“Why aren’t your clothes fantastic?” the rich people ask. They’ve invited you to stop waiting on them and sit down for a while. Your manager told you to do whatever they say.
“I can’t afford to look fantastic,” you explain. “I can only afford to look cute.”
They ask what you expect to do with your life if the best you can hope for is cute.
“I just want to be happy,” you say.
They stare at you, unsure how you expect that to happen if you have to settle for cute.
“We aren’t making ourselves clear,” says the man in the suit that billows around him with the breeze. “Everything is ours. Everything we want. Comparatively, you have nothing. This sickens us.”
You wait for more, for them to ask a question.
“It’s disgusting,” his sister, whose skin looks like an ocean at sunset, adds.
“It upsets me to be in your presence,” the billowy suited man says.
You ask them why they’re telling you all this. You’re handed a brochure.
“It’s an underground city that’s being built for you and others in your situation,” you’re told. “Every basic need will be provided for you, and nothing more. We’re using our own funds to pay for its construction so that you can finally leave the surface of the earth.”
You look through the brochure. The bedrooms are slightly bigger than the one you sleep in right now.
“No sunlight?” you ask.
They shrug. “Sunlight is free, currently. But rent isn’t. Would you rather have free sunlight or free rent?”
The youngest, thinnest, and most beautiful of them leans forward, her dress collar hanging open for you to see the entire stretch of her flawless body. She takes your hand and says, “We just want you all to go into a hole and stay there. And we dug a very nice hole for you.”
There’s a date on the brochure. Six months from today.
“That’s the deadline,” the man in the billowy suit says. “Up until then, it’s voluntary.”
You fold the brochure into your apron and you get up from the table to go back to work.
“You’re welcome,” the beautiful girl says as she pours wine into a napkin and scrubs at the hand that touched yours.
Happy Rich And Mean Day!
