All in a Day's Work | Teen Ink

All in a Day's Work

April 6, 2011
By John Fincken BRONZE, Congers, New York
John Fincken BRONZE, Congers, New York
1 article 0 photos 1 comment

I shouldn’t have done it. In jail all because I wanted to be a good employee and come in early. If only I had stayed home that day.

About a week ago I was the perfect employee. I was always on time, did all my work, and sometimes worked overtime for free. I fixed computers at Electro-world. Then one day my boss hired a new co-worker who works with me behind the counter. I worked here for money. He had a different idea.

The new employee was Bob. Bob was somewhere in his mid 30’s. He had a crew cut. He didn’t have a family. He was raised in the city and moved here to start a better life. He wanted to make a career as a software creator, starting at the bottom and work his way up.

The other day was his first day working. He came in about an hour before his shift. He looked around to get used to where everything was. He took pictures of all the equipment, for his scrapbook. During his break he was sneaking around in the shadows. I found this out when I was in the backroom and leaned against the wall, where he was hiding. He said it was because he didn’t like the light in his eyes so much. I didn’t believe him.

He worked at the station beside me. He had experience because he used to take apart his computer at home and put it back together. He also used to get a lot of viruses so he had found a way to get rid of them before they could affect him. He said it was because of a virus protection he was working on. I thought that was too good to be true.

After a long day of work he almost fainted in the employee lounge. I took a nap on the couch then went home.
The next day he was already working by the time that I got to work. I got there 15 minutes before my shift. I looked at the line and it had at least 20 people on it. I turns out that there was a defect in the new computers that came out yesterday. If you leave them on for more than 5 hours they overheat and crash. I knew we would have a long day ahead of us. In only a few minutes it felt like a full week of work. It was hard to handle. When we finally went on our lunch break, the rest of the “line” was angry. They understand that we get a lunch but they do not want to wait for us. We told them we would cut it short to only 15 minutes, but each minute was a minute of their lives wasted.




During our lunch break, which was supposed to be an hour, we shoved our food down our throats. He had a subway sandwich. I had peanut butter sandwich. As I forced the whole sandwich into my mouth all at once, I started to choke. I had no drink nearby. I thought to myself I’m going to die. But then, out of thin air, Bob came in and gave me the Heimlich maneuver. He came up behind me and hugged me. He put his hands together in a big fist and pushed my diaphragm. I felt the cold, dry hands pushing into my ribs. I heard a cracking sound and pain of being hit by a car. Then all of a sudden a breaded peanut butter ball went shooting across the room like a missile. It hit the wall and sticks. I saw it sliding down the wall, slowly, leaving a trail of sticky peanut butter. It was the grossest thing I had ever seen. It almost looked like throw up. I owed my life to him.

After the traumatizing experience was over we went back to the angry mob of people. My gut was hurting but I didn’t care- I was still alive. Between my gut and the “I want a refund.” And the “Where is your manager?” I couldn’t take it. It seemed to have no end. Their complaints went on forever. It was a good thing I had managed to memorize the process for less confusion and so the process moved much faster- “What is your name?” “And what is your problem.” Ignore complaints. Take computer and diagnose it. Fix it. Give it back. “Next please!”-This was the process

After a long day of that process we got to go home. We fixed almost all of the computers that were sold. There were only 5 not fixed and 345 fixed. I have never worked that hard in my life!

The next day I came in an hour early. The store had been robbed! The security cameras were broken and many computers and video game consoles were gone. I walked into the back room and there was Bob, with a broken computer in one hand and a bomb in the other. It turned out that Bob not only robbed us, but had made a plan to blow up the building after he left. He put the bug in all the computers that we had to fix yesterday. He was trying to tire the employees out so they would sleep during the night shift.
After he noticed me he tied me up and put me with the other employees. After he finished getting all he wanted, which would be used to make his software, he came up to me and said “If you want to live, come with me.” I decided to go with him. He made me drive while he sat with a gun in the passenger seat. I kept driving towards the city. All of a sudden the cops came and chased us. I kept driving because he said he would shoot. He started shooting at them and they shot back. They managed to shoot the tires so we had to stop. He handed me the gun. Bob threatened to blow up the store with people inside if they came any closer. The police tried to talk him out of it but he wouldn’t listen. Then he pressed the button. Everyone jumped with shock. As he pushed the button, it slipped out of his hands. It landed on the ground and broke.
The police came and arrested him. Then they put handcuffs around my hands. Apparently I was a partner of some sort for driving and holding a gun. Next thing I know I’m here in jail. Only about 15 more years to go.


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This article has 2 comments.


mirandak said...
on Apr. 14 2011 at 12:04 pm
This is awesome!  I loved it!

on Apr. 14 2011 at 7:04 am
Sean1201 SILVER, Congers, New York
5 articles 0 photos 2 comments
this story was amazing