Smoke & Mirrors by Richard Correll

Author:Richard Correll [Correll, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Zombie Apocalypse
ISBN: 9781456633493
Published: 2019-09-04T04:00:00+00:00

*

“Well that was pretty stupid.”

His dad was sitting in that lime colored Laz-e-boy that he seemed to live in at the end of the day. Brett could only stare in astonishment. Maybe his dad was frustrated, disappointed or whatever. But Brett couldn’t help but take the comment personally.

Layoffs were a common thing now, so was the company bringing you back to work with a cut in pay. These were the same guys who always said that their employees were the company’s most important asset.

Good, then pay us that way, Brett thought acidly as he tossed the layoff notice on the coffee table and went to put his tools up in his bedroom. There was nothing to say. No way he could relate how he felt. He had graduated with great grades, had been an excellent apprentice and had invested in the right tools. Brett felt his shoulders grow weak.

The first plant he went to work for just closed up one day, he never saw his last paycheck. According to people at the labor office that happens all the time, nothing they could do about it. The second moved in three months just a few hundred miles south into Mexico for cheaper labor. He took some bitter solace in knowing it just wasn’t him. His friends were having the same run of luck.

Brett had a chance to see people he had gone to high school with at a barbecue. Back then, they were happier, rowdier and the smiles were real. A few years later, the light in their eyes was starting to dim. The weight of life had started to grind on dreams. The laughs weren’t quite as loud, tinged now with a cynical, sad ring. Do you still believe in yourself? Life was slowly pulling him down an abyss. He sat on the bed, a grown man of 22. He felt like a child who had just failed a test. His insides were hollow. He thought of his friends, they had all done the math but never talked about it. At this amount of money an hour, working this many hours, for this many years………..

How they hell were you going to make it in life?

The trouble was it was starting to feel all too real. This wasn’t just a setback, a temporary issue. This was life. It felt like hour after hour, day after day there was a force holding him back. You can’t make enough to even think about anything. One step forward, two steps back. He ran a hand along the back of his neck and let his eyes look up at the four white walls that closed in. This is all you have after a few years. The room in your parents’ house, tools you won’t be using tomorrow and work boots that will just sit by the door. The walls seemed to move closer, suffocating him.

It was hard to explain to his dad that the world was different today. Jobs didn’t fall off of trees anymore. Wages didn’t keep up with the cost of things.

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