Normal

January 10th, 2010 by Tony

He was rushing, through the traffic jam, making a quick path to the building. It was a tall grey building, carefully engineered for efficiency, precisely symmetric in every possibly way. He passed quickly through the front glass door spotting a “No pets” sign.
It was calm, there were people walking steadily, distracted by their task at hand. Everything was in order. The occupied receptionist smiled as he reached for her desk. She greeted him with a friendly face, seeking to know how she could be of any assistance.
He was going there to drop his work resume, it seemed a good plan, he needed to be free, to have everything he wished for, this was a good start.
Once he was done, the receptionist asked him to fill one last thing. It was a blank paper, with certain questions on it. The receptionist wished him a good day, parting him with the same wide friendly smile. He filled in the paper, noticing something that felt comforting. A sentence at the end said “Your opinion matters”, he felt good about it, he felt important. He took the paper and proceeded to drop it. He heard people chat lively about their promotions and their happy lives, and laugh about some poor people who they regarded as wasting their time not working and not having the same opportunity as they have. After all they were superior, they had a job which would provide happiness, while others struggled in spending time doing nothing but weird hobbies.
He deposited the paper in the a large box, it was a quite familiar box, it was huge, going from the ground up to almost his waist height. He admired how the people in charge took the opinion of such large audience. He pushed the paper in and it tilted, revealing a small concealed logo with three circling arrows.
A strange smell came to him for a moment, it felt weird, he turned around. He saw a high-level employee -judging by the high-quality of the suit. The employee was accompanied by a dog, walking steadily. He was cheerful, perfectly obedient and loyal. Then he realized that the smell intensifying. He could not bear it. He proceeded directly to the heavy glass door. It felt very liberating to open the door and walk outside.
The sun had blinded him, it never felt that good. He walked back slowly, enjoying the stroll. He noticed two people hanging around smiling, yet this smile felt different.
He reached the bus stop, gently proceeded to his seat, and waited for the bus to slowly take him back home.