For today’s flash fiction, I reminisce about my time as a building manager.
They could sit at the edge of the unfinished fourth floor because the safety guy wasn’t there. It wasn’t like you could really fall off the edge while you are having lunch, and it felt good to enjoy something you had made. Brick was dying out in favour of concrete, even though concrete was so much worse for the climate.
“Oh, shit!” Rick pointed with half a beef-tongue sandwich. Andrew, the safety guy, was getting out of his car at the edge of the building site, and he was staring straight at them.
They scattered, stuffing a last bite of food into their mouths and grabbing their things. Down below, Andrew was running towards the building, his clipboard in his hand. Rick raced to the roof. He could hide in the unfinished chimney, though it wouldn’t be comfortable. The rest raced for whatever hiding place they could find. Brett headed for the stairs and was intercepted by Andrew’s “Hey!” Paperwork finished him off.
The safety guy was coming.
Paul waited for his footsteps to get close, then slipped down through a hole left in the floor for pipes, twisting his ankle when he landed.
“I know you’re here,” said Andrew. Dave and Charles looked innocent, pretending to measure the gap for the window on the other side of the building, but Andrew didn’t fall for it and bombarded them with forms.
Up on the roof, Rick’s grip was loosening on the board over the chimney. There was only another thin one below his feet, and it shook as Andrew’s voice reverberated up through the hole. He was close.
Andrew got four of them altogether. Not a bad score. It was for their own good. He had just decided to call it a day when a lunchbox shot out of a chimney close by. What were they playing at now? He poked his head into the chimney to see what was going on, just in time to break Rick’s fall.
Stay safe out there, I’ll see you next week!
