Orientation by Albino Finch
Anton didn't think he was exaggerating when he thought that the woman
standing at the front of the room was made of plaster of Paris. Nor did he
blame it on his mood, which was pretty awful. He didn't enjoy getting up at
6:30pm on a Saturday, then having to run half a mile to catch a GO Train
downtown so he could come to a 10-hour orientation for a job he knew he was
going to loathe.
"Hello. Today we are going to learn what every employee of the WonderCat
grocery store franchise needs to know," she said. As it turns out, Anton was
not in the least bit inaccurate with the analysis of the Orienteerer. She
looked like she was molded, rather than pulled from someone's womb, and had
been through the whole Orienteering routine so many times that she didn't have
to think about what she was saying. She just let the words tumble out like toy
blocks from a child's arms.
"First we are going to watch a video called 'Stealing our Future', about
internal theft." She fiddled with the video machine, dimmed the lights, and
passed out in a corner.
The movie was about a man named Raskolnikov who stole a can of beets from
his place of work, a WonderCat Grocer. He spoke with a thick Russian accent
and sweated a lot as he told his tale. He didn't know why he stole the can of
beets. It weighed heavily on his conscience, and he had recurring dreams of
horses being beaten to death and an old woman who laughed at him, until,
finally, in the nightmarish conclusion to his tale, he confessed his crime in
the City Square, kissed the Earth, and was sent to a Siberian prison for an
indefinite amount of time.
The Orienteering woman didn't move from her spot in the corner, nor did she
open her eyes, as she spoke:
"Now I want you to turn to the person next to you and look into their eyes
for 10 seconds."
Anton followed the instructions, and didn't so much mind doing so, as the
girl sitting next to him was very pretty.
"Okay, now rip off their clothes."
Anton did so, noticing a few unfortunate guys who sat across from other
guys. He laughed at them.
"Now fuck them."
Thirty seconds later, everyone had their clothes back on and died.
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