THE FORGIVING-EXCERPT

The Forgiving a Short Story by Austin Mitchell Alton Daniels was all ears as his boss came up to introduce the new Chief Accountant. “I’d like you to meet Stan Strachan, your new head of the department,” Mark Findlay, Managing Director of Dennison and Sons, addressed the accounting department staffers. There were cheers all around as staffers welcomed their new boss. Stan came up and said a few words. “I’d like to thank the staff for coming and am asking them for their cooperation. I’d also like to thank Mr. Findlay for giving me this opportunity. I wish to assure him that I won’t let him down.” There was loud cheering before a senior staffer came up and welcomed Stan on behalf of the staff after which everybody returned to their posts. Mr. Findlay also told them that Stan wanted to meet with each of them. As Chief Accountant, he could after reviewing their files and job performance, advise him if their work was up to the standard required by the company. “My new boss is a man, whom I don’t trust?” Alton told a friend on the weekend. “Why?” Keeble, his friend asked. “There is something about him that I don’t like.” “All I tell you is to watch yourself. Anyway, you don’t know how he got this job.” “I suppose you’re right, Keeble,” Alton said as they parted. “But Alton, look how many recommendations you had to get and interviews you had to go through before you got your present job,” his mother said to him that evening. “All I tell him is to watch himself. He’s there less than six months. Try and make sure you keep your job and stop worrying about this new man,” his father in turn said. The following weeks, Stan pushed the staff hard. He wanted to get the end of first quarter results finalized before the deadline. This was sure to impress his bosses that he was a no-nonsense type of person, who knew how to get a job done. By the first week after the end of the quarter the results were out and Mr Findlay congratulated Stan for a job well done. *** Stan had a meeting with his staff. He reminded them that in his first meeting he had told them to be prepared for an evaluation. However, he had seen how hard working they were, so he had thought of dispensing with the evaluation and only do it at year end. However, he said there were one or two shortcomings he had spotted and while he could readily identify those employees he didn’t want anybody to feel that they were being unnecessarily singled out so that he would evaluate everybody in the department. In all, ten employees were to be evaluated in two weeks. Stan put up a roster of the times for each employee attending the evaluation. Alton wasn’t scheduled until Tuesday of the second week. Meanwhile, staff members continued to work harder and rumors continued to circulate that some of them would be fired. Several staff members returned from the evaluations smiling gleefully, satisfied that they had passed. Others returned with long faces, saying that they were awaiting their letter of dismissal. Finally, it was Alton's turn and he arrived that Tuesday morning wearing his best shirt and tie. When he went into Stan's office at ten o'clock he was fidgeting. Stan got up from around his desk and greeted him with a handshake. "Alton, come and have a seat." "Thank you, Mr. Strachan." That was all Alton could say above the beat of his heart. "I've gone through your file. Howard gave you some high marks in the short time you’ve been here.” Howard Livermore had been Stan’s predecessor. "You’re doing some accounting exams so I'm going to vote for you to continue in the department.” "Thank you, sir." Alton stood up and shook Stan’s hand. He then went out to his colleagues, his head held high in the air. The evaluations over everybody awaited the results which wouldn’t be out until the next week Friday. When Friday of the next week came Stan left early in the morning, saying he had an all day conference to attend. The personnel manager, Mrs. Sewell, would hand out the evaluation results for him. At around three o'clock that evening, Mrs. Sewell came out of her office and started handing out the reports. Alton and Debra Sinclair were the only two persons not receiving their reports. Mrs. Sewell summoned them into her office. "Alton and Debra, the news is bad, Mr. Strachan said that both of you are poor worker. Alton knew that he and Debra had joined the firm about the same time. Both of them stared, shaking their heads in disbelief. "I'm sorry." Mrs. Sewell handed them their envelopes and Debra burst out into tears. “I knew he didn’t like me.” "He said I was doing a good job," Alton said." I just don't understand.” If you enjoyed reading this excerpt why not visit the Austin Mitchell pages at Amazon. Thanks.