Casual Friday found me sitting in yet another meeting at the office. A gray room, the droning hum of stale central air; the barely audible snick, tick, tapping of laptop keys, and the random neon strobe of wireless mice. High glass walls look in over a long table dotted with coffee mugs and sweating bottles of water; as if there were something to see here beyond this motley crew of office folk, those whom no one else would hire.
Free, we were, from the constricting ties and laced up shoes. Those torturous conventions of the button-down work week. This whisper of something very much like freedom softened the camaraderie in the room. Each of us donning denim, draped in indigo hues, and nestled in very soft sweaters. It was always so damned cold in that office, as if lowering the thermostat somehow dialed up productivity.
As the West Coast partners took over the video screen, a vaguely familiar face with the twenty-dollar haircut touts our business of the day. His cable knit cardigan distracts my heavy-lidded eye. He speaks in terms of touching base and circling back, unpacking what is in our wheelhouse, et cetera, et cetera, but his neighborly sweater steals the show.
It is said that the style of garment in question was made famous by James Thomas Brudenell, the seventh Earl of Cardigan, who famously led the charge of the Light Brigade in Crimea so many years ago. It is also said that his troops wore waistcoats of a similar aesthetic. The mental picture alone is enough to make me chuckle, imagining Fred Rogers and Cliff Huxtable riding gallantly into certain death, jolting me from my unintended slumber. My boss shoots me another dirty look from across the room making me sit upright again. I’m awake! Another speaker steps in and I slip back into my daydream where one can’t help but notice how scandalously close the Goodwife Two-Shoes is standing next to Mayor McCheese. Maybe I need to find a new line of work or just maybe, no more late night scrolling before bedtime.
by D. Ryan Lafferty
Note. Originally published in the People Papers column Literary Crumbs, June 2023.
Literary Crumbs: Poems & Short Stories to Savor by D. Ryan Lafferty 