Low-wage slave lackey in a mega-corp. Roaming clerk, assigned to those departments in need of extra help until the rush is over. I’m assigned to attend a high-level board meeting. Apparently, the boss doesn’t like seeing empty seats when he’s leading a meeting. I’m sent to fill such a seat. I’m to say nothing, record nothing, be nothing other than a seat warmer. The job pays above minimum. Okay.
The boss comes in, a young male on that cute cusp of adolescent transitioning into adulthood. He only looks young, though. He’s much older than he appears. I note [a tell] but say nothing. He goes on about the usual stuff. Acquisitions, hostile takeovers, layoffs, regulations and how to bend them. CEO talk.
He stops in mid sentence when he realizes I’m there.
“You. Don’t move. I’m glad you’re here. Time to do something productive this time. Would you mind testing a new lotion?”
I didn’t mind, but before I had the chance to answer, everyone around me was whispering loudly at me to go along with whatever the boss wanted. “Sure. I didn’t use any this morning, and I’m not wearing perfume, so this would make a great field test.”
He moved quickly beside me. “This is a salve-like lotion I’ve been working on. My own private endeavor, the company chemists don’t know anything about it. On purpose. It’s not for mass-production, you see. Only certain people will be able to appreciate its properties. The public will only see another easy way to get high. What do you see?” He said this as he took a scoop and liberally lotioned up my left arm, leaving my right arm untouched as control.
“I see a substance in desperate need for a label detailing it contains psychotropic substances and to be used with extreme care.” I didn’t tell him before he had rubbed my arm three times, I watched the ceiling peel back over the conference room. Despite five more floors over me, the top of the building fell away and I saw the depths of space open. Galaxies, planets, and comets, oh my!
“Ha! I like your sense of humor. No. Really. What do you see? I watched your eyes dilate. You are especially sensitive to the ingredients.”
“I see the worlds revealing themselves to me. Hella trip, man. I think you used too much.” I looked back at him and saw he had become a multiarmed, multifaced entity. Each pair of hands was working on a thing or on a person. I was not the only person he was touching. But I was the only one he wasn’t manipulating. “I see you as you are.” A name came to my lips, but one of his other faces glanced at me and shook his head slightly to discourage me from speaking it. “Boss.” Well, he is my employer and CEO of the organization that just hired me.
“You are watching the layers collapse and yet you can speak to me with clarity and humor? This isn’t your first time being exposed to such things, is it?” Behind him, one of the lower level managers (that’s above me, unfortunately) immediately went on a tirade against me, calling me a drug abuser and several career ending accusations that even if disproved will still limit my advancement in the company.
The hands that held my face placed a finger on my lips. Another pair of hands swung back and stung the manager on his lips. “Did you hire her? Did you interview her? Do you know why she is here? Be silent, fool! Stop trying to lick the inside of my ass. When I want a fluffer’s advice, I’ll call you. Until then, be silent and let experience speak!”
My mouth was very dry. “No, Boss… it’s not. Or else you would not have hired me. If you see me as I see you then you are well aware of my personal hobbies and non-corporate endeavors.”
“And how do you see yourself?”
I looked down and started laughing. My financial circumstances had made me more desperate than I thought. But as my transformed body did a thing, I realized this was precisely why I was hired in the position I was. “A chicken that lays golden eggs. This is not good. When I stop laying golden eggs, I’ll be Sunday’s dinner.”
“You’re not seeing anything literal, but you know that.”
“Yes, Boss, I do. Which makes this even more important to note. I am seeing visual allegories and analogies. I’m not a giant chicken, you are not what I see. And yet, here I am, part of a corporation’s employment farm, and here you are, with your hands in everything. It is, and it isn’t. The truth is swaddled by lies, and the lies pronounce the truth.”
“Remember that. Now go sleep this off. I want a full report of your experiences during, and after. Don’t forget to stay hydrated, and rum doesn’t count.”
He let me go and I realized this dream was more than just a dream. Why would he mention rum? I know why. The tell revealed the seriousness of the dream, but did not reveal who “Boss” was.
Or why of all entities, why that one would be interested in me.