A modern man's dream of a simpler life is realized.
He longed for a simpler life. A simpler time, when a person could just take a moment to slow down and live life the way it was meant to be lived. A time when schedules and deadlines didn't rule a man's life. An age when one didn't count ones moments by the amount of traffic lights and annoying traffic jams one had to bear. A place where bills, loans, credit cards, insurance premiums and mortgages, didn't assault you on a daily basis..
Jerry Pine would think about this most every day while gazing out his lone sixth floor office window at the bleak, gray cityscape around him. Especially, after he was put through the grinder by Robert, the General Manager, or double-teamed by Robert, and Leonard Schlong ll, the founders brat, and current CEO, of Schlong's Electronics. As Sales Manager, and third in command, not only was he responsible for the sales department, but often for the whole damn company. Most times, Jerry would have to babysit the company while those two knuckleheads would be out on the golf course, or shopping for some useless piece of sports memorabilia to add to their bullshit collections. Frankly, Jerry was sick of it all. It wasn't worth what they paid him.
He sat back in his squeaky old chair with the broken caster and glanced outside. Instead of the usual bland cityscape, composed of overbearing, faceless, windowed buildings and dingy brown smokestacks, there was a large, lush, green field of grass that rippled softly in the pleasant country breeze. How he longed to be there now, even though he knew it was only in his own mind. It was his safe place.
His office door suddenly flew open, "Jerry, Leonard's on the warpath. Hope you have that sales report and those numbers ready. God, he's been harping on that all morning. Has to see those comparisons. Tell me you have it."
"Actually Robert, I'm just putting the finishing touches to it."
"Shit, Jerry, I need that now. Should I remind you how important those yearly projections are? There is so much riding on those figures. Frankly my job...and yours too! You've had a week to work on that. What the hell you been doing besides gazing out that damn window?" He put his face in Jerry's. "Finish that report, Pine- I want it on my desk in one hour, or else! You got that? I'm not taking the heat for you this time. If you fuck up- it's your head, buddy-boy, not mine!"
"Yes, I got it--" Jerry replied. But Robert was already out the door. How could he tell that two-face maniac that he was not even halfway done, and it would never be ready today, or tomorrow for that matter. The ironic thing was that he just didn't care anymore. He glanced out the window again. There it was; grass as far as the eye could see, and the golden forest beyond. How he wished it wasn't only in his mind. But this time, before the border of trees, sat an ornately carved white wooden gazebo. And there was a woman standing before it in a flowing white dress, complete with an old time bonnet and parasol. It was like she stepped out of a Currier and Ives painting.
As Jerry watched, she slowly held up a white gloved hand and modestly waved to him. Jerry rubbed his eyes in disbelief and placed both hands on the glass. Then she smiled at him, turned and took a seat in the gazebo. He pressed his face against the cold, ancient pane of pollution-streaked glass and wanted to be out there more than anything. He pressed harder against the window as if through osmosis, he would melt through. He wished harder than he ever did for anything in his life. "Please Lord, take me there," he prayed.
Robert glanced at his watch as he hurriedly beat a path through the bustling sales space, navigating around people and desks, straight to Jerry's office. That son of a bitch better have that report ready, he thought as he stopped before Jerry's secretary's desk. Donna met the man's flustered gaze at the same instant a loud crack and crash sounded from inside her bosses office.
Robert shot a startled glance at Jerry's door, then back to Donna. Without a word, they immediately rushed to it. Throwing the office door open, a cold breeze hit Robert square in the face. He stared in horror at the window with it's broken trim hanging and missing pane. "My God!" Donna, Call 911! Donna, Now!"
She turned and rushed out of the office, through the crowd of curious co-workers converging on the doorway. Robert turned back to the broken window. Expecting to see the usual dim cityscape, but in its place lay an enormous field of grass backed by a tall Amber Forest. Robert's jaw dropped.
There, standing before an ornate white gazebo, he noticed a woman dressed in an old fashioned dress, holding a parasol over her head. A tall man with his face shaded by a hat, stood next to her holding her white gloved hand. As Robert watched, the woman turned and led the man toward the gazebo, then up the 2 steps. Before disappearing into the structure the man turned with a huge smile on his face and waved. It was Jerry Pine.
If only ... Your story is a poignant reminder of how many people dread their city jobs inside an office walled off by a cubicle. If only more had the wherewithal to follow their dreams before life passes them by.
Surreal in a good way. After reading it from their office cubicles. Many bored stiffs will leave those cubicles and run to the window to see if they can escape to greener pastures. On the other hand, all they have to do is bring up that pastoral scene on their computer monitors, and then jump in.
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He longed for a simpler life. A simpler time, when a person could just take a moment to slow down and live life the way it was meant to be lived. A time when schedules and deadlines didn't rule a man's life. An age when one didn't count ones moments by the amount of traffic lights and annoying traffic jams one had to bear. A place where bills, loans, credit cards, insurance premiums and mortgages, didn't assault you on a daily basis..
