Five Minute Fiction

From Creative Writing Prompts: #168 Secretary has a weird way of classifying the files.



"Eleanor!"


There was no response.


"Eleanor!" called Mr. McCurdy again, getting irritated. "She must have gone to lunch," he muttered. What was she thinking, going for lunch at noon? What if he had needed her, like he did now? With his secretary off enjoying a meal somewhere, he was going to have to find the file he needed. It seemed beneath him - imagine, a lawyer going through the trouble of finding a file! That's what secretaries were for, after all.


Still grumbling to himself, Mr. McCurdy left his comfy leather chair and waddled up to the reception area and the shelves of files behind it. He figured that if Eleanor did this every day, he could manage. After all, he knew the alphabet. He needed the file about Arnold Lewis's case, so he decided to look under 'L'. He picked a spot about halfway into the files and started to look at the cases on the shelf.


"Nabar, Kreutz, Abercomb, Miller..." he read. "Wait a second... Nabar, Kreutz, Abercomb and Miller?" He knew that Eleanor was not the brightest bulb in the Christmas tree, but that was ridiculously out of order! He moved to the first row of files and began reading off the names.


"Zellman, Stiller, Umphrey, Token..." There was definitely something wrong here! He looked at another shelf, but still saw no pattern to any of the files.


Getting grumpier by the second, Mr. McCurdy finally stomped over to the reception desk and scribbled a note for Eleanor before stomping back to his own office. Only a few minutes later, the wayward secretary returned from lunch and promptly went to Mr. McCurdy's office, Lewis file in hand.


"How did you manage to find this in that mess?" Mr. McCurdy asked, partly annoyed but partly amazed.


"I've got a system," Eleanor said with a grin. "Makes me indispensible."