Rocket was holding a glowing image of the horrific events at Bondi Beach at the South End of the conference table. Splash sat across from him with his iPad flat, glowing upward with a hazy image of a man in dark clothing walking around the corner at Brown College in Rhode island. Holly had a picture of actor Rob Reiner and his wife, looking appalled.

Miles was at the North End of the table with the sweeping glass window to his left side. He gestured out at the Wide World and turned to the group around the TAHE computer box alive with holiday lights. “No horrors this morning. The shootings at Bondi and Brown may have some relation to attacks on a religious observation that just started. We are not going to play into that until we have some facts about who did what and why. So, I want to go with another, lighter subject this morning for which i actually have a decent title slide.”

The group looked relieved that they were not going to be directed to look at the results of bloodshed. But instead they looked at the four corners of the slide. Each represented a disaster that costs a bunch of cash to create.

People liked the idea that the day’s labor was already complete and that an Elf showed up with her own tablet to take breakfast orders.

. “I am not going to intervene with any news updates.’ She pointed at the image on the big screen on the wall behind Section Leader Miles. “Cracker Barrel found out people liked the rocking chair and the comfort food. And that cross-dressers were going to alienate decent beer drinkers.” her hand moved around in a dramatic swoop. “And Coke didn’t need to be any sweeter.” She paused with a finger pointed at the merry dressed happy people who were allegedly attempting to sell aggressive sleek muscular sports cars. “Or these cute kindred spirits at Jaguar.”

“So what’s up with the furry guys in the middle?” asked Vic. “I saw that ad about a dozen times before I was able to figure out they were attempting to get me to sign up for a Direct TV subscription. It was supposed to make me feel more comfortable about wearing my furs while watching NFL football.”

There was laughter around the table and Holly grabbed the mouse connected with a tangled cord to the TAHE terminal. The glowing lights blinked off and the screen on the wall went blank. She slumped back in her chair, all work for this first weekday of the third week in Advent complete.

“We have completed the weeks of Hope and Peace for this season,” she said. “This is supposed to be the week of Joy before we get to Love for the Lord and all the humanity he created. So, let’s take some time this morning and feel the power of the season and take some Joy in this madly spinning world.”

She pointed toward the window and the contrails of at least ten jets that had slashed crisscross through the turquoise of a joyous new morning. “The sign left by jets, each carrying more than a hundred people should remind us of how amazing this world is in even ordinary things. Let’s take some joy in that.”

Splash laughed. “Maybe we can move Happy Hour up a little bit. Just as a holiday observance. No furs required, you know? Some change is what we need to change.”

There was general agreement on that, whatever it was, and the laughter continued to lunch. And beyond.

Copyright 2025 Vic Socotra

www.vicsocotra.com