Veronica Donnahue was the boss. No one dared to question her. No one dared to bother her during breaks from work. He hair was aggressively drawn out of her face for maximum productivity. She ran a portion of a company that distributed office supplies worldwide. As she sat down in her office chair she found a memo from her assistant. “Tiffany, what’s this memo about?” Veronica barked. “Oh umm good morning Miss Veronica, that’s a memo from upstairs, your boss would like to meet with you.” Said the assistant. Without thanking her assistant she proceeded to the elevator.
She calmly entered the elevator and pressed the number six. On the outside she looked calm and professional, but on the inside she was having a nervous break down. Was it a promotion? Was she going to be fired? Ding. The elevator doors cascaded to the side, revealing the busy employees waiting for the same device Veronica was on moments ago. As she walked down the tiled hallway her tall black heels clacked against the ground. Clack, Clack, Clack. A steady pace. The pace of a businesswoman.
Her fisted hand finally tapped the birch door. “Come in”, said a hearty voice.“ Hello sir, how may I help you”, she said with a smile. “Ah, just the woman I wanted to see. Are you aware of your employee Marco?” asked her boss. She thought for a moment then replied, “ Yes. Yes I do. He is one of our hardest working employees. A fine gentlemen he is.” Her boss thought for a minute, squirming in his chair. His muscular build in perfect proportion to his slim and model like face. “I need you to fire him. He has been stealing office supplies that we cannot spare. Money is what this company is all about” chuckled the man. “What!” thought Veronica, “He is one of our best employees I cant fire him!” “Now I know what your thinking” the boss hypothesized. “ But we can’t risk anymore delinquents like these. I want him gone by the end of today.” “Um, yes sir,” blurted Veronica, “ It will be done have a nice day Sir.” “You too” said the boss “ You are dismissed.”
With her chin up she calmly exited the office, again proceeding down the hallway to the elevator. What was she going to do? She couldn’t fire him! Then she thought; I need my job and I must do this to keep it. She exited the elevator and calmly walked toward the break room. She grabbed a cup of Joe thinking that it would make her look more approachable. She walked by her assistant and told her to call in Marco. She got settled in her chair waiting for him then ran out to her assistant. She smacked the office phone out of her hand. She was shocked at what she just did. “ Sorry Tiffany I just remembered I need to talk to him in person! Silly me.” “Its fine boss, his cubicle is the one on the far left, first row.” This time she thanked her assistant and slowly approached Marco’s cubicle. She saw his face for just an instant. He was on the phone smiling and following client conversation protocol… spot on. After he set the phone down back its base he spun in his chair and started typing up his report. Veronica tapped one of the walls of his cubicle, “ Marco? I have something to tell you.” Marco spun around and kept the smile on his face as hard as he could. “Veronica. Hello. Hi. Um nice to see you boss.” “Marco,” she stared to explain “ I think you’re a great employee but I had a conference with my boss and there have been reports of you stealing office supplies.” His face was in shock. “I was, I was just grabbing some supplies to work at home too.” Explained Marco. “I’m sorry it wont happen again” Veronica felt bad. He just wanted to be a better employee, but she could feel herself going soft on him.” That’s right,” said Veronica “ Your fired. I need your things packed up by the end of the week.” Leaving no room for him to respond her turned on her heel and walked down the rows of cubicles to her office. She turned for one quick second. His face in his palms and his eyebrows furrowed. He picked up a picture of his family and carefully set it down. Marco reclined in his chair and just sat there. As Veronica made her way back to her office a tear slide down her face. She couldn’t believe she didn’t tell her boss that it was going to be a mistake. She finished her sales report and sulked until lunch.
Everyday Veronica went across the street to the salad store for a Country Fresh Salad with low fat raspberry vinaigrette dressing. She saved her document, grabbed her purse and took the elevator to the lobby. She pushed open the glass door by the shiny handle and made her way to the crosswalk. While she was waiting for the green man to flash on the crosswalk device, her cell phone rang. “Hello?” she asked. “Hi, this is David from marketing I would just like to confirm our meeting later today at my office.” The green man appeared she raised her foot to step off of the curb into the halted traffic. She replied, “Yes. Yes that works so it’s just a brief overview of our new products right?” she asked. David responded but was interrupted mid-sentence when Veronica heard a car speeding toward her. She gently tilted her head just in time for her to see a SUV collide into her. The whole world stopped. She let go of the phone and sucked in all the pain she received from the collision. She lay on the dirty asphalt, her body mangled into a bloody figurine. She kept her eyes open just long enough to see denim-covered knees by her side.
The first thing she saw was the ceiling. White and porous looking, she was confused. This was not her home, or her office. A white ceiling was like interior decoration suicide. She shifted her eyes toward the length of her body. There were knit blankets and multiple needles with tubes in her arm. She sat up and looked around, there were flowers and balloons all around the room. Veronica was in a hospital. Confused for a moment she recalled everything. The phone call, the car, the denim-covered knees. Then a woman in a white lab coat entered the room.” Well good afternoon to you Miss Donnahue. Its nice to see you awake for a change. Now you may feel a little nausea and you are definitely going to feel some pain. I would be surprised if you didn’t after an accident like that.” “An accident like what?” asked Veronica. “ Miss Donnahue, a 4,000 pound SUV ran into you at about 80 miles per hour. That’s a trauma! You have been in a coma for about a week now so we have put you on a variety of medications for the pain and the amnesia. I just need to do a coupe of tests to make sure your working right.” Veronica tried shifting her feet so they were hanging off the side but she couldn’t move them. They would not move. “I cant,” she said. “They wont move” “ What wont move dear?” asked the doctor. Veronica replied “My legs”. The doctor rushed towards her and threw the bed covers off. She then carefully lifted her legs to the side of the bed and pulled out a little hammer with a red rubber tip. She tapped Veronica’s knees and asked, “Can you feel that?” Veronica shook her head. “The surgeon was right.” Said the doctor. There was a hint of awe in the shock of her voice. “What was the surgeon right about?” questions Veronica. “ The surgeon said that the blow of the impact might have damaged some nerves in your back. When we did an x-ray everything looked fine so my team dismissed the issue. I’m so sorry Miss Donnahue but your paralyzed from the waist down.”
Veronica was speechless. The lump in her throat got larger and larger every second and she felt a bucket load of tears stream down her face. She could not be the composed businesswoman she was a week ago. She was going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. As the doctor set her back into bed, she lay there motionless. She had no other option. She couldn’t go anywhere. Then it struck her. What if. What if this was karma for not standing up for Marco. That was the only thing she thought of. She was a generally kind person and couldn’t think of anything else she did to deserve this. Her dreams were crushed, like Marco’s when she fired him. She just lay there looking up at the blank ceiling thinking, “Some boss I am”.