Ben and I are in Pennsylvania for a wedding this weekend, and so I have little time to write out a giant narrative.  However!  Here is a good time to put a bunch of short tales into one list.  In storytelling/writing classes, I’ve often played the “one-sentence story game,” which encourages you to say just enough while leaving the audience wondering.

Here are some one-sentence stories in the theme of….

Temping

By the end of the office Christmas party, a drunk executive appeared out of nowhere, having apparently fallen asleep on the couch in the kitchen.  He walked by my reception desk and blurted out, “I ate the rest of the hot pockets.”

~~~~

On the one hand, I didn’t have to wear shoes all day.  On the other, I had eight more hours left of covering this room in post-it notes.

~~~

I knew it was time to cut to cord when they used the phrase, “Just lie to your agency, you’ll be fine driving the Range Rover.”

~~~

She slammed her hands on the desk and yelled, “But you don’t believe the allegations, right?!  Don’t talk to any press!”  I left the next day.

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She looked a bit like a character out of Harry Potter, hair shooting out in all directions, with wild eyes.  I worried she hadn’t left this filing room for sunlight in quite sometime, and I suddenly feared for my own future.  “I used to work in theatre too!”

~~~

The looping Lana Del Ray music and trippy projections on the wall began to worry me even more than the shock of how many people were in the office on Christmas Eve.

~~~

“I’m just the temp!” I tentatively yelled back into the phone as they threatened to shut off the phone service if the company didn’t pay their bills.

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I was in charge of answering the phone for an entire section of the hectic trading floor, and five out of the seven men were named Mike.

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“Please tell John not to walk past the board room, we don’t want investors to know we have a cleaning crew.”

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“We have to book them on three different flights,” she explained, “Because if the plane goes down and they’re all on it, our stock will fall.”

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(During an interview) “Has anyone else told you you’re not allowed to leave the building?” She whispered.  “You can’t even leave for lunch.  And there aren’t any windows.”

~~~

Dress code: Closed-toed shoes. Women must where heels and a skirt.

~~~

I worked there for three long months, and never got a damn Girl Scout cookie.

 

Add your own below!!