Friday, November 13, 2009

Paydirt

A job's a job and I needed some way to help pay my bills but I had imagined myself waiting tables or working in a bar. Just a regular part time job until I could pick up more hours at the factory. Then Kelly's cousin called at the house and handed me a name and an address, told me to get down here fast and don't bother with looking fancy.

I spent ten minutes trudging across perfectly manicured grass as the last of the light was going, desperate to find my contact before it got too dark to see my way. There was a shack with a light on so I knocked at the door and took the gruff response as permission to enter.

When I pushed the door open I was greeted with the sight of a grizzled old guy lighting his pipe with a guttering match. He was the sort of geezer you expect to see leaning over fences handing out ominous advice to unwary teens in some schlock horror movie.

"I'm-" I started.

"You my replacement?" he asked.

"I've-"

"Cheating me out of my pension is what he's doing." The old guy sucked at his pipe noisily. "Drunk, my ass! You need something to keep the cold out of your bones."

"I'm looking for Mister Barnes..."

The old boy stood up, pulled his coat on, his pipe clamped between his teeth so when he spoke to me it was through gritted teeth. "He's out back." He jerked his head in the general direction, and then pushed past me as he left.

I heard a truck fire up as I went back of his shed. Stuck in the newly turned dirt of a fresh grave was the shovel I expected I'd be using as the town's new gravedigger. Mr Barnes was nowhere to be seen.

6 comments:

  1. So, did the old guy bury his boss alive?

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  2. I like the title, that he shouldn't bother "looking fancy" and "Mr Barnes was nowhere to be seen" .....I have a sneaking suspicion that I know what happened.... :0)

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  3. Deb - I think I hear a faint frenzied scratching...

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  4. Very humorous! But he might as well leave since Mr Barnes won't be around come payday.

    I can't help you with the html slide-words-over thingy.

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  5. A freshly turned grave is not a good sign! Compact & effective...nice one.

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  6. Enjoyed the story, Anton. Perhaps you could email BT with sidebar dilemma...

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