Simple Stories by a Simple Man

Time is a thief. As it passes, slowly but surely it steals all that one may hold dear. Loved ones, favorite activities, cherished memories, all slowly fade and are taken by the cruelness that is time. Knowing this doesn’t make it any easier. Susan reflected on this as she sat on the bench in an otherwise typical city park, it was neither warm nor cool, but there was a refreshing breeze. Despite her reflection on time, she chooses to spend her lunches in the park, no food, no distractions, just her and the people walking through the park. It felt good to have no responsibilities, even if only for thirty minutes. Time be damned, she let her mind wander as the worries of the day slowly unraveled. She finds her job stressful, but she supposed that’s why she was paid so well for doing it. Not nearly enough of course. She was a scientist, working to create new pharmaceuticals, and she was close to a breakthrough, a drug that, if testing continued, would help the body regulate glucose levels without needing the constant monitoring and injections. This was not what she found stressful, the constant time crunches her superiors imposed on her was. This is why she found herself sitting on a park bench trying to lose herself. Due to this she almost missed when her phone buzzed. Pulling it from her pocket she read the text. She stood and shoved the phone back into her pocket and started sprinting back to the office.

“We’ve been hacked.” Greg, Susan’s assistant, said.

“Well, a hack can’t steal our drugs, they may have our formula and notes but we can just re-engineer our existing supply and we will start filling our patients now.” Susan replied. Her voice brisk, despite the calm facade she tried to maintain.

“About that, in addition to being hacked, we also appear to have been robbed.”

“What” Susan’s voice didn’t even sound like her own. “Have you called the police?”

“Company policy is to do a full inventory and seek approval before engaging law enforcement.” Greg responds with what seems to be all of the calm that Susan had lost. It was her life’s work, not his she supposed. “There was also a calling card, with a name and number, which I feel is very unusual.” Greg lifted a black business card and Susan took it in a flash of movement.

It read, Marcus B. Time, 1-800-555-7685. Susan grabbed her phone and dialed the number. “You’ve reached Marcus.” Came a calm voice from the other side.

“Hello Marcus, I believe you have some property that belongs to me.”

“As, yes hello Susan. I was hoping you’d call. I was hired to steal all of your research. However, those who hired me have yet to pay me, which goes against the terms of my contracts. If you would like to pay me before them, I would be happy to restore your samples as well as the documents and data. But you must hurry if you wish to beat them to paying. I’ve sent you an email with the wiring information. Best hurry.” The line disconnected.

Susan ended up convincing leadership to pay the ransom for her work, it was difficult and she had gone out on a pretty big limb to get them to agree, but they had. Once the wire had been sent, she called Marcus back to arrange the return.

“You’ve reached Marcus.”

“We’ve sent you the money, now how will you be returning what is ours?” She asked, barely masking the venom from her voice.

“Oh, I won’t be.” Susan’s stomach dropped out. It felt like the room started spinning.

“We were too late?”

“Oh heavens no. Far from it, there never was a client. But you should have known Susan.” There was a smug smirk she could hear in his voice. “Time never returns anything, only keeps taking.”

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This was a prompt to start with a metaphor that turns out to be literal. I love the start of this story, however the rest feels a bit rushed. If I was to revise this I think I would slow down the built up of the theft, build up the tension before ending with the reveal that Susan is ruined, her life’s work gone. Do you agree? What could I have done better? Let me know down below.