Back to the Future 1: Training Day

Arthur had been with Johnson and Abel Inc. for thirty years, thirty-five if you counted his years down in the mail room while he attended college. It was his first job out of college, a lucky shot in the dark during a dark economic time. At first, he was lucky to have the job, and he struggled to learn a new way of life after so many years as a student.

Now he was an expert on everything. If a presentation was being given by his department, it was either his presentation or his template that everyone was looking at. He'd taken a coding class at the local community college and helped the IT department do third-party payroll with ten times less effort. He'd helped work out an e-filing system that worked for everyone, and it was Arthur who trained any and all incoming employees on just about anything.

But he knew he was slowing down. He'd taken a week off the previous year to have surgery—it should've been more but they wouldn't allow it. He'd been slower ever since, agitating his aging body to the point that he needed Tylenol to get through the day. He knew this day would come eventually, but why now? His life was perfect outside the office—his wife still loved him and his kids weren't fuck ups. Everything was great, but he wasn't the same man he used to be.

And he was slipping up. Two spelling errors in the weekly newsletter email he co-wrote every week with his boss, a few out of place slides in the last couple of presentations, and a script that failed right before a big pay day. He solved each problem in the best possible way, but he could feel the noose tightening around his neck.

Enter Kevin. Arthur looked up from his desk to see a gangly twenty-something with rugged stubble and a stern gaze. A paper was thrust forward and it identified him as a new-hire for the department.

Arthur held at his hand, "Welcome to Johnson and Abel Inc. I'll help get you started with everything you need to know. Do you know which desk you'll be using?"

"This one right here," Kevin smiled, his grin missing a tooth. Arthur ignored it and followed Kevin to his workstation. His computer was booted up and his employee email was open, a step in the right direction.

Arthur nodded, "Alright then, what do you need help with?"

Kevin chuckled, "A little bit of everything, actually. I got an email the day after I was hired about learning this system here, but I haven't been able to find it on the company's website. Can you help me find it and give me a little crash course in it?"

"I'd be happy to," Arthur replied. It was a common problem, but it was one he quickly solved. He showed Kevin what was actually a program on his computer, not one from the website, and he helped him get through the most important tasks. It took over an hour to show him everything, but Arthur didn't mind the work.

When he was finished, he asked Kevin if there was anything else he needed help with. Kevin wanted to know about local lunch spots, and Arthur obliged, taking him to a neighboring deli for a quick bite. This allowed him to show him how their time cards worked on the computer, and both clocked out for a thirty-minute lunch. When they returned, Kevin started working on his first project and Arthur got back to his work from that morning.

But when Arthur got home and sat down with his wife for dinner, he expressed concern about his situation:

"I just have a bad feeling about this kid," Arthur began. His wife listened, dutifully nodding and asking questions when prompted. In the end, Arthur sighed, "I think he's my replacement."

"What gives you that idea?" his wife questioned.

"Well, I've been messing up more because I've been in so much pain, and I'm so much slower than usual. I got to thinking the other day about how long I'd been there. No one else there has the years I do, and I just don't think I'm adapting enough for their needs. I think I'm going to get the boot," Arthur groaned.

"Sweetie, they wouldn't fire you," his wife soothed.

Arthur shook his head, "No, but they would heavily encourage me to retire. I know when they wanted old Bucky to leave, they put in a new system without telling him. He showed me himself before his employee email was shut down. They never sent him anything, and I'd heard rumors that they wanted him gone. I bet I'm next."

His wife tried to comfort him, but Arthur just knew he was right. After helping wash up and confirming that his kids wouldn't be home until late, Arthur headed down to his favorite bar. It was supposed to be an Irish pub of sorts, but the atmosphere was ruined thanks to the rules of the landlord. The pub was in a strip mall and it showed, but Arthur ignored it. He was there for camaraderie, not a critique.

Inside the pub he found his old friend Bryan. Bryan worked at Johnson and Abel Inc. long ago when Arthur first arrived. They did everything together then until Arthur met his wife. Bryan was already married, but his marriage just happened to end around the same time. At first, they were separate, at least until Arthur found out he was going to be a father. The thought terrified him and brought him to the pub, where his friend was commiserating with the barkeep about being forever alone. Eventually they became close again through the place, even though Arthur adjusted to being a father and Bryan adjusted to being single.

Today Bryan was having dinner at the pub, a burger and fries from the pub's ancient chef. He nodded to Arthur, but it was the barkeep who would tend him tonight. He ordered his usual brand of beer and took a long sip.

Bryan studied him, "Something must be bothering you. You didn't even say hello to Diane on the way in."

Diane was a long-time waitress at the pub, and it was true that Arthur walked right past her. Quite frankly he hadn't even seen her.

Arthur sighed after he took a second long sip from his beer, "I think I'm about to lose my job."

"I'm going to be honest with you, Arthur," Bryan said, turning towards him, "It was just a matter of time."

"How do you figure that?" Arthur argued.

"Easy there, buddy, I left because I saw what they would do to me. Even way back then, all of our higher-ups were new hires. Little by little the twenty year club was brought down. You told me yourself they targeted old Bucky, and that man was sharp as a whip. You don't get out of Vietnam unscathed the way he did without being good at your job," Bryan countered with a friendly tone.

"Why didn't you warn me?"

Bryan shrugged, "I had no need to. You're one of the few people to make it to twenty years without a write-up, which makes sense. You were savvy and built your way up through the company while building yourself up. You never stopped for them, but they don't care. What's thirty years to them? Who are you to them? You're not the face of the company, just a cog in the machine. After that elbow surgery, I'm surprised they kept you on. You honestly should've left then. You knew it was going to be hard."

"Yeah, but I can still do my job," Arthur groaned, taking a long sip of his beer. Another appeared so he bottomed out his first and started on it.

Bryan shook his head, "Listen, if you want my two cents on this, which you do otherwise you'd be home with your wife, I think you should fuck them over."

"How? I think I'm training my replacement right now. There might not be much time," Arthur said, turning towards his friend. He didn't know where Bryan was going, but deep down he knew he was right.

Bryan leaned towards him, "You didn't hear this from me, but I think you should sabotage your scripts just enough that the new guy can't keep up. Or something. I mean, you need a better plan than that...," Bryan whispered. He grinned, "Find his weaknesses and exploit them."

"I don't think he is good with computers. If I just changed some deadlines and had them not adjust, he'd have to fix it after I'm gone. They won't call me in to fix it though. I think I'm really done this time," Arthur said solemnly.

"You probably are, but it's a last parting gift. They're going to miss you, but you don't have to go back. I remember you telling me a long time ago that your retirement fund was fine. Is that still the case?" Bryan questioned.

Arthur pondered his question and replied, "Well, it should be okay. The kids are making their own way through school with loans, and I guess we could downsize in a few years to save more money. We'll be okay, but what am I supposed to do with my life?"

Bryan grinned, "Spend more time with me or your wife, or really, anything you want. Retirement is an open door, Arthur. I mean, you could jump into a new career or take on the private sector, but if you're set, you'll find something else."

Arthur guessed his friend was right. He finished his second beer and had the barkeep call a cab for him. Instead his wife arrived, saying nothing as she drove him home and helped him to bed.

The next day, Arthur thought about his conversation with Bryan all the way to work. Should he really sabotage the company? He could pretend it was another error, not that they would know for a few months. He knew exactly what to change to work in his favor, and he knew he could do it without getting caught. The new fiscal year would start in three months, and they always had changeover issues. He'd just exploit them, knowing he'd be gone by the time it mattered.

Arthur walked into the building in a fog, taking the elevator to his floor and settling into his desk. He was slower than usual, his head hazy and his arm throbbing. He popped a few more Tylenol and checked his email.

"Uh-oh," Arthur muttered. He had an email from the higher-ups about a meeting later that morning. It made him nervous, and he ended up being right. It was a reprimand for a policy he'd never heard of, one involving his lunch. Apparently he clocked out wrong, but Arthur knew he'd done it correctly.

After the meeting, Arthur found Kevin in the copy room and asked about his lunch. He'd had no reprimand, making it official—they were nitpicking Arthur out the door and replacing him with this...this Kevin.

Arthur went back to his desk and opened up the scripts. He needed to add some names to a company's payroll, so it wasn't suspicious at all for him to change a few things. A few missing lines of code and the program would go completely dead when the fiscal year changed.

Instead of going out for lunch, Arthur ate through it. This wasn't allowed, but when he tried to access the program, he found himself locked out. He took a screenshot of the error and saved it to his files, emailing his personal account a copy in case he got locked out. He backed up some other things as well. By his count, he only had a few weeks left before he'd have his Meeting.

It would go like this: Arthur would get an email from the party planning committee leader, a secretary for the Boss's Boss. Then he'd get a message about a meeting, where they would lay out the terms. He could either retire or face a lengthy firing. No severance check, no company-provided retirement, a stipend Arthur could use on top of his savings to live out his golden years.

Then Arthur would attend his party having accepted this whole retirement thing. He could pretend to celebrate or actually celebrate, but either way he'd have to have his desk packed up and gone at the end of the day.

It had gone like this before, so Arthur knew it would happen just like that. He just couldn't believe it, even though that was average. Retiring at sixty with most of his health intact, well that was better than most could ask for.

Arthur's wife didn't question when Bryan entered the house at random, but she did when her husband was with him using him as a pack mule. Bryan carried in three paper boxes that rattled when he walked. He set them down in the den before greeting her.

Arthur's wife turned to him, "What is this?"

"I told you they'd give me the boot. Forced retirement. At least the cake was good," Arthur replied, nodding to the boxes, "I got everything I could. Those are good boxes, so yeah, I used three. They'll never miss him."

"But, I...how?" she stammered.

Bryan held up his hand, "Don't worry about a thing. He's got you covered, plus I know what he can do on the weekdays to keep him out of your hair."

"You're not playing golf all day every day," she pouted.

Arthur shook his head, "No, not that. I qualify at the senior center now, and so does he, so we're going to take classes and be class clowns. I never really got the chance in school."

"You're both awful!" she laughed, looking them over. Her face turned, "Wait, you're serious."

"Serious as the heart attack we'll be avoiding by staying young," Bryan grinned, handing her a pamphlet, "Water aerobics and quilting, and there's a computer class. Arthur can sign up to teach another one for advanced users. He's got an appointment with the director on Monday."

"My husband the teacher and class clown, all rolled into one," she whispered.

"And I got my just desserts at the company. When they call this summer, I'm out, which I will be. I'm going to enjoy my retirement," Arthur grinned.

His wife studied him, "What did you do?"

"His replacement should be able to fix it, but if he can't...," Bryan smirked.

Arthur's wife playfully slapped his arm, "You're such an awful influence on him, but...I'm sorry I didn't believe you before. The girls should be happy to have you around more. You'll make time for us too, won't you?"

"Of course," Arthur said, kissing her forehead. He then took his wife and friend for a celebratory dinner. Arthur was going to enjoy his first night of retirement, even if he was unsure about the future. It was the only way to get back at his new enemies, by living well.

Epilogue

Arthur received a total of fifty-nine calls, two hundred frantic emails, and three home visits when the company's scripts failed. Arthur offered to come on for a steep price, or they could just figure out their own problems and leave a retired man alone. He kept to his now busy schedule in town—the archives had history lectures biweekly, the library had plenty of extra materials, and the senior center could always use volunteers. The company could hardly track him down to accept his ridiculous offer, but that's what he wanted.

In the end, Kevin was quickly fired for padding his resume and wasting everyone's time. There was a noticeable gap at Johnson and Abel Inc. where Arthur once worked, but it wasn't his problem now. They exploited him, and he got them back the only way he knew how.

And, somehow, Arthur lived happily ever after.

~End

Theme 410: Retirement, 65: Surprised

A/N: So this is the first piece for my new series, Back to the Future. The characters we know as children are now adults trying to get through life, often times with young children of their own. For this first piece, I went far into the future as Arthur enters retirement, unwillingly, but I plan on doing some other pieces for other fandoms with the same theme.

I plan on posting all of these to deviantArt (username SS-Chrys) into a folder called Back to the Future. You can also find these pieces on . All Arthur pieces will also be included on my blog. You can find a link on deviantArt.

As for the theme list, the list has been updated. For a complete list of my themes, see my Infinite Theme List on deviantArt. If you'd like to participate, please let me know.