Peripheral Vision: A Supernatural Thriller(6)

“Good morning, Sarah.”

“Morning Bex. Okay, what do you have for me?”

“Mr. Collins called he wants to reschedule your lunch meeting-”

“Again? Damn. When?”

“Friday.”

“Friday is no good, I have the Oakland presentation.”

“I know, I told him. You’re free on Tuesday though.” Rebecca said as she handed Sarah a stack of mail.

“Great, set it up.”

She entered her office, sat down at her desk, and quickly began slicing open her mail with a sharp letter opener. She tossed her mail into two well defined piles- Junk, and Not Junk.

“Richard Braverman called to see how the website optimization was going?” Rebecca continued from the doorway.

“Same as yesterday. Next.” Sarah replied.

“Tom wants to see you in his office. He asked you to see him before you do anything else.”

Sarah stopped sorting letters and finally engaged her assistant. “What’s his mood like?” She asked.

“He seemed fine. I told him you were on a call.”

“And that’s why I keep you around.” Sarah smiled at Rebecca. “Give me five minutes.”

Sarah’s smile faded not long after Rebecca left the room. Her head still hurt and the caffeine wasn’t helping yet. She continued to mindlessly flip through the mail, stalling for a few more minutes, before she’d have to inevitably go see her boss. She looked down at the envelope in her hand. Surprisingly, there was a hand-scrawled address on the envelope.

Now this is different, she thought. Sarah looked at the return address. Homewood, Nebraska. She felt gooseflesh awaken on her arms. An overwhelmingly powerful curiosity grabbed a hold of her. Her grip tightened on the letter opener as she hurriedly sliced through the envelope, but her finger got in the way. A tiny bright red drop of blood formed on the end of her finger.

“Damn it” she cried and stuck the pricked finger in her mouth to stop the bleeding.

When that didn’t work, she grabbed a tissue and made a makeshift band aid. She opened the letter. Inside was a legal document from a small law firm notifying her that she had inherited her aunt's house and acreage in a small Nebraska town. Something jingled inside the envelope. Sarah turned it upside down and a set of keys fell out onto her desk. She picked up the keys and examined them for a moment.

“I didn’t even know she had passed,” Sarah whispered to the empty room.

Knowing she had stalled long enough, she put the letter and keys aside and left her office. She was still thinking about her late aunt as she made her way down the long hallway, but soon she found herself standing in front of the partially opened door of her boss’s office. Mr. Thomas Frank, the sliding sign on the door read. Sarah could see through the crack that Tom, what he preferred to be called, was busy typing away at his computer. She knocked on the door timidly. Tom looked up quickly. The expression on his face seemed to change multiple times before settling on a smile.

“Sarah! Good morning.” Tom greeted her.

He was a handsome man in his late fifties, with brown eyes and perfectly white teeth. Tom was all smiles this morning. He must not have known she was almost an hour late to work again. Behind his happy demeanor, however, Sarah detected a fake cheeriness to his voice that made her a little uneasy.

“Have a seat, please.”

“Morning Tom.” Sarah sat down in the leather chair across from his desk.

“Sarah, how long have we been working together... five years?”

“Seven, actually.”

“Right, seven. Time sure does fly.” Tom was pensive for a moment. His smile seemed to falter.

“Is everything alright, Tom?”

“Well, that all depends I guess.”

“On?”

“On you.”

“I’m not following you,” Sarah said.

Tom stood up from his chair and made his way around to the front of the desk as he spoke. “Sarah, as you know, with the economy being what it is, the company has had to downsize. Well it seems they want to scale down even further.”

“More layoffs?”

“So it seems.”

“I’m not getting rid of Rebecca. She’s as good as they get.”

“I’m not talking about Rebecca.” Tom was now leaning back against the edge of his desk. He looked down at the floor.

“So who then? I really can’t do this again. Hashing over who is disposable and who isn’t, it’s brutal. These are hard working people-”

“Sarah...”

“I can’t handle anymore tears. I mean these people need their jobs, it’s tough out there.”

Tom put his hand up, “Sarah, listen.”

Sarah stopped talking and looked at Tom. He was no longer smiling. It took her only a moment to realize who was getting fired today.

“Tom? Me?”

“Yes. I’m sorry, Sarah. This wasn’t my decision.”

“But why? I know I was a few minutes late, but...”

“Sarah, your job performance has been suffering for a while. We have been waiting to see how this played out, but you’re just not that same go-getter, ball of energy we hired seven years ago. The partners have noticed that you’re consistently late to meetings, you’re no longer meeting deadlines, and clients are voicing concerns about not being able to get a hold of you. Frankly, I think you’re burnt out. Maybe it’s time to take a break and regroup.”