Idle Hands

“Idle hands are the devils workshop”, we’ve all heard it before, well around here that statement holds true very frequently. I am not saying we have a lot of time on our hands, but if we don’t have anything to fill those 15 minute brakes at ten and three then, as I am sure you may have noticed, we tend to find things to do. So one day as we were sitting enjoying our break Chad says “Hey guys, you know what we should do?” this statement has been said many times around here but it still always gets everyone’s attention, “we should do something for the guy next door”. Now I must interject to say that this particular week the guy next door was having a bad week, we will just say things were not going very well over on his side of the building. So the rest of us, being as kind and caring as anybody else, were more than willing to help in any way that we could. “What do you think we should do?” we all asked. Now remember we are guys and being guys, when we say, do something “for him” that usually means do something “to him” I mean if you can’t kick a guy when he’s down what kind of world would we be living in. So after a short minute of deliberation Chad said,”what if we tin foil his office?” Perfect, nothing that will cause bodily harm or might result in an expensive fix but something to let him know we care. We all agreed on the idea, now to put it into action, it would take the cooperation of his wife who works with him (we’ll call her the lady next door), she would just let us know when he‘s gone and then we would strike. It’s settled, now to buy the foil, so off to Smith’s we went to buy the finest Kroger brand tin foil they had to offer, or at least the cheapest. Five rolls were all that was in the budget, the purchase was made and we were ready. The day went on with no notice from next door; it was then that we decided the guy next door NEVER leaves. The end of the day came and we weren’t going to wait for him to leave, because he probably sleeps here. “Tomorrow we will make it happen” we all decided. As the next day played out the guy next door was again not having a good day. Chad would periodically peek next door and ask our accomplice, “how’s the weather over here?” “Stormy” was her only reply. Then it came, we got the call. We rushed over to begin our task; we didn’t know how much time we had, after all this guy never leaves. However it just so happened that this day was special, he had gotten so upset that he had to leave for fear of killing one of his employees; still we had to hurry. His office became a factory of tin foil wrapping, it was as if this was our destiny, we wrapped each item on his desk and in his office with such talent and speed that it would make any mother proud. It turns out however that we lack the concept of quantity for we soon ran out of foil. Even still it was beautiful, our hearts were filled with joy over the great thing we had just done “for” our dear friend. We went back to work, anxiously waiting for him to return and see what we had done for him. After a few hours of waiting, we knew that he had returned, yet we still had heard nothing. We peeked next door into his office and noticed that the foil had been removed. Could it be that he didn’t even recognize the amount of time and effort we had put in on his behalf? Or, was he really mad? Our heads hung low hoping we hadn’t lost a dear friend due to his selfishness. We all knew better than that, not this guy, he is not mad he is just waiting to get even. Our sullen faces turned to fear for worry of what was to come our way. The next days were spent on pins and needles. He came over and would laugh with us about what had been done but we knew he would not just let it go at that. So we waited but still nothing, this is the kind of thing that is worse than being pranked, waiting to be pranked, and he knew it. Then one day Chad’s mouse on his computer was all taped up and every time he would print there was a paper clip copied onto the middle of each sheet. As Chad stared confused at each sheet that came off of his printer, behind him stood the guy next door grinning from ear to ear. Finally we could all rest easy for this was the sign that it was over, for now. . .