Stories tagged work

Umemployment

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The line of the unemployed wrapped back on itself like an accordion pleat and extended all the way across a great hall You could see the faces of them, bluish and drawn under the dim florescent lighting First in line were laid-off be

ditch digger (new title: how a shovel works)

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"Lady, if Walter says there's a broken pipe down there, there IS a broken pipe down there."

The Saved Man

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I talked to the Saved Man in a bar in Khao Lak, Christmas Day 2004. Not that I cared that it was Christmas: I remember the date because of what happened the next day.

Who Is Without Flaws

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We ate takeout Chinese. Two days before, we learned the feds were coming. Two months into this job, it was time to call my parents, say, I’m jobless again.

Transgression

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I look as sympathetic as I can, under the circumstance, which is entirely unsympathetic.

a microcosm

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The right is empty, waiting to receive the load like a catcher behind home plate.

Brown Paper

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“Americans like beer, right?” he asks. “It’s not acceptable for a woman to buy beer.” He proffers it in a brown paper bag.

Volume

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Something reached into Avi and took his voice, turning his volume to zero.... A short story of one day. A man going to work, a little magic, a car crash, and a wedding.

Workplace

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me and my best mate, with a fat polish girl on his lap, her hip tight against the dashboard and she’s laughing at all our jokes told in very bad French.

O' Bending Light

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The woman smiled at the scene. She closed her eyes to accept one final, warm kiss before the fence swallowed the sun whole. A cool breeze stirred itself from slumber, fanning Muriel’s face the moment the sun’s last ray stopped lingering.

Advice from the Prettiest Girl in the Office

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I won't have to see the inside of an office building ever again. Well, except when I finally start that charity in my name that helps homeless teens look more attractive.

Factory Worker

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Hits start, enters numbers, runs the program / Does this again one hundred times / Then takes a break

Odd Man Out

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I stand frozen on the wall, with 40 pounds of tarpaulin slung over my shoulder. A late winter chinook wind howls off the front range. Stevie says we've been assigned to move a stack of tarps to another spot. This involves navigating a traverse of about 50 feet across…

No Place for Unicorns or Teddy Bears

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The ironic symbolism of thinking about fornication while feeding an 8 foot long steel shaft into the orifice of a machine that chops it into little pieces is not completely lost on me. However, this is no place to contemplate life in terms of Freudian ima

50 Minute Fight

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Snap! Dylan’s arms flung forward as the rod bent toward the ocean. “Holy God! What did I snag?