Mr. C

Mr. C is in his forties and has a middle management position at Vartan & Co., a company that prepares computers for software updates. He wakes up every morning at six o’clock a.m. and hits snooze twice before getting out of bed. He scratches his belly as he yawns on the way to the bathroom. He looks in the mirror and sighs, as he is a little balder today than yesterday. The familiar smell of fresh coffee from his automatic coffeemaker infiltrates his nostrils as he decides what Land’s End button-down shirt to wear today. One of the shirts looks a little more dingy than the rest, and he goes over in his mind how much it will cost to get a new one. He shrugs it off and puts on one of the cleaner looking shirts. He makes it to the driveway and gets in his Lexus, the nicest thing he owns. He looks at his car’s clock to see that it says seven a.m. He subconsciously wonders how many times he’s seen this. He gets to work and says a half-assed “Good morning” under his breath to the overweight unattractive secretary. After booting up his computer, he heads to the break room for his second cup of coffee for the morning. This will be the highlight of his morning. Later in the afternoon, he might return for another cup of coffee if the day is dragging particularly slow. The coffeemaker in his office has been there for as long as he can remember and has served him flawlessly for years. Along with the trusty water cooler, pencil sharpener and toilet paper dispenser it is one of the office staples that helps to make his workdays more satisfactory. After work, Mr. C goes home where his wife is playing on Facebook. She greets him while still staring at the screen with a curious grin on her face. He asks her is she has heard anything from the plumber who is supposed to come fix a small leak in their guest bathroom. She says that hasn’t heard anything. He becomes slightly irked and debates whether to call the plumber now or give it one more day to see if they call or come by.