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swirlsofpurple) wrote2022-08-02 09:46 pm
Title: The Unconventionals
Marcie steps into the vast lobby, the floor a shimmering pale blue, the ceiling impossibly high, the walls an artful mismatch of neon pink and forest green. There’s an unidentifiable scent in the air, almost-mint. It’s impressive.
She’s not entirely sure why she’s here. The other woman interviewing for the job had been incredibly excited by the opportunity and had seemed to know everything there was to know about The Unconventionals. While Marcie herself only knew what everyone knew: They were people with powers who weren’t heroes or villains.
“I’m Marcie Thomas, today’s my first day,” she says, tentatively stepping up to the front desk.
The receptionist gives her the brightest of smiles and leads her to a small break room and turns on a giant screen which fills an entire wall. She hasn’t even finished watching the training video before a harried man approaches,
“You’re the newbie? Good, Terry’s off sick, you can hit the ground running,” he hands her a laptop, “The database and schedule set-up is in there.” And then he’s off.
“Wait! What am I doing?”
“You’re deciding who is getting saved and in what order.”
Marcie thinks she might throw up.
*
Thirty minutes later she’s at a table with The Unconventional known as ‘The Clock’ (due to his complete refusal to help anyone while off the clock). She’s always thought it was a stupid name. He’s powerful and saves a lot of people and would fall solidly into the hero category if it wasn’t for his stubborn stance regarding timing.
The Clock stares at the schedule for what feels like eternity. Her watch insists it’s only three minutes.
“This is your first day right? This is good; you’ve removed the bullshit requests and redirected the stuff that needs redirecting.”
“Thanks…” to her horror, she realizes she doesn’t remember his actual name.
The Clock chuckles. “I’m Geoff. Nice to meet you.”
“I’m Marcie.”
He nods. Then points at the schedule, “Well, this is jam-packed, so I’ll get started. Keep in touch, let me know if there are any changes, sudden emergencies and such.”
Marcie nods, repeatedly and too rapidly, “Yes, yep, will do.”
*
“What are you doing?”
“I’m on my lunch break,” Geoff says.
“Okay, that’s fair,” she stares at the long sprawling schedule, bile curdles in her stomach, her leg bounces, “How long do you take for lunch?”
“An hour.”
“Okay. Okay.” She taps her fingers against her arm.
“Ask what you’re going to ask.”
“Any chance you would cut it a little short, it’s just the list is so long.”
“Anything that doesn’t get done will get done tomorrow. You decide which ones can’t wait and put them at the top.”
Marcie opens her mouth to say nothing can wait, and then shuts it, rethinking. She takes a breath.
“Can I join you?”
Geoff sighs. “Sure.”
Marcie takes out her own sandwich, chews slowly, let’s the silence stretch to several minutes. She’s beginning to get why this job has such a high turnover. She has a question, it’s probably going to get her fired, and she needs this job, but she also needs to be able to sleep tonight,
“I heard if you’re off the clock you won’t even save someone right in front of you, is that true?”
Geoff stares off into the distance, it’s probably a question he’s been asked hundreds of times, his gaze settles back on her and he gives her a sad smile.
“I can see a hundred miles away and can hear two hundred; everything is right in front of me.”
*
Thinking back on that day six months ago Marcie can’t believe she’s still in this job. She thought she would be a nervous wreck by now, but it’s just the opposite. She’s calm and collected and works the schedule in the most efficient way she can.
“Happy six months,” Geoff says as she joins him for lunch.
“Thanks, surprised I lasted this long?”
Geoff grins. “Not at all.”
They eat in silence, uncharacteristically Geoff starts speaking first,
“I wanted to say, thank you for respecting my boundaries, I know how hard it can be, and I’m more thankful than you know. When I was younger I spent every minute of every day trying to save people, I would take whatever I could to keep me awake a little longer, just so I could save a few more people, I would go weeks without eating or sleeping, and then collapse and sleep for days, with a nutrition IV strapped to my nose. I can’t be the one deciding who to save, because I can never save them all.”
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- Erulisse (one L)
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I sure would love to see more of these two!
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I never learned to...I'm not good at pacing myself. I wanted to save them all. Yes, all. I should have paced myself. Maybe then I would still be a teacher.
Your entry was great. Spot on. Definitely gave me food for thought.
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It is a very hard thing, sorry to hear you had that experience
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