The room was as normal as could be. Behind the cookie cutter desk was Mr. Calamity. He didn’t have a name tag or anything but I knew it was him. He did have a bowler hat on though. That was odd. It complimented his suit nicely but still seemed out of place. Here everyone wore suits while working. No one wore hats though. Hats were meant for off the clock time.
He got up and motioned for me to follow him. I could tell this wouldn’t be a regular orientation. Mr. Calamity walked past me and out onto the floor. I followed him as he walked to the far side and then through a door. He didn’t hold it open for me. I went through the door and found him standing in front of three more doors. Each door was labeled. The first one said The Beginning. The second one said The Middle. The last one said The End.
Each door lead to a different situation. A situation we would have to manage. The doors all worked in slightly different ways depending on what department you were in. In First Borns it started simply enough. The doors had one of two things on them. Live or Die. You knew what to expect when you walked into the door. But these doors, I had no idea what to expect. The silence was bothering me. This first meeting was getting increasingly weirder. I broke the silence.
“How do the doors work here?”
He didn’t look at me. He just kept staring straight ahead. He spoke though. His voice was soft and light. Not what I expected.
“Disasters of all kinds happen like many things in the world. They happen in three distinct sections. A beginning, a middle, and an end. To do this job you must understand all of three.”
“Am I learning that today?”
“No. It will take a long time to understand everything that goes into these rooms. So today we’re just going to open a door and take a peek in. See how you feel after that,” He said.
“Is anyone else going to be joining us?”
“No one else works in this department.”
He walked to the door labeled The Beginning and opened it. Before I had time to think about what he had just said he was inviting me along with him. Or maybe telling me to come along with him.
“Let’s go. If you aren’t going to be up for this I would rather find out sooner than later.”
With that, he was though the door, again leaving me behind. I knew I had a chance to back out. I didn’t take it. The Plan was always professional and kind. Mr. Calamity was neither of those things. That made me want to know what was on the other side of the door more than anything. So with that thought, I walked through the door.
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