A Sad Visit to A Sad General Manager

the sad man arrives at the general manager's office, mindful of the occasional look thrown his way by the organization's staff. it's the kind of look a person would get if he was in the deep end, with no buoy.

"i gots an appointment wit'the gen'ral manager."

within a minute he is whisked inside, face to face with the old woman.

"so, how's your vacation?" asks mrs winslow.

"not much of a break when i hadta bail jonesy outta jail."

mrs winslow nodded. "yes, no doubt it hasn't been a pleasant time for you. how is he?"

the sad man shrugged. "'e'll be okay....s'long as 'e pays back the bail money."

"sounds fair. sounds like a better deal than the one you gave this company at divide and conquer."

the sad man's expression does not change, as he expected the conversation would take this direction.

"i really gots nuthin' else that i can say other than i'm sorry."

mrs winslow shakes her head.

"i wish it were that simple, sad man. but you - ufw's reigning heavyweight champion - walked out of the building during the night of the ppv. you're supposed to be one of our top defenders, and you instead chose to leave the show."

"it ain't like i wanted t'do it--"

"you did it anyway," snaps the general manager. "we were fortunate joker, cletus, jojo and everyone else stepped up. but you disappeared. and if you think i'm going to let such behavior by without reacting, you're wrong. what you did would have been devastating for ufw. i cannot let such actions happen again."

the sad man considers his words. "if you wants t'take the belt--"

"i will tell you what's going to happen to the united heavyweight championship at my own good time. right now, i need to remind you that we need the ufw heavyweight champion to be completely reliable. at the ppv you became anything but that. i'm going to remind you of what you did, but it's going to be all at the discretion of this office."

the sad man digests what mrs winslow says.

"guess i best gets ready then."

"you should," the old woman coldly replies.

the sad man nods once, then leaves the office.