one brave soul to receive the very crush, though ultimately very predictable response:

“I don’t know. We’re just not certain of how this all will affect us. As it stands, just go back to work for the time being as if nothing is wrong, and if all goes well then nothing will be wrong. But if we panic and create a scene in which Vyomir feels as if they need to cut loose some of the fat, then it’s usually the chicken with its head cut off that’s the first to be disposed of. The cloud will settle, and we’ll all land on our two feet when it’s all said and done.”

Paul knew Gary spoke as if he already knew that his own job was secured. Gary had nothing to worry about, which Paul typically saw management wanting to give off that sort of impression: like any sort of change would drizzle off into the ether and everyone would become busy, productive bees. 

But there waa a chance, as faint as Paul hoped it was, but still a chance, that he could lose his job, his medical covering, his only source of income to pay for the expenses of living in a free world. He chose to listen to a Charles Mingus album he forgot his wife had bought for them back when they were still dating in college and enjoyed going to record stores before they disappeared like all the other brick and mortars to the goliath of online shopping. He knelt his head down to meditate, but then got caught up fiddling on his phone for restaurants in his area that would deliver and not taste horrible.