Submitted For your approval

Submitted for your approval

Submitted for your approval…well, not so much your approval as submitted-because-if-I-don’t-I-get-a-bad-grade-can’t-get-into-college-and-become-a-bum-on-the-streets is the story of Tom Smith. Mr. Smith is a hard workingman in a hard working job living in a hard working town. Our story opens with Mr. Smith, after a long day of work, is returning home, where something is waiting for him that he was not expecting.

Mr. Smith (yelling): Honey, I’m home! ::Shuts the door:: Honey? (To himself) where is she?

Mr. Smith walks over to a small table just to the right of the door.

Mr. Smith: Well, at least the mail is in. ::picks up envelopes and shuffles through them:: Bill, junk, junk, Hey what’s this? ::He holds up a letter marked urgent in red stamp. He opens it, takes out the paper inside, and begins to read out loud:: (to himself) Dear Mr. Smith, we regret to in form you that due to a clerical error you currently owe the Internal Revenue Service 1.4 mill…1.4 MILLION DOLLARS!?

A blood vessel in Mr. Smith’s head burst with an audible pop and he falls to the floor, dead.

Submitted for all the reasons I submitted before, a man, a victim of incredible circumstances, dies. Another soul lost forever, In the Audit Zone.

Ring…Ring…Ring…

“What the heck?!” said Arnold Johansson. He blinked the sleep from his eyes and looked at the tiny digital clock on the nightstand next to his bed. The clock read 4:26 am.

Ring…Ring…Ring…

There it was again. Who would be calling him at this time of night? He had no family; his mother and father had died almost ten years ago, he was an only child, and had never married. The friends he had made at the small clerical company wouldn’t be calling him now.

Ring…Ring…Ring…

And was it just his imagination, or was the ringing becoming more insistent, like an itch that gets worse if it’s ignored? “Well,” He said, “this is one itch that’s getting scratched.”

As he got up the phone rang again, this time so loud that it caused him to stager a step. The sound was so loud that once it was over it left a (no pun intended) ringing in his ears.

Arnold reached over and in one fluid but graceless movement (he was still half asleep) he pulled the phone jack from the wall socket. He stood up and walked back to his bed.

Ring…Ring…Ring…

“Whaa?” Arnold said, spinning around to look at the phone. He hadn’t just heard it ring, had he? He walked over to the phone and crouched, scrutinizing the phone. He was like that for awhile, long enough for his legs to cramp. He stood up, decided it was in his head and turned to go to bed.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

The sound coming out of the phone was loud enough to break the one window in the room and send Arnold to the floor. He felt like a bomb had just gone off in his head. He slowly started getting to his hands and knees.

RING! RING! RING!

He fell, hands coming up to his ears in a feeble attempt to shield them. The pain was excruciating. He felt a warm wetness on his hands and brought them up to his face. The moonlight that filtered in through the shattered glass of the window was just enough for him to see that his hands were covered in blood.

RING! RING! RING!

The sound didn’t seemed to be in his head more then coming from the phone. He writhed in agony on the carpet, ears bleeding the whole time dusting the floor scarlet. “Alright!” he screamed, saying the only thing that came to his mind, “I’ll pick up!”

The sound stopped.

Looking around, Arnold was confused. He picked himself off the carpet.

Ring…Ring…Ring…

In horror, Arnold looked at the phone. He shuffled over to it and, hands shaking all the while, he picked up the phone and put it to his ear.

“Is this Arnold Johansson?” a raspy voice came from the other end of the line.

“Y, yes,” he said, voice quavering “This is he.”

The tone on the other side of the line suddenly became that of a young man, his voice had the odd non-threatening quality that would usually be associated with a late night infomercial host “I was wondering if you would like to switch from your current long-distance service to American long-distance?”