BX1

Thomas cherished his office. It was the place where memories were made, the birthplace of his innovative ideas. It’s a bit disheveled, though, he admitted to himself. The New Year’s decorations still lined his walls, along with the numbers 2, 0, 0, and 8 hung up beside each other. The slovenly couch, which was in front of his desk, was littered with crumbs and stained with hot cocoa. A messy stack of green, yellow, and red papers sat patiently on his desk, waiting to be looked at.

        Suddenly, his phone rang.

        “Mr. Anderson?” The caller inquired.

“Yes?”

“Did you receive the market report? It should be in the pile with the red papers, labeled as A-08.”

“Ah, sorry. I haven’t gotten to those yet.” He strolled to his desk and sorted out the red-colored papers from the stack. A-01, A-02, A-06… Here it is. He read the title: “BEA Reports Market Loses 17,000 Jobs”  “Is this real?” Thomas asked.

“I didn’t believe it either, but if the BEA says so, then it must be true. Are you going to take any precautions to prevent this market drop from affecting the company?”

“No, I don’t think that will be necessary. The market will recover from it soon.”

“Of course. That’s all for today.”

“Bye.” He hung up the phone.

Thomas gazed out his window, located behind his desk. Flurries of white dots fell from the sky, peacefully glazing the ground in a fluffy blanket. As he sipped on his coffee, his mind began to wander off to devise a plan to clean his dirty office.

When his office was fully cleaned, Thomas began his work. He started shuffling through the colored papers on his desk. They were marked by priority: green for least important, red for most important, and yellow was in between. After all, a company owner such as Thomas had no time to spare to waste on frivolous, unimportant things. 

He started off with the red papers and read through them: “BeanX Bean Drill X3 Explodes in Testing” and “M3 Thermal Overheating.” The list went on. As he read on, he marked in his daily schedule which respective sector he had to visit to address these issues. His schedule was full when he reached the middle portion with the yellow sheets. He then went to those sectors, addressed and fixed the issues, some leaving him stumped, and then went home and slept, waking up the next morning to go through the same cycle of events he had gone through the day before, creating what felt like an endless loop of work for Thomas. Like a hamster on an exercise wheel, no matter how much he pushed forward, he always returned to the same spot.

        The icy blanket covering the dead grass melted away, and flowers bloomed in the place of the grass. The sun started rising earlier and going down later. The moon cycled through crescents wide and small. Thomas could no longer remember what day of the week it was, much less what month it was. Wake up, work, sleep. Wake up, work, sleep again. Nothing was interesting for him anymore. 

        It was just another day. Thomas drove to his office. He gazed at the neatly cut grass and green trees as he pulled into the parking lot and entered through the front doors, flinching as he touched the burning hot metal door handle that was heated by the sun. After shaking it off, he then walked to his office and began his work with a cup of coffee, per his daily routine. But as he was sorting through his colored papers, his phone rang.

        “Mr. Anderson, do you remember how the Federal Reserve bailed out Bear Stearns back in March?” the caller asked.

        “Of course, it was just a minor hiccup in the market.” 

        “Well, the Federal Reserve just bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”

        Thomas’ heart skipped a beat. Trying to convince himself that he misheard what the caller said, he asked, “What?”

        “The Reserve guaranteed $25 billion worth of their loans and bought their stock.”

        Thomas spit his coffee out of his mouth in surprise.  “How much debt did they have?”

        “More than the government.”

        He almost fell out of his chair, catching himself with his hand at the last second.

        “What’s the market at?”

        “The DOW dropped by 14% in the past month.” 

        His jaw widened in shock, and he sat there in silence, debating the outcomes of this situation.

        “Mr. Anderson? Are you still there?”

        “Yes. Sorry, just taking it all in.”

        “I understand, sir. But are you going to take some precautions to prevent our company from failing from the implications of the current and potential future economic crashes like these?”

        “Can you say that again, but in English please?”

        “Are you going to do anything to prevent these market crashes from affecting the company?”

        “No, I don’t believe that’ll be necessary.”

        “Are you out of your mind? Do you understand the situation we’re in?”

        “No, I think the market will withhold.”

        “Mr. Anderson, do you know how badly the market is performing? Have you gone mad?”

        “Don’t ever talk to me like that again. And I said no, did I not?”

        “Whatever you say, Mr. Anderson.”

        “Choose your words wisely the next time you talk to me,” Thomas finished.

And his days went on. At the time, Thomas thought nothing about the conversation over the phone he had that day, but little did he know, his decision would come back to bite him later.

The sun’s heat became progressively cooler, and strewn orange and red leaves rested on the cool, autumn ground. The only thing that deviated was the calls he got in the morning, but even those were becoming less and less frequent. 

        Thomas drove to his office. He gazed at the neatly cut grass and green trees as he pulled into the parking lot. He then walked to his office and immediately began his work with a cup of coffee, as per his daily routine. But as he was sorting through his colored papers, his phone rang.

“Mr. Anderson?”

“Yes?” This better not be about the stupid market, he said to himself.

“The DOW has dropped to below 10,000 for the first time since 2004.”

“What?” he responded in surprise.

“The DOW has dropped by 15% to reach below 10,000, sir. And, the BEA has released a report that says the economy contracted by 0.3% in the third quarter.”

“Con- contracted? As in decreasing?!”

“Yes, sir. The market is in a recession.”

“A recession? Surely we’ve taken action to prevent this from affecting us, right?”

        “I was trying to get you to set up some precautions, sir. But as you may remember, you rejected all my suggestions.”

        “Is there anything else you have to tell me?”

        “Yes. Sales have dropped by 92% percent within the last quarter, and we may need to fire a multitude of employees if this situation continues.”

        Thomas hung up, and a mixed surge of regret, pain, and sadness came crashing into his body, pervading throughout his bones and filling up every corner and crevice of his organs and muscles until there was no more space for the feelings to fill. Only if I prepared, he thought to himself. Only if I listened.

-Tyler W.