Jordan squirmed at his desk, the ergonomic office chair no longer doing its job since his ass had reshaped it in its own image. They really should replace these, he thought and glanced at the clock: thirty minutes until the work week ended.

He surreptitiously glanced around and pulled up his social media. He didn’t feel guilty. He knew his work neighbor Preston had spent years cultivating his faux stomach problems so he could spend long intervals away from his desk. It’s not like Jordan was hurting anyone. And besides, they didn’t pay him well enough to care if he wasted the last thirty minutes of his shift.

Unfortunately, his social media didn’t fill him with any more joy than his job. Headlines read about the continuing attempts to impeach the president. Figures, Jordan thought, since the other side impeached the last guy. He scrolled past headlines of massive flooding in the south, the latest theme park to go bankrupt, and a church collapse a few counties over. At some point he found a video of a cat playing fetch and watched it three times, drinking in the much needed serotonin.

“That’s cute,” came Preston’s voice.

Jordan glanced up in surprise, having not heard his neighbor’s return from the restroom. “Uh-huh.”

“Here, let me show you something.” Preston opened a tab on his phone and turned it over to Jordan. In the video, two overweight men struggled to move a couch up a set of stairs. The first one barely made it to the top when a vicious dog streaked toward him from off camera. It scared him so badly that he jumped onto the couch, which then sailed down the staircase to crash into the bottom floor, throwing both men around like ragdolls. “It’s funny, right?”

Jordan didn’t find it very funny. He didn’t enjoy watching others get hurt like that. He handed the phone back and shook his head dismissively. “I guess.”

“I feel like those guys sometimes,” Preston said, his tone philosophical.

“What?” Jordan blinked at him, confused.

“I spend the whole week carrying this weight and finally get to rest on the weekend. But then Monday hits me out of nowhere, and I have to start all over again.”

Jordan considered this. Preston wasn’t really wrong, but Jordan felt more like a gear in a machine rather than someone from a Greek myth. He glanced at the clock: he could leave a few minutes early, he thought. He cleaned up his desk and headed for the door.

“See you next week,” Preston called after him.

The statement depressed him, and he gave a half-hearted wave. “I guess.” As Jordan trudged back to his car, he considered the video again. Too bad I’m not that dog, he thought. He imagined himself returning on Monday as a dog to bark at Preston as he came in to work, only to fall over in his laughter. So dumb, Jordan decided with a tired laugh, but he didn’t drive directly home. He stopped at the local supermarket to look at onesies instead, picked one out and laughed to himself when he got home and tried it on.

It was ridiculous, he knew. And his boss probably wouldn’t like it, but he wouldn’t get fired over it. Maybe it would even make him happy to go to work.

No, he decided, that was asking too much. But it was better than simply being another cog in the machine.

The Inspirational Imagery