Three Little WORDS

It all began when I felt sorry for Daniel. He was the new recruit at work, hired to be at Myra’s beck and call, to do menial chores she felt were beneath her.

My boss was fiercely ambitious, uptight, and a diehard perfectionist.

Her previous assistant had taken sick leave. We all knew he’d had a breakdown. Who wouldn’t have? That was the general consensus.

So whose bright idea was it to hire the happy-go-lucky Daniel, a man who hummed as he strolled along the corridor?

I took him aside that first Thursday to put him straight. I couldn’t stand the thought of such a gentle soul being crushed by Myra’s stiletto comments which, by day four, were already piercing the walls of her office. She didn’t care who overheard her berating him for his incompetence.

‘How could you be so stupid?’ she barked that morning when he brought coffee instead of her usual mug of tea.

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