Patrick Fritz (The Next Morning) Monday Chapter 11

A bad day at the office for Adam

Chapter 11

Patrick Fritz (The Next Morning) Monday 

Patrick Wilheim Fritz walked into the office like he was on parade. He was stout and dressed in a 3 piece suit that seemed out of place in the casual modern environment of the office. Everyone that noticed him suddenly grew quiet and stopped what they were doing. One could sense a mixture of fear, hatred and even dread in the atmosphere.

“Good morning everyone!” Fritz wished in a loud and pompous voice. There was only silence. No one dared or cared to say anything. He was not exactly popular in the office. He was not bothered by it at all, he was used to being hated. In fact he thrived on peoples' fear and hatred. He had been on leave for 3 weeks and was back that morning. He was one of 4 assistant editors in Blakeley's. At 43 he was the oldest assistant editor while Daniel was the youngest. They didn't get along with each other. Everyone knew that. He was in charge of the hobbies, sports and motor magazines.

“Okay, what have you lot been up to the last 3 weeks?” blasted Fritz as he stood at the doorway of his office room. Nobody answered. He went in and shouted, “Stamos, Cindy and Macreedy, in my room now!” The three of them got up slowly and walked into his office rather timidly. The door closed and for the next 10 minutes everyone could hear him interrogating and brow beating the three of them. Patrick Fritz did not know the art of managing people, so he learned to use fear as his means of control and holding the upper hand. In truth he was full of fear himself, he just didn't realize it. He was also one who could never accept defeat let alone gracefully for that matter. His Hitler style mustache wasn't exactly appealing and it certainly didn't make him anymore popular.

“Old big head's back.” informed Russell, one of the writers. There were many nicknames for Patrick Fritz.

“Yeah, I can hear him." answered Daniel, they were in Daniel's room on the other side of the writing staff room.

“Looks like the 3 weeks holiday didn't change him in anyway,” remarked Serena the receptionist as she passed Daniel some documents.

“I don't think anything will,” jested Daniel as he went through the documents, “short of a lobotomy”.

Russell and Serena smiled at each other. They knew there would be another showdown between Daniel and Patrick again. They just didn't know how soon.

“Daniel, I thought you were a good Christian,” teased Serena.

“Only on Sunday's, weddings and funerals, other times I'm a serial killer.”

Russell and Serena laughed. They left the room. Then Daniel called Adam over the intercom.

“Adam, please come to my room.”

“Uh, right.” answered Adam. Adam left his cubicle and hobbled to Daniel's room singing “God is good” under his breath. That was when Adam met Fritz.

“You there!” demanded Fritz, “who are you?” He was standing a few feet away from the aisle. Adam stopped in his tracks. He just stared at Fritz with his usual blank look. Fritz was getting annoyed. He walked over and faced Adam at 4 feet distance.

“What is your name? Are you new here?” interrogated Fritz with a gruff voice and a hard stare. His stout 5'10” figure and disproportionately large head was not a comforting sight.

Adam gave a nervous grin and stammered, “I.....err....the...” His legs were shaking.

“Well, speak up boy!” Fritz snarled “Are you a lame brain?”

“I.... err......not......”

Fritz turned to the rest of the office and addressed the staff, “Everyone! Looks like, we got us a lame brain here.” There was a burst of laughter but only from people like Gloria and Ralph. The rest were silent, some even felt sorry for Adam.

“We need to watch this fellow carefully”, Fritz continued. Adam was embarrassed, his face was already red.

“He doesn't even know his.......”

“What seems to be the problem?”  A cool and assertive voice interrupted.

 Fritz turned around and it was Daniel. Fritz stared at Daniel for a moment and replied.

“This fella under you?” he pointed at Adam.

“Yes, Adam is under me, he's new.” answered Daniel with authority. There was total silence in the office, everyone was watching.

“Better teach him to speak up properly. He can't even remember his own name.”

“It would help if you weren't shouting at him.” retorted Daniel, sarcastically.

There was a stand off.

Fritz stared hard at Daniel but then decided not to say anything. He moved aside and let Adam walk pass him.

“You better watch him real carefully.” sounded Fritz as he himself turned and walked away.

“You just keep yourself off him.” muttered Daniel.

Fritz turned around and glared at Daniel for a moment again but then turned away and continued walking.

“Are you alright Adam? Come into my office,” said Daniel gently. They both went into his office and shut the door. Work began again in the office outside.

“Just be a bit careful with Fritz”, Daniel told Adam “but remember his bark is worst than his bite.”

Adam looked puzzled. He didn't get Daniel's punt. Daniel ignored it. Then Adam accidentally knocked over a picture frame on Daniel's table while taking a sit.

“It's okay.” said Daniel and adjusted the picture frame, he sat back in his leather chair.

“Those articles you wrote are good. I'm pleased with them. I didn't need to make any changes. You have another 6 more to go and you have 9 days to finish them. Can you finish them by the end of this week instead?” asked Daniel.

“Yes.” Adam answered after thinking for a moment. He obviously felt more at ease with Daniel by then.

“Good and Adam if you have any problems you can always share them with me.”

Adam nodded his head.

“Adam, have some of the others been needling you?” Daniel asked slowly.

Adam kept quiet. His head bowed down a little.

“You know I mean it when I say that we are friends.”

Adam continued to be silent.

“You don't have to be ashamed to tell me anything. I am here to help.”

Adam was struggling on the inside but chose to keep quiet.

A minute later Adam left Daniel's office. He brushed away a tear as he closed the door. He walked backed to his cubicle and didn't notice Fritz staring at him all the way through Fritz's opened window blinds. When he got to his table he noticed a note on it again. He hesitated then opened the note with dread, it said,

                                      “It's a drain,

                                            just to train,

                                            and maintain,

                                            a real lame brain”.

Adam felt bad instantly, it hurt. He had to fight back the tears again. He just didn't understand why people did this sort of thing to him. He felt sad and empty. He didn't get much work done for the rest of the day.

While Adam suffered silently in his cubicle, Fritz sat in his office thinking. He didn't like Adam at all and the way Daniel protected him. As far as he was concerned the office didn't need a lame brain like Adam. He then decided he was going to personally give Adam a hard time or better still get rid of him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

Please continue reviewing. Thanks for reading so far.

Reviews

[TKBickel]

Nice stand-off and making me love to hate Fritz. There's a lot of emotions turning in this chapter.

[Coyote Poetry]

A big problem showed up in this chapter. I like how you described Fritz. I like the stand-off of Daniel and Fritz. Story getting some additional plot. A excellent chapter.
Coyote