The Road is Long – Daniel 20

[For back story go here: Story so far at 27 July 2020 and more recent episodes.]

[Relevant back story links also within text.]

From the comfort of his front room, Daniel watched the slow movement of his old work phone in the suitcase packed for his daughter and his ex. He didn’t know exactly where it was going – it had already bypassed her grandparent’s house and was heading for the centre of the country. It wasn’t a straightforward route, however. As Flint had explained the case was going to pass through several different hands before reaching the intended destination. 

As with the plot of a couple of children’s story books Daniel had read, each part of the journey would only be known by the person undertaking it, the entire journey was known by no one. For children this taught them the importance of friends and even the way the world worked together to produce a harmonious outcome. In the grown-up world, of course, it didn’t.

Daniel knew better than to obsessively watch the case. It wasn’t direct and it wouldn’t by a continuous journey. There would be drop offs and pauses. All a bit dramatic for just a case of kids’ clothes and toys, he thought, but maybe this was a mark of how much Chrissy really didn’t want to engage with him. Or a mark of how much she wanted to wind him up.  Well, thought Daniel, all that effort is paying off. Congratulations, I’m officially wound up.

He returned to his beer and flicked between the tab which was watching the case and the tab which was trying to find him a job. LinkedIn had been way too busy for him when the virus first hit and closed everything down. The roll of posts which came up when he logged on were so numerous and in some cases panic inducing that at that point he felt like he was playing an online game of ‘the floor is lava’ – just don’t click on something that submerges you in the chaos that’s coming down on everyone.

Now things were a little cooler, a little saner, but also he had a purpose as to why he needed to dip his feet into the flow. He needed a job and he was hoping there might be a way of tapping into an opportunity without having to be blatant about his search. He found a few contacts and more distant contacts who looked like they might be embarking on new projects and be in need of his skills. A simple message to say hi would be appropriate at first, he decided – he could get heavier later.

As he was scrolling through the posts a certain video caught his eye. Intrigued, he stopped, double clicked and turned the sound up. His old boss, Wendy Scheslinger had posted a video. The video was clearly promoting Crown Apps’ fantastic approach to organising your life, whatever your life may be. Having understood this from the inside, Daniel would have found it farcical to see from the outside, were it not for one thing.

Scheslinger was accompanied by a rather energetic and colourful puppet, sporting a pointy hat and cape.

“Well, Mrs Witchy-Well,” she said when the sound kicked in. “Do you have lots to do today?”

Witchy-Well jumped up and down a little and whispered in Wendy’s ear. Wendy grinned, a little too knowingly. “I thought you might do,” she said. “Well, did you know with Crown Apps, you can get everything you need in one place, so you can see it whenever you…”

Daniel’s blood ran cold. This was worse than being sacked. This was almost worse than not knowing where his daughter was. The idea that the original beautiful pitch that he and Daisy has put together had been reduced to this – crassly performed, no true characterisation, and not so much as a nod to him and Daisy for their work on the concept. It was almost more than he could comprehend.

He got up from the screen, stopped himself physically from writing what he immediately thought in the comments box and instead muttered ‘Damn you!’ under his breath over and over.

He clicked play again, partly through disbelief, partly to wallow in his outrage.

“Crown Apps,” said Wendy with a huge wedge of cheese smothering her manner, “So easy, it’s child’s play.”

And she smiled. And Daniel swore he would wipe that smile off her face if it was the last thing he did. There would be a legal fight and he would bring Scheslinger and Crown Apps down, crumbling to a state of pathetic zeros and ones. But first, he wondered, could he convince the executive director of Crown Apps’ closest competitor that this was originally his idea?