really not so far from the final stage, he just found nothing left in his legs and couldn't reach any further. after arriving to work on the rickety old bicycle, he found himself in front of the only elevator in the building and it was broken. there were a few people stuck inside the elevator between the 27th and 28th floor, and the technicians were just leaving their office 17 blocks away. well fuck, he thought, first it was the ignition in the car after my alarm didn't set itself last night, and now i have to climb all these fucking stairs. He had been meaning to get back into shape, but just found himself far too lazy every morning before work, at lunch break, and every evening. and plus, there just wasn't enough time in the day to do what he really wanted to do.

the thing that he really wanted to do was to quit his job, leave all that shitty world of exploiting one person for someone else´s gain. not that it would have taken that much time to write the letter, hand it in, and wait out the two weeks of the mandatory notice. the starting of the letter was taking him more time than he had in a lifetime. often he thought to himself, i am compromising my beliefs, why? so that some fat and happy man, his unfaithful wife, and the children who might not be his, can all go on another 2 week vacation to aspen, drinking wine that is more expensive than my bar tab for the month, and sleeping in their fifth home that he paid cash for. but he was still working on starting the letter.

after waiting fifteen minutes for the elevator mechanics to arrive, he finally gave up on the hope of avoiding the grunt work, let his head drop between his slumping shoulders that struggled to fill the over-sized suit, and began to shuffle (as much as one can) up the stairs to the floor where his office was, and the floor where his immediate boss was sitting in the office across, staring at the empty chair in tony's cube. it wasn't even remotely entertaining to stare into tony's cube, there was a picture of his ex-wife hanging crooked in the corner, a few scraps of disorganized paper built into uninteresting stacks, each just slightly less colorful than the last, a map of his sales territory with a few lines drawn, delineating the boundaries that seemed to be continuously retracting, and a cup for his coffee with his college football team's logo. after each step, he began to question the previous, and started to note that, although he knew he was going in the right direction, the numbers did not pass nearly as fast as he was expecting.

Since in the rush to get out the door, he had forgotten to put on his watch, he had no clue the amount of time consumed by this climb, and he was starting to get hungry. he hadn't had his typical breakfast of honey ohs and a glass of don diego's pre-ground coffee. on an empty stomach, there was no way the energy was going to be there to make last the rest of the flights of stairs, so he sat at the landing where he found himself, and buried his head in his hands, running his fingers disgustedly through stingy hair. without the energy to move for the next several minutes, and with a pad of paper that he had in the briefcase, he found a pen and just began to doodle, the doodles became words, the words became musings and the musings became justification for another step. really, what the hell am i doing. slinging myself left leg then right up flight after flight of stairs, to throw my pride to the wolves around me, and sell their feed to the sheep for a better feast. and one that i don' even get to taste.

taking out another sheet, he began writing the letter that he never had time to write. he finished the last word and finally had the energy to climb the stairs to hand in the literary masterpiece and wait out the two weeks, then he realized he was actually two floors above his office, and walked sheepishly down the stairs with his paper in hand. his boss, waiting for his just as he had expected began to pounce, when tony handed him the letter. his boss read it, and calmly explained that letters of resignation had to be accompanied with a form, and in addition to being typed and placed in the slot in his door, they were also to be filed electronically through the human resources page on the intranet. he placed the paper, just as the last in one of the lifeless piles on tony's desk, gave tony a pat on the shoulder, and turn back towards his office closing the door behind him, knowing that tony just didn't have time to write complete the steps necessary. just too much work to be done.