Disclaimer: Any resemblances here to real people, places, institutions or events are purely coincidental. This is a work of fiction.

Chapter 18, "Pulp Rats...an Unpleasant Story"

I, Fos, was sitting around one evening with some other rats. There was Phi, from out west. Lio was from the southeast and Gur was from way up north.

We were chewing the fat. No, not a figure of speech, we were chewing the fat from some old unidentified dead thing. It was quite pleasant...really.

Anyway, we got to talking about strange behavior we had seen amongst the Big Things. Lio was talking about a Big Thing called a "Mill Manager" (whatever that is) and his strange behavior when his boss, the "Manufacturing Manager" came around. The way Lio described it, the Mill Manager was always very polite to the Manufacturing Manager. However, when the Manufacturing Manager left, the Mill manager would go into a rage, throw things and be abusive to the Big Things that worked for him.

Phi piped up, "Yeah, I have seen that, too. Once, the Mill Manager where I live kicked a hole in his office wall when his Manufacturing Manager left."

I asked if there was anything they saw happen that would cause such an outburst.

Lio said, "It seemed like the Manufacturing Manager was asking a lot of detailed questions. It was demeaning to the Mill Manager, made her look like she did not know her job. He would ask about production data from months ago and would make fun of the Mill Manager when she had to look it up, did not know it off the top of her head."

Phi had seen the same thing, "It is as if the Manufacturing Manager is abusive, like they have some sort of inferiority problem, always have to prove themselves right."

We talked for a while. Does this rise to the level that it requires bringing to the attention of the Great Mother and the Cadre? We did decide we know what to call it, for we had all heard Mill Managers say the same phrase, "QUIT MICROMANAGING ME!!!" From comparing our notes, this seemed to be what the Big Things called it.

But, we decided that unless the Big Things committed murder (which a couple of them seemed to have threatened to do, at least under their breaths), it was not worth bringing up to the Great Mother and the Cadre.

We went back to chewing the fat.

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