Circles

by Rose Vanden Eynden

For Day Two of the Writers Digest Flash Fiction Challenge

Word Count: 295

Circles

By Rose Vanden Eynden

Don’t think about chocolate. Don’t think about chocolate.

You’re not really hungry. You’re bored. You’re tired of sitting at this computer, trying to think of something new to say. You don’t need chocolate. You need a new job.

A new job. What would that be like? No boss griping about deadlines. No idiotic co-workers talking about inane TV shows in the break room. You could freelance. Work for yourself. Make your own hours, your own pay scale, your own rules.

What a pain, though. Having to promote yourself, your own business. Beating the bushes for assignments. Working all hours of the day and night to make ends meet. No real time off. No medical benefits. Two hundred dollars a pop for an office visit to the doctor. Not with this bad back.

It hasn’t been hurting, though. Could you make it work? If you exercised more, maybe lifted weights, you’d be stronger. Then no bad back, no trips to the doc, no need to worry about medical bills, no worries about insurance.

Maybe it could work.

Work. Why can’t you be independently wealthy? What karma did you incur in a previous life to leave you slaving away at this dead-end 9-to-5 gig? What have you really accomplished in your forty-three years? No spouse, no kids, no property, living in a dark apartment in a dark city in a darker world.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Is any of this worthwhile? Is your existence meaningful in any way at all?

Damn. Maybe that chocolate is a good idea.