A Changing Tide

I shuffled into the office, glanced at the clock, and sighed.  On the UP side, I arrived thirty minutes early.  That meant that I could LEAVE thirty minutes earlier than normal.  On the...well...HONEST side, that was still eight hours away. I shrugged, shook my head, and walked to my desk to clock in for the day.

That's when I saw it: an envelope, sitting in the middle of my desk, addressed to ME.  The scrawl was somewhat familiar, but I couldn't place it.  I began to panic.  Was it an old customer with an ax to grind? An former college mate hoping to relive our glory days? A former employee from my management days, intent on driving me to an early grave?  All had happened before... My heart was beating rapidly, my breathing accelerated. What should I do? Open it? Turn it in to my boss as "potential evidence"? Throw it in the trash and leave it unopened?

I willed myself to calm down.  I clocked in, sat down, and stared at the envelope.  It had arrived via the postal service, so any potential bio-hazard threat was likely eradicated.  I hoped.  I rolled my eyes at the internal soap opera, sighed, and slowly opened the envelope.

The contents of the envelope turned my day from ho-hum to HOLY COW.  It was a simple card from one of our field guys, THANKING me for helping him learn the business. I sat there at my desk, jaw slack, and shook my head.  Then I grinned.  This guy is the youngest kid at our company, both in age and time of employment.  Yet, in all of my time with this employer, he is only the SECOND person to do something of this nature.  (The first was our former owner - beloved but now deceased.)

There was a second, smaller envelope neatly tucked inside the card.  In the same (terrible) scrawl he had written, "Please get something you'll REALLY enjoy!"

The smaller envelope held a $50 gift card.  To TARGET.

I can't believe this kid is single.