Far Fetched Fables

Fiction: “Want’s Master” by Pat Bowne (Originally published in Tales of the Unanticipated, 2002.) When William Harrison Gracile came in to work at four-thirty in the afternoon looking as if he had aged twenty years overnight, his suit hanging loose on a wizened frame, his secretary wished him good day and went back to her typing. Gracile was offended. He had never been late to work before; he had never come in with a hair out of place. He deserved better from his secretary, he thought. She should make shocked noises, ask after his health, give unsought advice; she should stop him, as he went into his office. “I’m sorry,” she should say, “I don’t want to intrude, but…” “Oh, by the way,” said his secretary, “a package came for you. I put it on your desk.”  A package was exciting, even to someone of an age and station that begged for unsolicited, meaningless...  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.