“You
must... get out of here...”
He
stood there, staring at a reflection of himself.
“Please...
You must escape from this place...”
A
voice called out to him. It was a woman's voice, but he couldn't
quite recognize it. It seemed to be coming from above him, or maybe
behind him. “Where are you?” he called back to it. He looked
around himself and was greeted by his own reflection on all sides,
some larger than others. He reached out towards the image of
himself, and his hand brushed a pane of glass. He ran his hand along
the mirror, but his side quickly struck another wall. He turned,
still running his hand along the glass, and started moving towards
the smaller reflection of himself he now saw before him.
“No,
not that way! Come to my voice!”
“Who's
there?” he asked, to no response, then he almost fell sideways as
the mirror under his arm suddenly ran out. He turned to see a
corridor leading that way that he hadn't spotted before. He started
down the hallway, but then something made him stop. The hallway
opened to a large room, surrounded by mirrors on all sides, but in
here each one contained its own image, more like a picture than a
mirror. “What is this all about?”, he demanded.
“Please,
just come back. Everything will be all right.”
Aidan
glanced back towards the hallway he had just left, but his curiosity
was too strong. He walked closer to the mirror beside him for a
closer look, and the image inside the mirror became clearer. It was
a reflection of himself, but here he was laughing, and he seemed very
happy. He turned to his left, and in this one, he looked upset,
though he wasn't sure why. Aidan walked down the corridor, passing
by images of himself eating, talking, running, playing, crying, and
many other such things. In some of the images, he was younger than
he was now, as though he was looking into his past. Then he came to
the end of the corridor, and the reflection in front of him showed
him at his desk, looking completely bored and expressionless.
“Please,
no”, said the voice. “Don't go any further”.
“Why
are you bothering me?” He demanded of the voice. “I don't know
you!”
The
voice sounded hurt. “You can't mean that... after all we've been
through.”
The
image in the mirror became hazy. “I don't think I've ever met
you”, he told the voice. He put his hand on the mirror again, then
quickly drew it back as the image seemed to change under his touch.
When he looked at it again, the mirror showed a dark silhouette, with
horns and a tail.
“It
doesn't matter”, the voice said. “Just get out of there!”
Aidan
reached out towards the dark figure, but something was pulling him
back. He threw his whole body towards the mirror, but as he did so,
the image disappeared, and he fell right through. Through the
mirror, and past the ground, he was falling, falling...
---
Aidan
sat up in bed and rubbed his forehead with his left hand. “What a
weird dream.” He tried to recall the details, but it was already
growing hazy. His sheets were on the floor, so he picked them up and
remade the bed. “...Escape from this place”, he remembered, and
he recalled the bored image of himself he had seen. “Is my
subconscious trying to tell me to leave my job?”
He
milled over it a bit more as he took his morning shower. “A woman
was calling for me in the dream, as though we knew each other”. He
wondered if that was what he really wanted, more than a new job. He
hadn't really thought about it lately, but it had been a very long
time since he'd been on a date. He shook his head and dried himself
off. “What I was really hoping for was to get a good night's
sleep”, he lamented, looking back at his bed wistfully, but morning
had already arrived. He popped a couple slices of bread in the
toaster, combed his hair and dressed himself, then ate the toast and
grabbed his sandwich and an orange for lunch. He tossed them in his
briefcase and he was on his way.
It
was cold and miserable outside this morning. The wind whipped
through barren trees, chilling him through his overcoat. The moon
was still shining bright, and a few stars twinkled in the sky. He
hurried along, anxious for a warm cup of coffee. A bus passed by,
picking up a few people waiting under a street lamp, the squeal of
its brakes the only sound disrupting an otherwise sleeping world. “I
should get a car”, he thought, but a parking space at the apartment
building was expensive. “I can afford it”, he told himself, but
he probably still wasn't going to do it. He often thought about
making changes to his life, but they rarely came to fruition.
He
arrived at his local station early enough for a cup of coffee, which
made him feel much better, and he picked up a newspaper for the ride
in to work. He wasn't able to get a window seat today, but it didn't
really matter. He chose a seat near the front, stowed his briefcase,
and opened up the paper. He started with the business section,
reading a report about the current state of unemployment and
inflation, but he quickly found himself on the comics page instead.
Most of the strips were from continuing storylines and he didn't read
them often enough to know what was going on, but he still enjoyed the
momentary break from seriousness it afforded him. He had drawn a
comic for the school newspaper back in university, it seemed like so
long ago now. He smiled, remembering one of the strips he had done:
A bunch of business executives were stranded on a deserted island,
and they were holding a strategy meeting to determine what they
should do. They discussed the housing market, the federal reserve,
and subsidies for farm workers. On the next panel, they were all
dead. Econ students loved that one.
Despite
the cold weather, Central Station was just as full of activity as it
always was. Aidan shivered a little as he got off his train and
hurried inside the main terminal, where it was warmer. He had long
since finished his coffee, but a quick look at the line made it clear
there was no time for another one, the only thing to do was hurry to
his workplace and the free drinks contained therein. Heading back
outside, he joined the throng of people crossing the main streets to
reach the tall office towers that loomed over the station. The light
turned green, and he hurried across and past the glass doors to the
warmth of the lobby. On cold days, there was a certain appeal in
getting to work, at least the temperature was nicely controlled. He
took a moment to warm himself up.
“Good
morning Aidan, cold one today, isn't it?” the secretary greeted
him.
“Yes,
very”, he said, collecting himself and heading for the elevator.
He waved to her as the door closed.
As
usual, a big stack of papers were already waiting for him, but with a
fresh cup of coffee in his hand, he felt ready to get right to work
this morning. He plucked the top paper off the pile and his eyes
immediately lit up. In his hands he held an application for business
capital. He didn't get to process these often, but they were far
more interesting than mortgage applications or student loans. In
truth, he wasn't senior enough to decide whether or not the company
would undertake a venture like this, he was just responsible for
doing a few background checks and then passing it up the chain, but
he still liked reading them anyway. He sipped his coffee as he
leafed through the application.
It
dealt with art, which he knew nothing about, specifically the
production and sale of some kind of special paint. There was a
website mentioned in the application, so he loaded it up on his
computer. It was fairly basic, but gave some information about the
products they sold and had testimonials by some artists he had never
heard of. From what he gathered, it was currently a business that
was being run out of someone's home, and they were looking to expand
to a retail storefront. He ran through his credit and background
checks on the applicant, and looked up some of the artists the site
mentioned to see if they existed purely for his own curiosity. It
all seemed legitimate enough, so he stood up from his desk and looked
across the room to see if his supervisor was in his office. The door
was open, so he picked up the application and knocked on the door.
“Do
you have a minute?” he asked, poking his head in the door.
“Certainly.
Come in, my boy.”
His
supervisor was a rather round man with short grey hair and a matching
beard He wore thick glasses upon his large nose, and a fancy suit
with a striped black and white tie. He was a good-natured man, but
terribly dull. As he sat down, Aidan briefly wondered if he would be
just like this in the future.
“I
have a business application for you, sir.”
“Already
looked it over, have you? Excellent. Put it on the pile, will you?
I'll see if I can get to it today.”
He
placed it on top of his supervisor's rather large “in” pile, and
he doubted it would be looked at today or anytime in the near future.
“If
you have a minute, sir”, he continued, “what sort of process will
that application go through before it gets approved? And how long
would it be until I'd be able to do that part?”
His
supervisor adjusted his glasses and turned to face him. “Oh, the
usual, you know. We have to look over the market sector they're in,
their business model, their current earnings and their future
earnings potential. And the amount of money they're asking for, of
course, compared to the amount of risk involved. It's all very
rigorous.”
“You
don't ever just go with your gut when you think a proposal sounds
good?”
He
laughed, a great, deep laugh, fitting for a big round man. “Oh ho!
There's that famous Aidan sense of humour again. Now, I may be
mostly gut, but when it comes to business, that's all up here”. He
tapped the side of his head with his index finger and laughed. Aidan
chuckled a bit nervously. You always had to laugh at the boss's
jokes.
He
figured his second question had been ignored, and he started to get
up to leave, when the boss interrupted him. “Keep working hard,
Aidan, and you'll go far here at Walder Financial.”
“Thank
you, sir”, he replied. A promotion didn't seem to be in the works
any time soon.
He
returned to his desk and started working through the rest of the
applications, which were largely student loans. The second
university term would be starting soon, so he'd have a ton of these
to process over the next few weeks. These were even more
straightforward than mortgage applications, pretty much everyone was
accepted without question for a student loan, as long as you were
actually enrolled somewhere and filled out the paperwork correctly.
As he filled in fields and filed papers away, he found himself
thinking back to that strange dream he'd had last night. That voice
had been telling him to get out. Was he happy here? It wasn't very
exciting, but it was very stable. He could probably get a job as an
accountant at a small company if he wanted, and he'd work fewer
hours, but those companies were much more susceptible to going under.
Perhaps just before the company went bankrupt, the accountant could
transfer all of the remaining funds to his own account and then
vanish mysteriously, never to be seen again. He smiled at the
thought, but he knew it would never happen.
Actually,
he didn't even know what he'd do if he had more time. He'd become so
accustomed to working long hours that he found he didn't have a lot
of other interests to busy himself with. In university, he liked
hanging out with his friends, but they were all busy too now, so that
wasn't really an option anymore. He'd probably just watch more TV
and sleep a bit more. He sighed, realizing that he had already
become just as dull as his boss. At least he still had his hair.
The
monotonous nature of his life was still weighing on his mind when
lunchtime came. As usual, Dan was down there first, and was already
partway through a bagel when he arrived.
“Tomorrow's
Friday”, he noted.
“Don't
remind me”, Dan groused, looking up from his bagel. “I've got so
much to get through tomorrow.”
“Do
you have any plans for the weekend?”
“Not
really. Do you want to go to the bar and watch the game after work
tomorrow?”
“I
guess”, Aidan said, not really having anything better to do. “But
what about the rest of the weekend?”
“I
don't know, I'll probably watch some TV and do some work around the
house”. Dan still lived with his parents. “Did you have
something planned?”
“No,
it just seems like that would only take like half a day. What about
the rest?”
“Where's
this sudden interest in my private life coming from?”
“I
was just thinking, I don't really have many interests outside work.
I feel like I need to do something more with my life.”
Dan
shrugged. “So write a book or something.”
He
rolled his eyes. “I don't have that kind of time. What would I
write about, anyway?”
“I
don't know, you're the one with too much time. Didn't you use to
write for the school newspaper in university?”
“Yeah,
I wrote a comic for it. But university is full of comedic potential.
Nothing funny happens around here.” He gestured extravagantly
with his hands: “So earlier today, this lady says to me, 'hey, I
came in for a mortgage application, but this form is for a boat', and
so I says to her 'here's the problem, you need an application 4-D!
This is a 4-B!'”
“If
you add in something about spilling you coffee I think it could
work.”
He
sighed. “I think that ship sailed a long time ago.”
“Well,
if you're not happy with the way things are now, you need to try
something that's different from your regular routine.”
Aidan
looked down at his cup. “I guess I could try switching from
'Southern Blend' to 'Tropical Sunset'”, he said, dryly.
“Woah,
take it one step at a time, we don't want you to wind up in the
hospital.”
“'So
what are you in for?' 'Oh, I switched over to Tropical Sunset and it
was so life-changing that I spilled coffee all down my pants”.
Dan
chuckled. “See, you've still got it.”
Aidan
was less convinced.
The
afternoon went by terribly slow, but quitting time came at last. He
shut down his computer, locked up his desk, and hurried down to catch
the train. It was dark out, and looked like it might rain. He hoped
it wouldn't, but he wasted no time getting to the station. The train
was busier tonight, and he had fewer seating choices available. He
chose a seat towards the middle on the right side, as it was one of
the only ones where he could get a window seat. There was almost
nothing to see out there besides his own reflection, though, it was
already so dark out. The train pulled out of the station, and no
sooner had they gotten underway did the rain start to come down. It
was really raining hard, and the window quickly fogged up from the
condensation. He stood up a bit to wipe it with his hand, and he
noticed that the person sitting in front of him was the same girl
from yesterday, sadly gazing out the window at the rain. “I
suppose rain has that effect on everyone”, he thought, watching the
rain pound on his freshly-cleared window. “There's something very
wistful about it. It makes you think of all the things you've lost,
or never had.”
The
rain fell loudly on the bay below as the train passed by, bringing
his long day to an end.
It
still hadn't cleared up by the time the train pulled into the small
station. He hadn't brought an umbrella, and from the looks of it,
very few people had, many of them now lined up at the little
convenience store in the hopes of buying one, but they wouldn't have
nearly enough for everyone. The girl didn't have one, either, and he
felt kind of bad for her, but he quickly lost sight of her in the
crowd. Then he remembered he did have something in his briefcase.
Retrieving the newspaper from this morning, he held it over his head
and ran home in the rain.



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