I thought I would give you an update. I will continue G’s Charismatic Bunch series until the last Friday in May, and then take a break from it for a little bit. As always, please enjoy #6 – The Gray Rodent.

Gessica shuffled into the office loaded down with her lunch bag, florescent pink back sack, and a purse probably huge enough to fit her whole vanity inside. The thing that caught Anna and Bronwyn’s attention was that she entered with a huge smile on her face. It definitely was not her normal persona they observed in the morning.

               “Good morning…T.G.I.F.,” she chanted as she greeted Anna and Bronwyn. Both women starred at one another before they answered back.

               “Good morning, dear, are you alright today?” Anna asked curious about her co-worker’s morning bliss.

               “Good morning, G. Yeah, I’m with Anna, I’m not use to seeing you so, umm, happy in the morning. I know something’s up; you might as well spill it,” Bronwyn exclaimed, her eyes glued to Gessica as she waited for a response.

               “Girls,” Gessica vocalized in a high pitched tone, “I’m fine, geez.  Can’t a girl be happy every once in a while?”

               “Well, yes, but for you that’s unusual,” stated Anna.

               Gessica sat her belongings down and dug into her purse for something. “Bronwyn, you and Anna come over here to my desk, please,” she instructed.

               The first thing that they saw was a plastic rodent that sat upon her desk. Very realistic it was with its beady black eyes, grayish concrete color and long skinny tail.

               “Why do you have that rat on your desk, Gessica?” asked Anna.

               “Like you really have to ask, Anna? You’re going to use this on Demi, aren’t you, Gessica?” Bronwyn questioned.

               “Ding, ding, ding…I don’t have a gold star to give you, but I will give you an I.O.U.”

               “You sure you aren’t suffering from the lingering effects of a hangover or something,” Bronwyn smiled as Anna emitted quiet laughter.

               “Go right ahead; tease away, but when I get Demi, I already know that you both will be standing beside me participating in the laughter,” she exclaimed, with no doubt of their partaking.

               “So, what’s your plan?” Anna questioned.

               “Well, isn’t this the cat calling the kettle black. Little miss goody two shoes isn’t so good after all. Didn’t take you long to jump aboard my train, did it?” Gessica inquired as she stared at Anna with a shocked expression.

               Anna laughed. “Okay, maybe I’m guilty. I’m on board just as long as you’re not trying to use it on me.”

               “Or me,” Bronwyn spat out, “you know how bad my nerves are, I don’t need them to get worse than they already are, comprende?”

               “Don’t comprende me like you know Spanish. You know it’s probably the only word that you do know,” Gessica smirked. “Don’t worry, you two are safe, this baby here is only for Demi,” she clarified as she stroked the tail of her fake rat.

               Gessica heard Demi’s heels click clacking down the hallway as she approached her office. Quickly she grabbed the rodent and shoved it into her desk drawer.

               “Morning G Honey,” Demi sing-songed as sweet and sappy as a jar of honey.

               “Morning D,” Gessica smiled as the girls scurried away.

Good thinking girls, Gessica thought, we don’t want to draw attention that something is about to go down.

With no one around with idle conversation, Demi marched to the kitchen to fix herself a cup of Mandarin Orange tea. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect so Gessica made a mad dash to Demi’s office with the plastic rat in hand to set the scene. It was more than enough time to leave her little plastic friend behind and return to her desk.

When Demi strolled past her office, Gessica put on a huge smile and commented, “You look cute today.”

“Thanks G.”

It wasn’t that she didn’t look nice any other day. The whole purpose of the little scenario was to distract her so she wouldn’t be as observant as she walked back to her office. Not that Gessica looked, but she was sure that Demi snuck a peek of herself at each window she passed. She’s so predictable. Anna, Gessica and Bronwyn sat at their work stations and waited to hear her scream; however, after a minute had passed, Gessica slinked over to Anna’s office which was in direct view of Demi’s.

“Psst…what’s she doing?”

“She’s on her computer working, she didn’t see it.”

“Oh for goodness sake; I should have known it wasn’t going to be a piece of cake.”

“Gessica, you’re going to have to go back there and do something,” Bronwyn whispered when she walked over to put in her thoughts.

“Okay, okay, I’m going in girls. Wish me luck.” Gessica picked up a file and walked back to Demi’s office. She had on earphones as she listened to who knows what, and was all absorbed in some chart that was on her screen.

Gessica took a deep breath and tapped Demi lightly on her shoulder. Promptly she removed one ear plug as she turned to see her visitor. “Hey Demi, I’m in dire need of your help. This budget I’m working on is a mess. Do you think you can help me figure it out?”

“Yeah, sure, let me see,” she said as she removed her other earpiece and sat it on her keyboard.

Don’t smile…don’t laugh. Only a few more seconds and you got her, Gessica thought.

Gessica played it cool and looked down toward Demi’s feet with a startled appearance. “Dem..Demi, don’t move,” she said slowly.

Of course, she knew that Demi would look down, and sure enough she did. For Gessica, it felt like immediately everything started to move in slow motion. It took a couple of seconds for Demi’s brain to compute that a rat’s tail was wrapped around the heel of her shoe. And, it was at that moment that she let out a loud squeal as her body went ballistic and thrashed around like she had experienced a seizure. She bounced slightly from her chair right after she used her feet to push hard against the floor.

Hard enough that it allowed her to lift her feet high into the air as the chair skidded halfway across her office. There she sat glued in a runaway chair that abruptly stopped as it slammed into a wall, and caused her to bump her big head.

In reality, the whole thing happened at lightning speed, but as Gessica watched she couldn’t hold back the laughter that let loose. It was like watching a historic slow motion movie. Anna and Bronwyn only got the end view of what happened after they ran down the hall. Even the small bit that they saw was hysterical enough.

“Dang Demi, I’ve never seen you move so fast,” laughed Bronwyn.

Demi blocked everything out for a moment when she saw that Anna, Bronwyn and Gessica laughed at her expense. Then she got a better look at the varmint. She nearly had a heart attack over a stupid plastic rat.

“Get out of my office now! I can’t believe you did that; I hope you know that was pretty low!”

“Aww, it was a joke,” Gessica explained through side-splitting laughter.

“Ha, ha, ha, Gessica get out, and Anna and Bronwyn, do follow her away from my doorway!”

“Oh wow, you’re giving us the boot too?” Anna asked as she and Bronwyn laughed.

“Yes!”

“Demi, you know this was a hoot, right?”

“What’s going to be a hoot is when I get your stupid butt back. Now go!”

“Okay, okay, I’m out of here,” Gessica pouted while she watched as Demi gave her a death stare and double rolled her eyes.

As Gessica, Anna and Bronwyn walked back to their workstations, Anna said, “You two crack me up. You both are always out to get the other. I swear you act like you’re still in high school.”

Gessica smiled. “Maybe so, but at least we keep it interesting for you. Demi’s a little agitated at the moment, but when it wears off, she’s going to love me again. Count on it.”

###

Enjoy your weekend.

R. Lynn

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