parts

by bofa xesjum

bud jones was a regular guy, but the people who ruled the world were idiots. bud went to work every day. he followed the prescribed formula. he worked in an office with a woman named sally. sally was a little bit overweight. bud, on the other hand, was a bit undernourished. francine, who also worked in the office, thought bud should marry sally because she would feed him right and put a little meat on his bones. in thinking such thoughts as these, francine was a rather old-fashioned person and not in touch with modern thinking. olive was the office manager. she did not pay much attention to her underlings’ secret thoughts and desires as long as they did their work. harry gardner owned the business. in some ways harry liked owning his own business and being master of his little kingdom.. but he realized that the handwriting was on the wall and that the wolf was at the door and the fox was prowling around the chicken coop. times had changed, as some philosophers maintain they always do. the losses were piling up exponentially. harry needed to sell the business while he could get something for it. but what he could get was getting smaller with each passing day. harry began spending less and less time in the office. and more and more time at pedro’s bar and grill, sitting in a booth with his phone and making call after call trying ti find a buyer for his doomed business. he did not want to do this at the office for fear that the employees would overhear him. he explained this to gloria, another habitue of pedro’s bar and grill. gloria did not see the problem. what do you care what they think, she enquired of harry in her deep drinkers voice, what are they going to do, shoot you? they might quit, harry repiled. even if they did not quit, as little work as they do now, they would do even less, and we would sell even less and the business would be worth even less. gloria did not argue, although she was not convinced. actually, she did not really care one way or the other. what is it you sell again?, she asked harry, just to be saying something. she could never remember. parts, harry replied. i sell parts. parts of what? gloria persisted. but harry pretended he did not hear her.