Thursday, August 30, 2012

Non-Career Day



 Here is the writing exercise for this week:

CAREER DAY. You've agreed to give a talk at your child's school for Career Day. Not only do you hate public speaking, you found out yesterday that you've been fired from your job - and you haven't told your kid yet. Write what happens when you go to the school to present. (500 words or less).
How do y'all think I did?





“And now, Mrs. Wilson, Carly’s mom, will share with the class. Welcome, Mrs. Wilson.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Casters,” I said, although I wanted to be anywhere but in Carly’s class that morning. 

When Carly had told me about career day a month ago, I was excited. I wanted to enlighten young minds on the wonders of accounting. I was looking forward to telling them why accounting was important and that it was a fulfilling, well-paying occupation. 

It was still all those things, but, unfortunately, not for me. Not only was I fired yesterday, but I was looking down the barrel of a full-fledged investigation into all my clients’ records. 

If I could just get through career day, I planned to explain what happened to Carly and prepare her for what lay ahead. 

“Hello, class. I’m here today to talk about the profession of accounting. I’ve been an accountant for twenty years and find it very rewarding.”

“Working for the mob usually is,” someone called from the back of the room. 

Before I could gather my wits again, Carly had rounded on the heckler with a vengeance. “You take that back, Mark Johnson,” she ordered, her little fist inches from his nose. 

It was then that I recognized Trent Johnson’s son. Trent was our local sheriff and the one who was looking into my case.

“What’s the matter, Mrs. Goody Two Shoes; you don’t want everyone to know your mommy works for the mob?” Mark teased. 

“Does not!” Carly insisted.

“Does too!”

“Shut up, Mark, or so help me you’ll be sorry.”

“Make me!” Mark challenged.

Mrs. Casters was struggling to keep the two children apart while they continued to argue. I knew I had to put a stop to things before my child was beat to a pulp. I just wasn’t sure how. Carly solved the problem for me, although not in a way I would have preferred. 

“Tell him, Mom,” she screamed across the room. “Tell him you don’t work for the mob.”

I was happy I didn’t have to lie.

“I do not work for the mob,” I informed the class and my teary-eyed daughter. 

“Not anymore,” Mark said, and then at my indrawn breath, he added, “She was fired yesterday.”



4 comments:

Cathy & Bob said...

In my mind, you are the Queen of Flash, but this piece, while cute, is lacking believability in that the mob usually uses the barrel of a gun to end an employee's job. This is a perfect example of the old rules of writing fiction: write what you know, or else learn about things through a little research....

Angel said...

I'm sorry you didn't like it, but the mob didn't fire her. She worked for an accounting firm that fired her. The kid just believes the mob is one of her clients. Maybe I should have made that part more clear.

Deborah Dera said...

I disagree with Robert. Theoretically, if she worked for the accounting firm and was using it to funnel mob clients, she would not have been fired by death immediately.

It's only flash fiction, so the story is incomplete. I'm sure once the "news" of the investigation is out, the mob will realize they are not compromised and perhaps THEN solve their issues with a bullet.

Angel said...

Yeah, I probably should have said that she didn't actually work for the mob, but an actual accounting firm. Sometimes I leave to much to interpretation, thinking people will just get what I'm talking about.