Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Ed Loses His Job

"I'm sorry, Ed, we just can't keep you on any more."

I stared. "What do you mean? Are you firing me?"

Walter nodded. "Yeah. We're firing you."

I felt like my heart was going to drop right down into my shoes. "Why?" I asked.

Walter shrugged. "Honestly, Ed, you don't take your work seriously enough. There's too much goofing off, too much horsing around on company time. We just can't have that."

"I can do better," I protested.

Walter shook his head. "It's too late, Ed. The decision's been made. We just simply can't be saddled with employees who don't carry their own weight."

I didn't know what to say. Worst of all, I didn't know how I was going to break the news to my wife. It was going to be a very bad evening.

Normally I was in a big rush to get home after work, but tonight I found myself stalling again and again, finding any excuse to avoid the confrontation that I knew was coming. To say I was a bit nervous would be the understatement of the year.

My wife greeted me at the door with a kiss.

"Hey, pumpkin," I said. "How was your day?"

She shrugged. "Wilbur stopped by."

Wilbur. People complained that I talk too much, but Wilbur can't seem to keep his mouth closed about anything.

"He told you what happened?" I asked.

She nodded. "Someone needs to keep me posted." She said it like she thought I wasn't planning to tell her.

"Well, I think I ought to be the one to do the posting," I said, more angrily than I intended.

She opened her mouth to speak, but I could tell from the expression on her face that this was the beginning of a very long harangue. And once she gets started on one of her tirades, there's no reining her in.

"Never mind," I interrupted before she could begin. "It's not a big deal. If Wilbur wants to blab my business, I won't complain. The real question is...what am I going to do next?"

My wife shook her head. "I don't know. Surely there must be another show you can star on."

"Yeah," I said sarcastically, with a roll of my eyes and a twitch of my tail. "Because there are so many shows out there about talking horses."

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