Magic box

I have a pretty standard workstation. A chair, desk, computer, a locker, a shelf, two drawers, a couple of monitors, and a shit ton of cables coiled like horny snakes behind the said monitors.

In line with corporate policy around the world, they also made sure everything was a uniformly dull battleship grey, in case someone got too excited about the place.

It was about a week after I joined work that I first pulled out the large, grey bottom drawer. Obviously, the previous guy who sat in the spot didn't have time to clear his stuff out, because it was loaded with the strangest assortment of things. There was a large nylon jacket, greeting cards, a foldable Chinese hand fan with a fresco design, a lot of electronic wizardry, cords, wires... and a coffee mug with dongs printed all over it.

Now, remember how when you were young, and every time an imaginary fairy, mermaid or leprechaun would grant you a wish, you would wish for a magic ring that would grant you any number of wishes? Or a magic pot that would produce endless quantities of food or money?

Or. A box out of which you could pull out anything.

For the next few months, this drawer would be that magical box for me.

Shit! Phone’s out of charge! No worries.  Here’s a charger.
Wait, you want one with a different pin? Well, here’s an adaptor for it.
Oh, you’d rather have a completely different phone? Sure thing.

The 1ft X 1ft X 2 ft drawer held a seemingly endless number of things. Webcams. Microphones. Headphones. Clips. Card holders. Magnetic pins. Pencil sharpeners. Erasers. Rulers. Notepads, Mouse pads. Mice. If I ever needed anything, I just needed to fumble around in it a little till I found whatever I was looking for.

One day, it even turned up a pair of quite decent speakers. The owner of the penis-adorned coffee mug was quite obviously a wizard, and I was blessed enough to be seated in his former seat.

My months of joy and abundance, however, abruptly came to an end one day. The new boss, upon learning that the office hadn’t seen a cleanup since the cold war, ordered an immediate spring cleaning.

As my office mates and I emptied hitherto unopened drawers, cupboards and shelves, we unearthed such treasures as ancient floppy disk sets of Windows (95?), Red Hat Linux and MS Office.

By the time we were done, there were several large mountains of stuff piled around the room. My own magic drawer, in one last hurrah, threw up a box of ancient magnetic tapes that I’d never noticed before, and no one could recollect anymore.

I threw it all away, but retained the floppy disks that I foolishly think my grand-kids might be interested in someday.

It's not many people who know exactly how the greedy couple who killed their golden goose felt like. But I can tell you, it is horrible.

Even today, whenever I need something, I instinctively reach for the bottom drawer, only to be met by the crushing sight of a couple of old disks lying at its once endless bottom... :-(

~Peace!