THE MAGNIFICENT TALE OF THE BALDS
CHAPTER 2: THE REPORTER
Everyone knows a guy like this.
If they don't know someone like this, then chances are they are the person like this.
Average guy.
Average name.
Average haircut.
Wife and Two kids, Lisa and Todd.
But this average guy is missing just one thing.
Friends.
Jack Smith has no friends.
He tries to fit in with the people at work, but everyone he meets finds his overly positive personality irritating to the point of hatred.
One day he woke up from a good night's sleep, he sat up, yawned and stretched his arms out, then kissed his wife on the cheek as she snoozed.
He got out of bed and after brushing his teeth he knocked on each of his children's bedroom doors.
"Come on kids time for school" he shouted through the door.
The kids both got ready and once he had made sure that everyone was washed, dressed and fed, Jack took the children to school and then headed to work himself.
As he pulled into the car park he noticed his private space had been occupied, he didn't mind, of course, he was sure that whoever took it needed it more, so he drove to the far end of the car park where he could find a space and then began to walk towards the building.
As he got close he noticed his colleague, Garath had got out of his car in his private space and was also now walking towards the door. Jack jogged to catch up with him.
"Hey Gareth, you watch the match last night?" Asked Jack.
"What match" Gareth responded in an irritated tone.
"You know... football"
"Football wasn't on last night you dickhead, fuck off Jack get to work, I know you’re behind".
Gareth was the office jock, and although he wasn't threatened by Jack, he enjoyed making Jack's life harder, ensuring Jack was given additional work whenever he got the chance, as he knew Jack was too chipper to complain, and it allowed Gareth to slack off more and get rewarded far easier for doing minimal work.
As Jack hurried to his desk he saw the huge pile of papers that had been left in his inbox, he was an intern at the local newspaper, he saw it as a stepping stone to become a national reporter, and due to all the additional responsibilities he was given, he was earning valuable experience that was far above his job requirements, at least that was the way he saw it.
Jack spent the next few hours sorting through the metre-high stack of papers, all potential news stories. "Towns largest potato ever grown", "Fire at the recycling centre dealt with quickly by hard-working firemen", "town statue vandalised by traffic cone placed on the head" were some of the potential headlines he had come up with based on the submitted tips. All in all, it was a pretty drab town to be a reporter in, but Jack had journalistic integrity and was unwilling to create any fake news, only glamorise what was actually happening.
Jack's boss was doing his rounds around the office, ensuring everyone's work was up to par. as he reached Jack's desk he began to shake his head.
"Jack, Jack, Jack" he tutted to himself. "I need to talk with you about some of your submissions"
"Oh?" inquired Jack. "did I submit something false"
"no, but that's kind of the issue" his boss stated. "what your submitting, its.. its just crap"
Jack slumped in his chair. he had worked hard on all of his submissions. taking hours of unpaid overtime to perfect them. The boss continued.
"Your headlines, there just shit. you know that the modern human doesn't read beyond a headline, so why are you giving me such boring titles? I mean look at what you submitted yesterday 'Lost sheep found in adjacent farm', it's just shit" Complained his boss.
"w-well that's what happened" responded Jack
"No, you aren't listening, wheres's the drama? wheres the life-threatening, world-ending consequences? how are you going to get people to read our paper if you can't even write a headline? I mean look at this shit your writing now! all three of those are dogshit, and you want me to put that on my front page? I don't fucking think so."
Just at that moment, Jack was saved by a huge plot development. one of the office field reporters kicked the door into the office, sweat dripping from sprinting back to the office.
"A PREHISTORIC MAN IN A MODERN 3 PIECE SUIT HAS BEEN FOUND UNDERWATER ENCASED IN ICE! COME AND CHECK HIM OUT" shouted the journalist.
Everybody rushes out to take a look. Jack follows, but before he can get to the door his boss puts his hand across him.
"This is your last chance Jack if you don't write a good piece here, we're gonna have to let you go, now I know this'll be a competitive environment for you, not only will you be competing with everyone in this room, but all the other news crews who will be down there, but I need you to write me something that can at least contribute to one of our articles. If you don't write that, your done here, and I wouldn't use us as a reference either if that ends up being the case, now go on, stop wasting time and get down there."
Jack Sprints from the office grabbing the bare essentials as he runs, the car park is almost empty already, and he sprints the length to get to his car, he drives as fast as he can without breaking the speed limit to where the iceman was found, the River Mersey in Liverpool at the Albert Dock.
Once Jack arrived he was practically ecstatic, this wasn't fake news, it was a real, thrilling story and if he could be the one to tell it, it'd catapult him to stardom in the journalism world, he envisioned his own column in a national newspaper, a regular spot on the news based comedy TV show Mock the week, and hopefully a hefty pay rise.
When he got into the room where the alleged apparition was held he saw it.
A Bald headed man wearing reading glasses and a blue-white striped 3 piece suit really had been found. The story became even more alluring after the scientific team on site took a core sample from the ice and discovered that the centre of the ice, where the bald-headed man was, had been frozen for over 200,000 years! The science team were keeping him in a large freezer, in an attempt to keep his temperatures low to prevent him from thawing out.
Jack got a closer look and guessed that the man looked about 7ft tall and freakishly skinny, although this was hard to tell through the thick ice. He had a stubble beard and also had formal modern-day shoes to match his suit.
Every journalist pushed and shoved to get a photo but nobody could get a clear shot as it was so crowded.
Jack squeezed through the crowd and got a picture of the bald iceman to show to his boss when he returned, between this picture and his memorising of the man's description, Jack was sure he could write an incredible piece all by himself, not even as a contributor. The police arrived to conduct some crowd control, making the possibility of taking any more pictures impossible, as Jack returned to his car he started to think about his story. He had until tomorrow morning to finish it, which was plenty of time, and combined with his photo, the only high resolution and clear one taken, he was sure to get a promotion, not just be kept on as an intern.
Jack worked late that night, and as he walked to his car in the empty lot he finds Gareth waiting for him, leaning on Jack's bonnet.
"Rumour around the office is that you got a pretty good shot of the iceman" stated Gareth
"Yeah I did! have a look at this" Jack said proudly
Jack showed Gareth the picture on his camera.
"Wow, I sure did take a great photo didn't I Jack?" bragged Gareth
"what? But I took the picture?" asked Jack
"Oh did you now?" replied Gareth
Gareth pressed a button on Jack's Camera, transferring the picture Via Bluetooth to Gareth's phone.
"Then why isn't it on your broken camera?" asked Gareth
Gareth took the SD card from Jacks Camera and snapped it in half. he then threw the camera far over the fence.
"Gareth what the hell! I had to buy that camera myself, and that was my picture" shouted Jack
"You know intellectual property theft is a serious crime, and since I took that picture, your stealing from me," Gareth said whilst cracking his knuckles.
"Come on Gareth it’s my photo I took it fair and square let's be civil please I'm begging you" Jack whimpered.
Gareth smacks Jack across the head, he grabs his collar and shoves him against his car.
"Now if I find out you told the boss anything about this, I will come to your house and I WILL kill you" Gareth informed.
"Ok, Gareth tomorrow morning I will tell Mr Oakley that you took the photo, just please stop hitting me" begged Jack
"good, Now get the fuck out of here"
Jack got into his car, tears in his eyes and he sped off.
Jack returned home, his kids greeted him with excitement and he put on a brave face for them. His wife, however, could tell that something was wrong, so once the kids had gone to bed they spoke in private.
"Is everything ok?" asked Amanda.
"Everything is fine," says Jack
"So what's this little bruise here then Jack"
Jack sighed.
"Ok. We had a huge story in work today, like change our lives for good huge, and I got the best picture of this... this thing" Jack explained. "But before I could submit anything, Gareth took my camera and is going to claim that it's his picture, and his story."
"That's terrible, but I'm sure it'll all work out, just speak to your boss and tell him what happened. I'm sure this will all blow over" said Amanda comfortingly.
The next day Jack entered the office and was asked by the receptionist to go straight up to see the boss.
"Is everything ok boss?" asked Jack
"No Jack. Everything is not 'okay'. I got into work this morning and found that a panicked Gareth had felt he had to come in early to speak to me. now I know I put some pressure on you for a story, but why in the hell do you think that gives you the right to steal another employees picture?" enquired the boss.
"WHAT! that's not what happened at all, I left work late last night and Gareth was waiting in the car park, he beat me up, took my camera, transferred the picture and then broke my camera" explained Jack
"Well then let's see this broken camera," asked the Boss.
"I... I don't have it. he through it far away and I couldn't see it cause it was dark and-"
Jack was cut off before he could finish explaining
"That's awfully contrived really Jack, even if you did show me some busted up camera, which I'm sure you would have smashed yourself, it seems you tried to cover up your tracks by deleting the CCTV of you threatening Gareth." retorted the boss
"What? I... I didn't-" Jack was cut off again
"It was your access card that was used to access the security office Jack, No one else was in the building that late"
Jack felt into his pocket and only just then realised that his access card for the building had been taken. He realised that Gareth must have taken it when he beat Jack up, or it may have fallen out of his pocket for Gareth to take. All that Jack knew was that Gareth had covered his tracks and implicated Jack
"Now your just lucky we don't call the police on you Jack, this is a serious breach of our security, however yet again your lucky because Gareth has said he didn't want to press any legal charges against you because he knows you were stressed, but I'm still in charge of this office and I want you to get the FUCK out of here" shouted his boss
Jack turned around slowly and headed to his desk. He found Gareth had put all of Jack's personal stuff into a box and was then placing his own stuff down onto Jack's desk.
"Seems you shouldn't steal Jackie boy now please leave, I'm better than you, The boss knows it. Seems he would rather have me. He also asked me to tell you that you're fired as if it wasn't obvious so goodbye Jack".
Gareth Smirked as Jack approached the desk.
Jack didn't say a word as he grabbed his belongings and walked out the door while his old coworkers threw balls of paper, used tissues, yelled abusive language at him and laughed at him.
He went home and told his family the news. They were not pleased. Amanda was furious, believing that Jack had lied to her and that Gareths story was true, because how else would the security footage have been wiped?
"you are a fucking piece of shit Jack Smith!" Shouted his wife "I'm taking the kids and we're going to stay at my mother's. Don't call me! I'll send for my things!"
Jack stood in the doorway as his family drove away, his last scraps of hope fading.
He watched the TV and took to drinking to cope, drowning himself in alcohol and depressing realisations.
"why is my life so hard".
"Why can't I ever make friends".
"Everybody abuses me".
He sat on these thoughts for hours, which turned to days, which turned to months. But then he had a realisation. Why should he let this world kick him around? He's got this far by being optimistic and helping others, so why should he stop now? He was certain his life would bounce back. all he had to do was try and never give up. He could get the kids back, and Amanda and make some great friends. but the first step was getting a job.
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