fifteen minutes

by nick nelson

fifteen minutes before the end of the work day, mr adams emerged from his private office and invited the entire staff into the private office for what he called “a quick meeting”. the staff members, all of whom had worked in the office for at least seven years, and the longest serving for over thirty years, were astonished. what could it mean? mr adams almost never came out of his office, or interacted in any face to face way with the staff. if he had anything to communicate, he always did so by interoffice email. he never even used zoom, so that his face could not be seen, and his mood guessed at, by the expression on his face. mr adams almost always arrived at the office before any of the staff, with a cup of coffee from starbucks, and with his lunch in a brown paper bag. he had never been known to leave the office for lunch, nor had he ever invited any of the staff for lunch, nor had he ever been known to have lunch with a client. over the years, and for some of the employees, decades, there had been a great deal of speculation as to what mr adams did all day, behind his closed door. the most widely held view was that mr adams was a visitor from another planet, or from a future age. this explanation was usually considered complete in itself, and not needing further elucidation. as, for example, what the exact purpose of the space or time traveler’s visit was. the second most widely held view was that mr adams watched porn all day. there were variations on this, such as that he had a blow up sex doll in the office, or that he brought a new doll in to the office every day in the brown paper lunch bag. and the third most widely held view was that mr adams did absolutely nothing all day. another explanation was that mr adams was in deep eternal mourning for a wife, or a child, or a pet. or that he was the leader, or a follower, of a vast conspiracy, nazi, communist, satanic or whatever. or of a small cult. or that he operated, or was a minion of, a world wide child porn or prostitution ring. or that he exercised all day ( but he did not look particularly fit, and always wore loose shapeless suits so that his physical condition was difficult to judge). or that he practiced yoga, or did deep breathing exercises. other scenarios, even more mundane or more elaborate, were floated, but did not gain any adherents now, after all these years, the staff were to be invited into his office! what would they see? what would be revealed? jenkins, a long time proponent of the time traveler theory, turned to perkins, the most certain adherent of do nothing at all theory. it’s too bad, jenkins said, that old farmer is not here to see this. farmer, who had worked at the firm for thirty-four years, had died suddenly three months earlier. he would never know what was in mr adams’s office.