“Places everyone!”
Tetris* #quote
Sometimes it's hammertime. When is it nailtime? Anyway onto the
flash fiction!
The Fork In The Concrete
At Coalhill Elementary there existed the legendary Fork In The
Concrete. When the school was being constructed one of the workers
dropped his fork into the concrete before it dried. The fork stood up
from the concrete ever since the inception of the school, right on a
little block of concrete between the classrooms and playground.
Nobody tripped over the Fork since everyone knew where it was. It
didn't rust, the construction worker brought his stainless silverware
from home to eat his lunch but if he found out about his mistake he
preferred to leave the fork there than tell his boss he made a
mistake.
Some people loved the Fork In the Concrete, and some hated
it. The Principal, among many others considered the little thing a
part of school history. The Vice Principal, hater of odd little
blemishes and dirtiness thought of it like some kind of grime that
never went away. A dent in the car that couldn't be buffed out.
The Principal told the Vice Principal, “Sarah, if you touch that
Fork you're never working in education again.”
The Vice Principal set out to get rid of that Fork. The school had
cameras outside where the Fork mocked her from ground. She'd be
caught if she did it herself. She couldn't tell which teachers were
on her side considering the Fork. If she asked the wrong one they'd
tell the Principal. She'd be able to tell who liked the Fork but not
who hated it. Same thing with the parents, and they'd be even less
likely to want the Fork gone. That gave her one option. Sarah needed
a student to pull a Fork from the Concrete.
She'd need a big kid to take metal cutters to cut off the majority
of the fork then take a electric sander to sand the rest. The Vice
Principal considered the biggest deliquents at Coalhill Elementary
for the job. They'd care about the Fork the least. Give them the
equipment and a bribe and they'd do it. She pulled Kevin, the biggest
lug over one day under the pretense of checking his bag. He'd been
suspected of bringing contraband for his delinquent friends so often
he considered it habit. (Mostly because they'd found it once before
he got clever.) Sarah gave Kevin the tools and one hundred dollars
one Thursday said to finish it by Monday.
Monday morning the Principal called her in.
“Sarah, today a student gave me the tools you gave him and the
fifty dollar bribe you gave him to get rid of the Fork over the
weekend. I'd possibly forgive you going after the fork, I thought
about what I said to you before and that the Fork might not be as
important as someone's job. But involving a student when I told you
no? What is wrong with you?” The Principal removed the doubts he
had from his mind of firing her and making sure she didn't work
again. Sarah first felt shock, then regret and shame for not figuring
the delinquent would betray her. Then she realized that the
delinquent kept half of the money she gave him. She knew trying to
get a bribe back would make her sound ridiculous.
The delinquent did really like the Fork too. It'd been there ever
since he entered the school. He also liked money and disliked the
Vice Principal so that's why he betrayed her as well. And so the
legendary Fork In The Concrete continued to watch over the school for
many years to come.
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