“Exit Interview”

a short story

by

rus vanwestervelt

copyright 2006

part one of seven parts

Aidan shifted again in the chair, a worn, burgundy-clothed seat that was nothing more than the similar standard-issued piece of office crap he had sat in for the past 25 years.

He was growing impatient. How long had he been waiting in this room? It must have been at least 35, 40 minutes, if not an hour. He looked around again at the old paintings of children running in fields, rusty water buckets beside white picket fences, the paintings all stained with nicotine sucked in and out of countless lungs. The walls were brown, too, but Aidan could not tell if it was a natural color of the wallpaper or a shade that had just hued itself over more vibrant colors of greens, blues, and yellows.

In front of him was. . . . Read the rest of this entry »