The more afternoons and evenings he spent with Olivia under the ever-interjecting ever-contradictory ever-meddling presence of his ex-wife the more he felt a sibling to Olivia than a father but he watched her grow and marveled at her potential. What had once been frustration with her development had now become amazement. His nights after the divorce he spent beneath untold fathoms of boredom until by accident, he picked up photography. One of many fields of study necessary to keep expenses at the company as low as possible. Olivia would finally fall asleep then he would spend his late nights and other free time staring at the world through various cameras and lenses and photographic software.
Allison ridiculed his liberal politics and his boring atheism. He asked her how she could call herself a Christian but know so little about Christ beyond the morbidity of his hanging corpse. Every beer he drank became an argument about every beer he drank. He railed on the catholic school indoctrination he felt was stifling Olivia’s personality. Allison called him a chump for taking such little pay for the copious amount of work he put into the company. She’d always had a racist streak and he liked to point it out occasionally just to test her nerves. He had never quit smoking pot even though quitting had been one of her demands and she knew he hadn't quit and he didn’t care.
All of this had settled into a quiet routine when he began to notice deleterious trends at the company. Vendors asked if their latest payment was late or maybe an invoice overlooked. Money had been drafted from customer bank accounts but their items had failed to materialize. Warranties on faulty or damaged goods became harder to redeem due to backlogs of equipment sales that remained unpaid. Permits never arrived at work sites yet installations had gone ahead, threatening what were once cozy relationships with certain municipal governments. Available funds grew difficult to procure for certain everyday expenses like electricity bills, water bills, cleaning bills. Trucks stopped picking up shipments. Boats refused containers. Planes departed, leaving shrink-wrapped pallets of solar and electrical supplies stranded on tarmacs.
Hatchet began questioning the ethics and loyalty of installation crews who had become nothing but guarded voices from speakerphones that had difficulty explaining lack of progress but excelled in depleting expense accounts. Complaints about their performance consumed entire sections of the office like a grass fire in the wind of a season that shat piles of meteorological catastrophes across every stratum of the franchised parts of the company.
His dreams no longer spun tales of redemption and rebirth but were endless illegible ink smears on endless rivers of notes on every accusation and suspicion aimed at the company. He no longer answered the phones that rattled with rhythmic screams like hungry babies at the corners of the desks in the offices now nearly vacant due to both mass firing and mass resignation. Many of his fellow employees, most his of them his juniors, had begun to leave at the first wafting of disease from the accounting department.
Hundreds of emails went unread. He deleted entire inboxes. Many of the products and services listed on their web pages no longer existed or the permission to sell them revoked. He redirected visitors from retail sites to single page sites filled with hollow apologies and exaggerated claims of hardship based on material costs, permit requirements and Chinese competition. Hatchet’s body buckled and squished under desk-induced posture while staring into computer screens that multiplied eighteen months into thirty-six.
Allison ridiculed his liberal politics and his boring atheism. He asked her how she could call herself a Christian but know so little about Christ beyond the morbidity of his hanging corpse. Every beer he drank became an argument about every beer he drank. He railed on the catholic school indoctrination he felt was stifling Olivia’s personality. Allison called him a chump for taking such little pay for the copious amount of work he put into the company. She’d always had a racist streak and he liked to point it out occasionally just to test her nerves. He had never quit smoking pot even though quitting had been one of her demands and she knew he hadn't quit and he didn’t care.
All of this had settled into a quiet routine when he began to notice deleterious trends at the company. Vendors asked if their latest payment was late or maybe an invoice overlooked. Money had been drafted from customer bank accounts but their items had failed to materialize. Warranties on faulty or damaged goods became harder to redeem due to backlogs of equipment sales that remained unpaid. Permits never arrived at work sites yet installations had gone ahead, threatening what were once cozy relationships with certain municipal governments. Available funds grew difficult to procure for certain everyday expenses like electricity bills, water bills, cleaning bills. Trucks stopped picking up shipments. Boats refused containers. Planes departed, leaving shrink-wrapped pallets of solar and electrical supplies stranded on tarmacs.
Hatchet began questioning the ethics and loyalty of installation crews who had become nothing but guarded voices from speakerphones that had difficulty explaining lack of progress but excelled in depleting expense accounts. Complaints about their performance consumed entire sections of the office like a grass fire in the wind of a season that shat piles of meteorological catastrophes across every stratum of the franchised parts of the company.
His dreams no longer spun tales of redemption and rebirth but were endless illegible ink smears on endless rivers of notes on every accusation and suspicion aimed at the company. He no longer answered the phones that rattled with rhythmic screams like hungry babies at the corners of the desks in the offices now nearly vacant due to both mass firing and mass resignation. Many of his fellow employees, most his of them his juniors, had begun to leave at the first wafting of disease from the accounting department.
Hundreds of emails went unread. He deleted entire inboxes. Many of the products and services listed on their web pages no longer existed or the permission to sell them revoked. He redirected visitors from retail sites to single page sites filled with hollow apologies and exaggerated claims of hardship based on material costs, permit requirements and Chinese competition. Hatchet’s body buckled and squished under desk-induced posture while staring into computer screens that multiplied eighteen months into thirty-six.
Edit 11.4.2018