Back to Work

I was called back in to work, but only for the purpose of collecting up the toys that had accumulated around my old desk. It was full of dozens of brightly colored thirty-millimeter plastic robots and toy dinosaurs. I explained, as best I could, that the toys weren't mine, as I had been gone almost three years. Everyone insisted that they'd been there since before I retired, though. I took the boxes they gave me, and started packing them up. Lots of people stopped by to chat, so progress was quite slow. Also, every time I went back after filling a box, there seemed to be more of the little toys, even where I had just picked them up.

After a couple of hours, I had about twenty shirt boxes full of plastic toys. I made my former co-workers take my phone number and email address, so that when the actual owner of the toys showed up, they could contact me for their return. As I was packing the boxes into my shopping bags, I was thinking there might be a game here somewhere. My former boss insisted that I fill out a time sheet so I could get paid for the day. I didn't think that was fair to pay me for a whole day just for two hours of packing up someone's toys. She suggested I could hang around and answer questions for people who came into the department. I tried pointing out that any answers I had were based on very outdated information. She insisted it wouldn't be a problem, and folks started showing up for tech help on their tablets and phones. Turns out, my boss was right. I did know enough to be helpful.

When the drop in hours were done, I turned back to see that the help desk was covered in more little plastic toy soldiers and insects this time.

I think I'd been set up.