The blaring of the alarm clock jarred me from a deep sleep. Ughhh, morning already, I thought. I swung my legs over the side of the bed, stretching and yawning as I got my bearings. Another day, another dollar. As I methodically went through the motions of my morning routine I began to wonder how I would keep myself entertained at work today. Hmmm, another rousing game of solitaire? Or perhaps I’ll challenge Sue in HR to a cut throat game of Words With Friends. I grabbed my mug of coffee and the latest copy of Sports Illustrated from the counter and headed out the door.

The doorman had my morning paper ready as I stepped outside into the brisk city air. Just a few blocks and I would be in the comfort of my corner office on the 26th floor.

The elevator opened and I was greeted by Vivianne, my secretary. “Good morning Jack! Here are your messages from yesterday.  Please make sure to call Sue in HR as soon as possible. She said it was an emergency.”

“Thanks Viv. Doesn’t Sue think everything‘s an emergency?” I chuckled.

I took out my laptop and put my briefcase on the floor next to my desk. I quickly browsed my messages while my laptop booted up. Nothing too exciting there I sighed, as I added them to last week’s pile.

I was quickly glancing through my inbox when an email in red from Sue caught my eye: Confidential – Applied Innovations Offer Letter. Offer letter? Why is Sue sending me an offer letter? I have been working here for years.

I opened the email and began reading.

Hi Bill and welcome to Applied Innovations. We are so happy to have you join our team. As you are aware, Applied Innovations is the leading company in company website and email security. Our cutting edge technology prevents spam, email hacking and viral infections transferred through email and outside websites log-ins. Our company is the only one of its kind to offer detailed logging and charting capabilities to monitor your staff’s email and internet usage. We are leading the way with new technology developments that will keep companies even safer from the ever growing world of hacking and prevent costly security breaches.

As Vice President of Technology you will be in charge of overseeing technology development, trialing newly created software and supervising the installation of hardware at client sites. You will also be accountable for supervising all employees in the technology and development centers and will be responsible for scheduling and conducting all of their yearly employee reviews.

Attached you will find your offer letter, commision framework, insurance package and available stock options.

Please complete all the required paperwork and fax them back to me as soon as possible. If you have any question, please feel free to contact me at any time.

Sincerely,

Sue

Bill?? Who was Bill? And why was he receiving an offer letter fo MY job? Before I could ponder the situation any further Vivianne buzzed my office.

“Jack? Jack? Sue is on line one for you.”

For the IndieInk Writing Challenge this week, LP challenged me with “write a scene where an e-mail is sent to the wrong recipient.” and I challenged Jester Queen with “Write a story about fatherhood with a florist as the main character and a new dress as the key object. Set your story in a restaurant.”

The main road was dark and quiet. News of the storm was all anyone had been talking about for days. Jack had been sure to stock up on all the necessities the day before. He just had one more stop to make before he headed home to settle in the for the storm.

He checked his rear-view mirror. Only the pale flecks of the falling snow could be seen dancing across the blackened night sky. Jack pulled to the side of the road, laced up his boots, and grabbed his hat and gloves. The wind tore through his jacket as he walked to the back of his truck. He opened the tailgate, sliding his truncheon to the side, and reached in with both hands.

“Better get a move on before we are both stuck in the snow”, he sniggered.

The road had iced over, making it difficult to maneuver the extra weight. But nothing was as difficult as what he had witnessed when he came home early the other night. Her words had been like daggers, digging deep and twisting to the core. She had told him he was too effete for her taste, that she needed a real man to satisfy her needs. She thought she was so smug with her big words but he wasn’t as naive as she thought. He knew about all her time in those stupid chat rooms. She was never smart enough to erase the history.

After that, he knew what he had to do. There was no wavering, never a second thought to his decision. Things needed to be made right and he was just the man to do it.

He pulled his collar up around his neck and stuffed his hands deep into his pockets. The storm was just starting to pick up and Jack could feel the temperature dropping. The weatherman proclaimed it as going to be the snowstorm of the century this afternoon on the news. That was exactly the weather report Jack wanted to hear.

As he began to walk back to his truck, a blue glimmer in the snow caught his eye. The snow was softly falling on the body, creating the illusion of  fluffy white blanket. He stooped down and smirked when he realized what had caught his attention. She had always insisted on wearing that God-awful necklace – saying it brought her luck.

“Well look at all the luck it brought you now missy.”

Jack fingered the blue and green ostrich charm in his palm. “I have just the place for you little fella.” With a swift tug the necklace was free and dangling from his finger tips. He slid it in his shirt pocket and quickly re-zipped his jacket to fight off the wind’s brutal assault. The silence in his head was golden.

For the IndieInk Writing Challenge this week, ChrisWhiteWrites challenged me with “Use the words effete, truncheon and wavering in your story. Also, include an ostrich. Oh, and for bonus virtual high-fives adopt an orphan prompt from IndieInk. I chose: ‘The snow was falling softly on the body” and I challenged Kelly Garriott Waite with “Use these words in your story: doctor, roll of film, stairwell, telephone“.