This is the story of a woman named Jessica. Jessica worked a simple job at a local business, sitting at a computer and pressing buttons according to the instructions that would appear on the screen before her.
Although Jessica didn’t exactly know what business she worked for, Economy Incorporated, actually did, she quite enjoyed her simple job. She supposed that other people might have found it boring, but she felt a certain thrill every time a new instruction appeared on the screen, just as it was about to do.
Letters began to appear on the screen, telling Jessica to press the letter ‘F’. She did so, feeling that peculiar rush at following instructions she had come to expect.
Suddenly, Jessica noticed that it was awfully quiet around the office. She looked around and noticed that all of her coworkers were gone. Hadn’t they mentioned that the company would be taking an excursion to the best hardware shop Cheltenham had to offer? Maybe they’d already left and forgotten all about her.
Jessica wasn’t sure what to do. She wasn’t supposed to leave her computer, in case some more instructions came through. But with all her coworkers gone, she was probably missing out on the exciting trip to purchase plumbing supplies for sale Cheltenham. That wasn’t exactly fair, especially since nobody had actually told her that the trip was starting. Everybody knew she had ADHD and couldn’t be trusted to keep track of the time, so a warning would have been nice.
Deciding to make a decision on her own for once (but, ironically, actually following the will of the narrator), Jessica decided to leave her desk and do some investigating. Perhaps she could find some sort of sign that everyone had indeed gone to the hardware store. If that were the case, she could head there herself and be sure not to miss out on all the fun. After all, what was the point of living if you weren’t able to have a bit of fun every now and then, especially if it was of your own volition, as this certainly was.