An Every Day Cyclops

Chapter 1 - Boring Office Life

There was tapping everywhere-- keyboards, clocks, footsteps; it gave me a headache. I worked for a business, in a tiny cubicle, and my long legs barely ever fit beneath the desk. Everything in my day was like clockwork; it was always the same, and I always excelled while simultaneously never being seen. The stress however was somehow comfortable to me.

On this particular day, I was filling out spreadsheets for data we had obtained. Oh yes, I suppose I should mention that I worked for a data company surrounding the statistics for booksales. Based on that data, we if it did poorly, we could even determine to terminate the book's sale for the company. I honestly didn't really think much about it however, as it was just numbers. And book titles.

"EDGEWOOD." My manager cowled, bursting into my cubicle.   Managers were never pleasant, but that's to be expected for a place this banal. "I've got a new book for you. These are the daily numbers--" he slammed a booklet onto my desk, his arm grazing my right shoulder, "Calculate how many we sold this month and compare it to the others." Yeah yeah. He let out a heavy but short-lived laugh, "Though by the name of this book, it sounds kind of prissy so I don't know."

I nodded, watching him trod off to the next cubicle. I scoffed, and picked up the booklet. Naturally, I glanced at the title. Oh, it IS prissy. I smiled. Typing in the numbers, I thought about what the story would be like in the back of my mind, not even realizing I'd started daydreaming. I also, certainly didn't realize that my spreadsheet numbers were way off.

The clock was about five at this point, so I typed in my numbers hurriedly and approved the book, setting the paperwork on his desk before clocking out. It beat one of our topselling books?

Punching out, I decided to walk to the nearest coffee shop. Quietly, I thought about the book, and wondered how a cute little book like that could beat one of our best selling novels.