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His office view was Honolulu harbor.
It was great to look at, at first. But now, it might as well have been one of the oil paintings on the main lobby. Beautiful to look at, but just, there every day to see. He always told himself that he needed to find a new career, but he never did anything. He would, one day. He was too involved in his own little universe in his own little cubicle to focus on anything else. It was that lack of socialization that made him a bit caustic without really intending to. The secretary at the front door stopped asking how his day was because of his last response. "Compare your day to mine. You sit there and just answer calls; I have to deal with bullshit from people who work here and whine and cry like fucking babies, THEN ask me how my day was.""Fuck you then," she murmured under her breath as he stalked away to his cubicle within the further reaches of the office.
The accountant also stopped by his cubicle to ask if he knew why the copy machine was not spitting out copies. "Wayne, sorry to bother you but,"
He turned his chair slowly and waved at the accountant to follow him to the copy machine. "Who are you now?"
"Travis, from accounting," he answered nervously.
"Travis, watch," Wayne said as he opened the bin and refilled it with more paper. "See? Anyone who isnʻt a graduate of a public school would know that."
His business phone went off, and he answered it with much consternation, "Y-division, Wayne speaking."
"Way-nee," the older female voice was deep and maternal.
"Ma, I told you not to call on the business line," Wayne sighed.
"Never mind that!" She sighed. "I left a whole slab of sashimi in the back seat of your car last night after you dropped me off. I forgot to grab it. You have to take it out before your car starts to stink!"
"Kusō!" Wayne shouted and then quieted himself. "Fucking shit ma, thatʻs a Lexus and you left your sashimi in there? How could you forget???"
"Never mind, I said! Go take it now!" She shouted back and then hung up.
Wayne went to his department supervisor and made him aware of the situation. He even offered for his supervisor to follow him to his car if he didnʻt believe him. The supervisor went anyway, just to get out of the office for a minute. Sure enough, the sashimi was in the back seat, as his mother said. For some reason, it was still frozen and had not soured at all. "Put it in the employee lounge freezer and put your name on it," Henry Omazu said. "Donʻt forget it, though."
Making their way back up the office, they were surprised to see that everything was in chaos. All the employees were taking the stairs and running down toward the two. "Downstairs! Downstairs now! Thereʻs, a shooter in the office!"
Everyone was surprised to see Wayne behind the supervisor. "Youʻre alive!"
"Of course," Wayne shrugged. "Why? What happened?"
"Steve Takushi, the one from tech? It was him! He went to your cubicle to shoot and kill you because he said you talk shit to him all the time, you treat him like heʻs dumb!" They told him.
"But he is dumb," Wayne blustered.
"See? Thatʻs what I mean!" They pointed at Wayne. "Nevermind you! Go downstairs before we all get killed!"
~
After Steve Takushi voluntarily surrendered and was formally arrested and charged. Wayne called his mother. "Ma, I was almost shot and killed today. This guy Steve claimed that I talked shit to him all the time, so he brought a gun to work and tried to kill me! Good thing you forgot the fish in my car!"
"I didnʻt forget," his mother replied. "I left it there on purpose because I had this premonition that somebody shot you in the head at your job and killed you. So I called you at the right time to get you out of that office. You better change your attitude, Wayne. Next time you might not be so lucky."
He hung up the phone and sat there wholly speechless while remaining alive and completely shitty.
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