MORE OF SOMETHING MORE,
a story about a salesman trying to establish himself,
a CEO scheming to buy out his father's influence
and the woman important to each
30
Despite the warm and
sunny day, Atom Green trod the Manhattan Beach pier like a man walking the
plank. He passed other solitary souls and skirted the Aquarium & Café to
reach the end, which seemed a reflection of the episode at Slade, where a
forced resignation killed something that began with such promise. He gazed over
the water with questions unmatched to answers, when a dark figure spotted the
corner of his eye and became a seagull which hovered until webbed feet
see-sawed onto the railing. The bird had an abdomen of pure white, lead gray
wings and slender yellow bill with a blood-red splotch near the tip. It turned
toward him as though to start a conversation, then looked out to sea.
Was he working for a condo, a car and
entertainment --available as long as he stayed on the treadmill? The prestige of being top salesman? The respect of his peers, though not of the
boss, which proved the limits of hard work? He could land another position and
work until his final breath, but what would be the carryover? Waves rocked the
pier and the glaring sun obscured the horizon, and only the fresh breeze
soothed and caressed until teasing forth the image of Helen Roy.
His brow wrinkled as he recalled the
wedding where she acted strangely, the blow
to the head and then being stranded by the side of
the road. Since then silence was another kind of darkness when he couldn’t
reach her and no one at the company would speak to him, as if the past had been
declared off-limits. Worst of all was the thought she was actively avoiding
him.
Then he got the letter from CO
Associates citing, though not defining, certain events and asking him to call.
He did and they recorded the conversation in which they asked about his
intentions and offered a settlement in exchange for silence. Stubbornly, they
demanded his answer while ignoring his questions. He refused without thought of
the going price of freedom of speech for madmen shouting in obscurity. The gull
squawked. He looked over to the bird that had nothing further.
The
look, the scent and the taste of Helen were a reality he was unwilling to let
go. Though their time together was short her influence was like a musical note
softly struck that lingered, a memory that pleased and tormented. Jumping over
the railing would end it, or off a cliff in mockery of flight, but his
imagination could envision a reconciliation, and then he could move forward.
The gull squawked and stretched wings to catch the wind and soar until it was a
speck in the sky. Atom twisted to keep it in sight before walking the only path
available to him: back to the beginning to start anew.
The characters and events in this story are fictitious and do not represent any living person or real event
