9 Years

the president of my company died today. he had been battling lukemia for 9 years and came to work like the rest of us. only a select few knew about the illness. i suspect he preferred living a normal life over pity. the vp called everyone into the cafeteria at 4:30pm and made an announcement. it was weird watching the most intimidating man, more so than was the deceased, break. the controller broke and so did the director of human resources. next were the marketing and accounting managers. the web designer and purchasing agent followed. i didn't know our president. in fact, i'm not sure anyone did. he only spoke to a select few. my brief encounters with him were in the hallway and i didn't really exist there. i've been working at this place for 9 years, so it's fair to say he had other, more important, things on his mind.

when i left my company, i walked into rain. just the right amount of rain with the kind of gray skies that bear a hint of the future.