I saw a man get executed in the street today. Masked gunmen surrounded him before unloading a hail of bullets into his Carhartt jacket. I watched it on my phone during my lunch break in between eating a hard-boiled egg and checking my emails.

Subject: Quarterly fiscal reports due this week.

Respond. Delete.

Subject: New Health Benefits Plan. Please read.

Respond. Delete.

The warm dopamine of satisfaction builds with each one I send to my trash bin. Another task complete. Another problem solved or at least pushed off to a later date.

Maria pokes her head into my office with a scrunched, impatient brow.

Maria hates to be late.

“Ready?” 

I nod before going back to an inbox that refuses to empty. A never-ending loop. A pointless exercise in futility. A finish line I’ll never cross.

Subject: Team building exercise tomorrow. Bring a dessert or an app!

I guess I’ll make deviled eggs. Nick, in accounting, always raves about them.

Respond. Delete.

I glance at my phone. A woman in a pink coat films his lifeless body. The ICE Agents surrounding it scurry away. Their movements sinister, reminding me of Templeton, the rat from Charlotte’s Web.

Ping

Ping

Ping

Three new messages.

Respond. Delete.

Movement by the door gets my attention, and I’m surprised to see that Maria is almost halfway down the hall. Tired of waiting for me to look up. Tired of waiting for me to move. She had no choice but to leave me behind.

An email from tech pops up indicating my new laptop is ready. I peer at Maria’s retreating form and watch her open the door to the conference room where other coworkers are already seated.

I’ll apologize later. She’ll understand. 

The video starts to replay, the echo of gunfire resounding through my AirPods. I turn down the volume before returning to the rote task, and the familiar sound of my fingernails tapping across the keyboard in clicks and clacks.

Respond

Delete

+++ 

Amy DeFlavis resides and writes in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Her short stories, flash fiction, and creative nonfiction essays have earned placements in Writers Digest, NYC Midnight, Tadpole Press, and WOW Women on Writing competitions. Outside her corporate day job, she spends her time editing her debut romantic suspense novel and refining her author website. Her moments of respite are found in renovating her historic home and planning adventures to various corners of the world.