(c) Thomas Heitlinger 2018
The telephone rang. At the other end of the line was Mr. Knickers. „Please come to my office right now,“ he said. Even before I had a chance to answer Mr. Knickers, he had already hung up. Mr. Knickers did not tolerate any questions. If he called to his office, this had to be done immediately and without delay. Those who did not obey this unwritten law, had to expect not to be considered in a pending salary increase or even to receive the termination without notice. Mr. Knickers knew no mercy. Mr. Knickers was the boss of the company.
To get to his office, you had to pass the anteroom. Miss Grisson resided in the anteroom. As I entered, she was about to manicure her red-painted fingernails. „Do you have an appointment with Mr. Knickers?“ She asked without looking up. „Mr. Knickers is waiting for me, „I replied confidently. She looked up indignantly. An evil look of eyeshadow-eyed eyes hit me, but left no effect. Miss Grisson did not like being ignored by Mr. Knickers.
I entered Mr. Knickers’s retreat. His office was extremely unusual. As he entered, the eye inevitably caught sight of an oil-painted portrait of Mr. Knickers Senior, whose ghost was still perceptibly hovering above the firm, looking proudly, sternly and relentlessly down the wall at everyone.
Mr. Knickers himself sat elevated on a kind of stage at a mahogany desk, which forced his visitors to look up at him. On the left side of the table was a framed photograph of his family, on the right side a highly polished metallic cylinder model, whose large edition the company produced under license and distributed throughout the world.
An oversized monitor flashed on a computer desk, graphically depicting the development of the company in colorful bars. Mr. Knickers was enthroned in front of this screen, and for the first time, I realized that this small, fat, bald-headed person was a particularly ugly specimen of the human species.
„Where are you staying?“ He snapped at me. „I’ve been waiting for minutes!“ Without another word from him, I knew that Mr. Knickers was in a very bad temper. In such cases, it was necessary to take a humble attitude and to tolerate Mr. Knickers’s degrading and offensive remarks.
Failure of this endeavor, then a sudden outburst of rage from Mr. Knickers was inevitable. He hated nothing as much as contradiction, justification or objection. In this irritable mood, many a careless remark had led to the immediate expulsion from the company.
Today, however, everything should be different. Instead of keeping my head down in front of Mr. Knickers’s desk, I looked deep into his eyes. Even this type of resistance had been enough for colleagues to leave the company.
„Do not look at me like that,“ hissed Mr. Knickers, never taking his eyes off me. But I did not think to do him that favor. Without taking his eyes off him, I stepped closer to him. „Stay where you are, you candelabrum!“ He snapped at me. But I was not deterred. I was already close to him, while he looked at me with a malicious look. His expression darkened visibly. Before he could rise from his upholstered armchair, I grabbed him by his tie with a firm grip and pulled him in my direction.
Stunned, he tried to fend me off with his short arms. „You did not expect that!“ I called. Mr. Knickers’s head had turned crimson and threatened to burst.
„You’re dismissed without notice,“ he hissed as blind anger sprayed from his eyes. „Leave my office right now!“ „I do not think so, Mr. Knickers,“ I said coldly. „First it will be settled. Or do you think your eternal insults would go unpunished? The endless harassment for many years. The countless extra hours you’ve forced me to do. The stupid works that no one wanted to do and that you turned on me. From the fact that you have treated me like an idiot, we do not want to talk now. No, Mr. Knickers. Not anymore!“
„You’re crazy,“ yelled Mr. Knickers, and made another attempt to get out of the chair. He was seething with anger. In a fit of frenzy, he gathered all his strength and freed himself so vehemently from my grasp that the chair collapsed with a loud clatter. Out of anger he wanted to rush me. It seemed for a moment that I was going to be on the defensive.
Already his hands closed around my neck. Desperately, I reached behind me and felt the cylinder model on the desk. Without hesitation, I pulled out and smashed the heavy cast-iron model with full force on Mr. Knickers‘ skull. Immediately, the grip loosened around my neck. Mr. Knickers looked questioningly at me from bloodshot eyes. Now or never, I thought and retrieved again. The sound of the impacting pedestal reminded me of the sound when an egg hits. Mr. Knicker’s eyes stared in disbelief as he collapsed. With a thump, he fell motionless to the ground. Mr. Knickers Senior looked contentedly out of his picture frame as if he had been waiting for this moment for years.
Alarmed by the noise, Miss Grisson opened the heavy office door. „Did you call?“ She asked, and in the next moment struck her hands in horror as she charged at the lifeless Mr. Knickers.
Tear-filled, she leaned over him.
When she saw his bloodied face, she gave a short, shrill scream. „You murdered him!“ She shrieked. All the evidence spoke against me, especially since I still held the bloody model cylinder in my hand. Miss Grisson, shaking all over, struggled for composure. She picked up the phone to call the police.
There was only one way for me. I had to act. The model cylinder reached its climax in a kind of curve and then accelerated to then hit precise Miss Grisson’s skull. Already after the first blow she sank to the floor with a loud sigh. She would never again spread nasty rumors about me. A sudden silence filled the room. Miss Grisson stared wide-eyed at Mr. Knickers, who could not answer her gaze.
The model cylinder, though not designed for such purposes, had had an effect.
The telephone rang. Reluctantly I took off the data glove and the data helmet. On the phone was Miss Grisson. „Come to Mr. Knickers immediately,“ she said in a threatening tone. „He wishes to see you on the spot!“
I hung up, left cyberspace and finished the virtual reality program on my PC. A very relaxing bauble!
Struggling to get out of my chair, I left my office and shuffled through the antechamber of Miss Grisson to Mr. Knickers. „Why are you dawdling around so long?“ He snapped. „I’ve been waiting for minutes.“ Without another word from him, I knew that Mr. Knickers was in a very bad mood and approached his desk with my head down.
Reality can be so cruel!