Tales from the Cubicle

It was quiet, too quiet in the cubicle cluster. Our intrepid not so young white collar worker had learned some time ago that times like these demanded caution. An uneasy peace had existed for the past few weeks and this was not the natural state of existence in this environment. "It" had not been around in some time, at least not out in the open. Oh, they felt slight tremblings now and again as it rumbled past from its office lair to the elevator to go outside and breath its smoke and fire. They heard its normal grunting and rumbling but it had remained largely unseen for several days. Then an unusual thing happened, that defied the laws of physics. As Bob had been working he suddenly felt a disturbance in the force. He slowly looked up from his work to see "it" standing quietly above him. It took all his will power to keep from screaming and fainting right there as he gazed squarely into its beady little eyes and feeling the creatures hot breath realizing at any moment it could incinerate him with the angry hot gas from its mouth and split him in half with its wickedly sharp whip of a tongue. For a moment that lasted an eternity Bob had remained completely still having learned from past encounters that it was best not to make the first move. Almost any action at all could and would often invite attack from the creature. As he sat there wondering what had drawn the creature to his lowly cubicle, and how something so massive could have moved with such stealth he suddenly heard something so unexpected that he could not identify it at first. The noise was coming from the creatures mouth but in all the years he had known it he had never heard it make such sounds. The sounds were not the harsh half growling half barked commands. These sounds were calm, almost happy. The creature was trying to communicate something so foreign that the muscles used to produce the sound were struggling to respond. Then the creature was silent. Bob sat for a long moment processing what had just happened. Suddenly it came to him in a jolt of clarity and understanding that made his blood run cold. It was a complement. The creature was thanking him. It had never happened before, he did not know what to do, how to react. He sat there in stunned silence for a moment longer before mumbling a stunned "thank you". The creature then turned and left as silently and mysteriously as it had arrived.