Ted fulfilled his own prophecy of waking up in a puddle of his own drool. He quickly threw together a tasty omelette, showered, and lugged himself out the door. Grabbing his newly acquired bicycle, Ted rode across the community, over the hill, toward opportunity. It was a beautiful morning for a ride. With gas prices at $15 a litre, kinetic energy was the only affordable energy left on the planet.
As was typical on his rides to work, Ted let his mind wander. Today’s topic: World affairs.
The COVID 19 pandemic had become a non-concern in Ted’s town. Cases were low. People seemed generally healthy, and certainly happy to get on with their lives. However, as soon as the end of that crisis was decided, the entire world was thrown in to another one, once Russia marched into Ukraine and changed the world forever. In Ted’s mind it was the most unnecessary war ever to have occurred. All because one man was desperate to satisfy his ever growing ego. Ted quickly realized that people like him had thought the same thing about every other war to have ever been attempted since the very beginning of time. Society had just traded in a golden age of screens for antiquated human interaction. Forgetting that human interaction is the very reason the world is as messed up as it is. If people could just keep to themselves, society would be much healthier on every level.
At this point, Ted had arrived at his destination. It was time to get productive. Climbing the steps of Swanson, Fergus, and Associates, Ted adjusted his tie and burst through the front door. He was really good at faking confidence at this point in his life. Ted immediately directed himself toward the basement of the building waving at all the right people as they passed by. Ted even had friendly remarks prepared, but I won’t bore you with those. Surely you’ve heard similar things before in your own life.
After descending the long flight of stairs. One narrow hallway later, and Ted was face to face with his office. When Ted was a little boy, he dreamed of having a corner office. Now, at the age of twenty-six, that dream was partially realized. Ted’s office was around the corner from the basement level washrooms and a water fountain with old gum attached to it.
Inside, instead of a large window with a glorious view, it was just a lot of concrete.
This was what became of the people who weren’t associates yet. This was the setting in which Ted would work his magic.
Ted’s task for today was to type out transcripts of court cases which one of the lawyers had recorded on her cellphone. Why couldn’t she just save the actual recordings on a hard drive and submit those as evidence, if the need ever turned up, Ted had no idea. Ted typed away, with a neutral expression on his face. An expression that slowly began to sour when he thought of what he had to do later today. It seemed weird to Ted that he would have to be the one to set Lawson up with Allison, when Lawson didn’t pay much attention to anything. Actually, this could serve to be Ted’s advantage. If Lawson was not interested in Allison, Ted would be free and clear to be friends with her without any romantic competition.
It was too easy for Ted’s mind to wander and dream about what could be after thinking about that.
Ted’s fingers continued to type away. This case was an ongoing trial from the week before. Some guy had decided to steal a Jaguar F Type from the richest man intown . The lawyers whom Ted worked for were his defense. They were trying to plead with the jury that it was a crime of passion, and also insanity. Their goal was to get the case thrown out as quickly as possible so that it would not stain their records. Swanson, Fergus, and the rest, were lawyers for the people. It didn’t matter how messed up you were. They would defend you. With this logic, Ted was surprised that the company won any cases at all. However, he would not bite the hand that gave him a reliable pay cheque every month. Ted typed fir the rest of the day. At 4:45 in the afternoon, Ted clocked out. The moment of dread would soon be upon him.
Maybe, if he biked home slowly, he wouldn’t have to confront Lawson today.
Sometimes procrastination saved lives, certainly social situations. Ted put rubber to the road and headed home. Come what may.