Father Luke lives in Portland, Oregon, and waits with the woman he loves for a perfect world. He has a website at http://FatherLuke.com

Bukowski Contest Winner 2nd Place!

Jamison (October 20, 2009. Issue 10.)

I decided to play a joke on the guys at work.

Phone sales jobs have high turnover. Some guy who started today will just as likely go out for a smoke and never come back. You can’t keep track of the people you work with. So, I decided to play a joke on the guys at work. I made up a name out of thin air and asked where the guy was.

“where’s jamison?” I said to the guy rocking in his chair in the cubicle next to me.

Who, he said.

“jamison, you know that guy who sat over there.”

I don’t remember him, the guy rocking in his chair said.

“ask around, see if he still works here,” I said.

The guy rocking in his chair asked the guy on his other side if he’d seen Jamison. The guy on the other side said: “Who?”

I smiled.

The guy rocking in his chair said that Jamison wasn’t there, and that I had gotten Jamison the job, and I was wondering where he was.

Nice twist. Funny how stories get out of hand. I kept a straight face and stared at my computer screen. The guy on the other side of the guy rocking his chair got up and went to go ask the boss. I was ready to laugh.

The guy came back, and said the boss didn’t know. Then I did laugh.

When it was time to go out for a smoke, the boss pulled me aside.

What happened to Jamison?

I told the boss I didn’t know.

The boss said that unless Jamison came back I wouldn’t be entitled to the bonus I was scheduled to get for bringing him in.

I nodded, and I smiled as I went outside to take my break.