Melisa
Melisa had reached her breaking point. At 5:15 PM her tolerance broke down, leaving her in a quiet, dismal place where sound and light no longer reached her. She had placed herself so entirely into work after her divorce and the subsequent death of her daughter Kimberly that work was all she cared about anymore. There simply wasn’t anything else left in her life. No joy, no hope, nothing but work.
But after two weeks with the flu, and her endless doctor visits, her company insurance had cut her off. High risk, over-allotted visits, etc., was what they had told her as some form of excuse. Then she had started having problems with her accounts. Two new marketing executives had been assigned to her and neither would agree nor budge, no matter how insignificant the matter. Six write-ups later and her position was in jeopardy, as well as her car, her house, and her livelihood. She had received a memo from the head of her division stating her probationary status two write-ups ago. He had also taken to personally antagonizing her. “How’s quality!?” he would shout into her cubicle
She felt the strands of her sanity being pulled apart when she saw memos noting her accounts’ rejection of the finally completed proposals that had taken her months to complete. That would mean two more write-ups and her certain termination. She sat at her desk until 5:30, got up from her desk and took the freight elevator to the roof. The wind pressed her clothes against her body and the vertigo was the strongest sensation she’d felt in months. Her hair whipped around her face and she felt its sting lashing her over and over. She held her breath and stepped off. Wind rushed around her and her stomach flip flopped. She tried to hold her eyes open but the pressure was too great. Tears streamed across her cheeks as she saw the street rushing toward her. She didn’t want to be cheated out of the one pure sensation she would have left–of fear.
Seconds later she yelped and sat up in her chair. She looked at the clock on her phone and read 5:16. She suddenly wondered if she could gain access to the freight elevator at all and wondered if Mr. Will the maintenance man would lend her the key.