Healing Incorporated

"For the last time, Mom, I'm not a secretary, I'm an administrative assistant!"

His voice grew a little too loud at the end there, and Eli looked around to see half the bus glancing in his direction. A few rows ahead, some girl giggled. His face grew warm and his hands began to sweat.

"I'll talk to you later," he whispered into the phone.

"Love you!" his mom replied just before he ended the call.

The phone resting on his leg dinged, but when he picked it back up, no notification waited for him. Sighing, he opened his old, beaten up messenger bag and there it was. The Dragon, Mr. Thomas, his boss, and the last person he wanted to hear from.

WHERE ARE YOU? S.O.S. NEED YOU NOW!

Eli immediately replied: Be there in five.

COME SEE ME, ELIJAH. THIS IS A SERIOUS BREACH OF MY TRUST!!!

All caps and three exclamation marks before even getting there on a Monday morning. This week was already looking promising.

The bus stopped, and he stood to exit, waiting behind an old lady who was taking forever to collect her bag and gloves. Deep breaths. Who even wears gloves in the middle of summer?

"Get the fuck out of my way!" a tall, younger guy in a white tank-top barked as he pushed his way past Eli, shoving him to the side and into some poor woman who was working with her laptop on her knees. Stumbling, he accidentally closed the laptop's lid as he half-fell into her lap.

"Get off me!" the woman shouted, her head drawn back and her eyes wide with shock.

Eli mumbled an apology and stood.

By the time he'd made it off the bus, the shover was long gone. Anger simmered in his chest, more at himself than the assailant. He really needed to stop being such a pushover.

With the bus stopping right in front of the massive building that housed the company he worked for, Infinite Innovation Solutions, it didn't take long to reach his tiny cubicle outside of Mr. Thomas's office. He considered running to get a cup of coffee, but The Dragon rumbled in its lair he had the chance.

"ELIJAH, IS THAT YOU?"

He sighed and checked his fake smile in the small mirror he kept next to his computer, just for this purpose. The deferent, placid but pleasant expression was like a mask, one he donned to keep professional and hide his real self. Though, if he wanted to look the part, he really needed to get his mop of wild, light-brown hair to a barber. His eyes also betrayed how little he'd been sleeping lately, with dark rings showing. Perhaps after work, if he could muster the energy to give a crap.

"It's me, Mr. Thomas," Eli chirped, opening the closed door and heading into the office of the man hell-bent on making Eli's existence as miserable as humanly possible. Well, that wasn't entirely fair. The Dragon was generally not all bad, but in his mind, Mr. Thomas had grown into the embodiment of all that was wrong with the office culture Eli so despised, and wanted to escape from.

Mr. Thomas waved for him to join him up by the line of windows right behind his massive mahogany desk. They reached from ceiling to floor, giving the otherwise dark room some much needed sunlight. He wore a black, tailored suit with a matching tie, like always, and kept his beard with gray specks trimmed short. His expression was stern but not unfriendly when he turned to Eli and then nodded down to the front of the building.

"What is happening down there?"

A massive crowd was gathering around the entrance to the building across the street. Flashes from cameras were visible despite Eli and Mr. Thomas standing on the fifteenth floor. People waved signs in protest on one side, surrounded by a contingency of police and security guards in bright neon vests.

"It's the launch today, isn't it?" Eli said.

"The what?"

In his rush to get to work, he'd forgotten all about it himself. A historical moment not just for the country, but for the entire world. If everything went as planned, the small startup, Event Horizon Dynamics, that'd grown to a massive research company in a few short years, would change the world by creating a new type of everlasting energy source, clean and safe without dangerous byproducts.

"They finished the prototype," Eli said. "And they plan to run the first test today. I think there's, like, five versions of their generator set to launch at the same time. One here, one in China, one in Germany, one in Norway, and one more that I can't remember where they built. South America, maybe."

Mr. Thomas raised an eyebrow. "Test run of what, Elijah?"

"Sir, it's Event Horizon Dynamics. They're going to create a black hole today and safely harness the energy it generates!"

Now there was a company Eli wouldn't say no to working for. True innovation. The creation of something which would serve all of humanity forever.

"Black holes," Mr. Thomas scoffed, turning from the window. "Elijah, when I asked for a male secretary, it was because I wanted to avoid such hysterics. I require logic and efficiency, not flighty fancy and tardiness."

"Administrative assistant," Eli mumbled, dreaming of the day he'd quit this job and find something that mattered.

"What's that?"

"Nothing, sir," Eli said, stepping away from the window. "You have a meeting scheduled with Mr. Deere this morning. Will you need my services?"

"No. I can handle Jim. You are needed here. IT phoned right before you arrived," Mr. Thomas said, narrowing his eyes at Eli. "Elijah, I do not enjoy answering my own phone."

"It won't happen again, sir."

"You should be here before I arrive."

"Yes, sir," Eli said smoothly. "What, er, did IT want?"

"The boy who phoned was erratic and certainly condescending about my need for a new computer."

Eli's head was throbbing now. Coffee, he needed coffee. Before being assigned to Mr. Thomas directly, he'd worked in the pool, assisting whoever needed him most that week. Reporting directly to Mr. Thomas was technically a promotion, but Eli hated it. The man wasn't even that old, but sounded like some time traveler from the eighteen hundreds who thought emails were the height of innovation. It was Eli who'd taught him to text a few weeks back, a decision he'd come to regret several times over already.

"I'll talk to him."

"Please do."

"What was the emergency you texted me about?"

"We've already discussed this, Elijah. Tardiness," Mr. Thomas said, turning to leave. "Tell Jim's secretary I'm on my way down."

Back at his desk, Eli picked up the phone and used the speed-dial for Mr. Deere's administrative assistant.

"Jimbob's desk."

Eli chuckled. "You shouldn't answer like that, Amy."

"I'll answer however I damn well please. What are they going to do, fire me?"

"Yes. They'll definitively fire you."

"Bah," she said, "Good luck to them. Firing a blind person, and a woman of color no less, they'd have a hundred activist groups so far up their asses with lawsuits they'd cry themselves to sleep."

"I'm not sure how to tell you this, Amy, but you're not black."

She gasped in mock horror. "I'm not?!"

He couldn't help but laugh, and she joined in, speaking in between giggling. "Why're you calling, anyway?"

"The Dragon is coming down to meet with Jimbob."

He could hear her frown through the phone-line. "Yes, I know. It's in the calendar."

"He wanted me to call ahead."

"And you just wiggled your pretty fingers and called, like a good little secretary."

"Administrative assistant."

"Administrative assistant," she mimicked at the same time, clearly mocking him.

Rufus, her seeing-eye dog, let out a low bark in the background.

"I know, right?" she asked, clearly talking with her face turned away from the phone by the muted sound of her voice. "Rufus agrees. You don't have to do everything they tell you to, Eli. They don't give a fuck about you."

The IT-guy sauntered out of the elevator with a laptop under his arm, wearing a black band hoodie with the undecipherable letters of some metal band, and sandals without socks.

"I'll file that in my drawer for amazing ideas," Eli said, slamming an empty drawer.

"I can hear The Dragon's ponderous approach," Amy hissed. "Catch you later."

Click.

"Who were you talking to?" the IT guy asked.

"What kind of question is that?" Eli said, looking up. "Who are you? Derek usually delivers the laptops when Mr. Thomas breaks them."

"Quit to pursue his passion for basket weaving. I'm Janus, the new guy, I guess. Started a couple of weeks ago." Janus held out the laptop. "So, do you want it?"

Eli shook his head. "Why don't you go inside and change it out for the old one? And I'll go get some coffee. You want one?"

"Coffee!" Janus shouted, pulling long, stripy, black hair from out of his face, almost dropping the laptop. "Yeah, coffee sounds good."

Eli headed off. One of the few perks of a soul-crushing corporate job like the one he'd 'lucked' into a couple of years ago was that the coffee was surprisingly excellent.

He soon returned with two steaming cups, hand-crafted by a barista employed by the company. Even with the company cutting fifteen jobs just last quarter for budgetary reasons, they'd kept the barista. Eli found himself agreeing with that decision. When he returned to The Dragon's Den, he found Janus staring out the window. Eli offered the coffee, and Janus accepted it with another thanks.

"So, what do you think?" Janus asked, gesturing to the same building Eli had been staring at earlier.

"What do you mean?"

Janus looked up into Eli’s face, his bright blue eyes regarding him with an intense interest. "Do you think it will be the end of the world?"

"End of the world? What? No. Why? It’s supposed to solve world's energy needs."

Janus chuckled. "Sure. That’s not what I heard."

"What did you hear?" Eli asked, feeling a pang of anger in his chest at this IT guy doubting the revolutionary company he'd been following with bated breath for so long.

"I hear things, here and there. Online. I saw this video of a guy making the argument that they’re about to break physics," Janus said, looking at his watch. "In about an hour," he added, "they could tear the fabric of existence apart, killing everyone on earth instantly."

"Oh yeah? Was the guy sitting in his mom's basement with a tinfoil hat on?" Eli asked.

Janus looked from the other building back to Eli. "Maybe."

"It's bullshit," Eli said. "The science is sound. They're using AI!"

"Oh?" Janus asked, raising an eyebrow. "You understand the science?"

"Well... no," Eli admitted. "Whatever. Can I just get the computer swapped, please?"

"Sure, sure," Janus said with a smile. "I'll see you again in a few weeks when he breaks this one. If we're still alive, then."

Eli let Janus work alone and went back to his desk to enjoy the coffee in peace. Emails were pouring in, filling up his inbox faster than he could delete them. HR wanted what they called a pow-wow with upper management to go over hiring practices using their new system. It was supposed to be inclusive and responsible, while ethical and synergistic.

The corporate buzzwords made his head spin. One of the sales team managers sent an email asking for quarterly goals. The same ones Eli had sent out the previous week on behalf of his boss. Sighing, he sent it again, dreaming of another life.

Any other life.