Simmons from Accounting: the Time Traveler

By B. Radom

Simmons from Accounting is the joke of the office. Whether it be his boss, Deloris Clayton, the new guy, Booker Wells, or even Booker’s assistant, Jimmy Taylor, this bizarre, arrogant man commands no respect. But Simmons is something much more than he seems. Deloris knows this, and it won’t be long before Booker learns it, too. Simmons is a hero, a master of the timescape, and he travels from place to place, and time to time at will, with no one being the wiser.

Scattered throughout the timescape are the micro-cam prophets. These individuals use microscopic cameras to study the futures of anyone, anywhere, from any time. Simmons has received predictions and warnings from a total of 15 of these prophets, and the wizard Abberule -- who doesn't realize that his powers come from the same technology that Simmons uses -- has vowed to put a stop to this incredible power. Simmons, Deloris, and Booker team up to follow Abberule to 15 distinct locations in time and space to prevent his efforts to assassinate the micro-cam prophets.

There is also the shadow of Simmons' greatest enemy, the other side...

• Language: English
• Publisher: B. Radom
• Release date: Dec 20, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301488629

Book preview

SIMMONS FROM ACCOUNTING: The Time Traveler

Genre: Science Fiction

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by B. Radom

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Copyright ©2012 by B. Radom

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Published 2012 by B. Radom

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SMASHWORDS EDITION

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission, except for brief quotations to books and critical reviews. This story is a work of fiction. Characters and events are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Chapter 1

The single sun and single moon of this timeline’s Earth were sharing the sky at 8:15 AM, in Denver. Traffic was lighter than usual. The weather was warm, for morning. Barely a cloud was in the sky. His car radio was blasting the latest tunes as Booker Wells pulled into the SameBrain parking lot, for the very first time. It was Booker’s first job interview of the day, and friends had told him that this was a longshot, but that was absolutely not a reason to panic. It was absolutely not a reason to give up.

The headquarters of SameBrain Corporation was nestled in a green area on the outskirts of town. It was a high, squat sort of building with two smaller buildings on either side. The parking lot, out front, seemed to stretch for miles, especially from the visitors’ spots where Booker had parked.

As Booker was getting out of his car, something in his side mirror caught his attention. It looked like a woman dressed as a princess in a fairy tale manipulating some sort of gadget to make holograms dance. When he turned his head to look closer, the woman was gone. Must have been my imagination, thought Booker. It was a long walk to the front door of the building.

SameBrain, Toys of the Future

That had been their slogan in the eighties, when Booker was young. They specialized in action figures, and Booker knew about them from way back. Anymore, the products from SameBrain carried the corporate logo and nothing else. The days of blaring their slogans at impressionable kids had ended.

Booker still had a few of their action figures tucked away in a box in his parents’ attic. But SameBrain was expanding beyond the simple formula of action figures now. New media, and the lack of contracts with the latest Saturday-morning-cartoons and films for young people were leading them in the direction of making original content themselves to explain the action figures that came out of stories no one had seen. For some of Booker’s friends, that was a sad comment on the modern era. But for Booker, it was the reason he could even apply for a job at this company he’d known about most of his life.

Booker Wells made his way through the parking lot and entered the door of the main building. The building’s directory was in the process of being altered by a maintenance worker, so Booker had to wait for the maintenance worker to move aside. After the maintenance worker was done changing the directory, Booker was surprised to find that the office he was looking for was the one that had been changed.

It had once said Creative 4B, but it now said Creative/Accounting 4B. Booker laughed quietly at the board, and thought of his friends, back in college. For them, Creative Accounting would have been the oxymoron of the year. Then there was the business school definition, where Creative Accounting usually meant something illegal.

The maintenance worker, still standing by the board, laughed nervously, and asked, What’s so funny?

Just a joke I heard on the way in, Booker said. Why did they move Creative and Accounting into the same office?

Partly because there’s six new Vice Presidents who need office space, said the maintenance worker, and partly to keep the people in Creative from going over budget.

That makes sense, said Booker.

What’re you here about? asked the maintenance guy.

I’m here to apply for the computer media position up in Creative, Booker told him.

Good luck, said the maintenance guy. That position’s been a revolving door for years now.

Huh, said Booker, in an I see kind of way.

Believe it or not, this news gave Booker hope. If the position was filled and replaced, then he could apply for it again as soon as whoever they hired got fired. And if they fired him from the position, at least he’d get some sort of severance package to live on for a few months. It had been so long since Booker had even applied for a job. He was hoping that a job at SameBrain would look good on a resume and give some indication of the kind of work he was suited for.

Booker took the elevator up to the fourth floor and walked through the door marked 4B. The office was abuzz with activity, as people moved a set of cubicles -for the accountants - into the open space on the left side of the office. Amidst the bustle of maintenance workers moving the cubicles, Booker saw a tall man in a long, black coat wandering around in the area like a wounded animal.

This is a disaster, said the man, a travesty. Then the man leaned down and screamed into the ear of one of the maintenance people, WHAT CAN I SAY TO MAKE YOU STOP THIS INSANITY?

The man in the black coat got up and turned away, heading over to another cubicle, repeating the words disaster and travesty, while the maintenance worker he’d screamed at rubbed his ear and continued to work. Booker shook his head and walked over to the corner office of the Head of Creative, Deloris Clayton. He waited outside for a few moments, then was called in for the interview. Her office was cluttered with awards and commendations for her work on the Space Legend line of action figures. It would seem that she was instrumental in the design of that particular line.

On her desk, Booker saw a jar of pens with frilly decorations on them. Next to that was a pile of CDs behind the placard with her name. Next to the CDs was an oddly-shaped paperweight made out of Legos. And on the edge of her desk, a sort of sculpture made of Silly Putty in the shape of a swamp creature. Booker’s eyes were drawn to the wall, where she displayed posters from concerts by a lot of bands he’d never heard of. Deloris was quietly laughing, as she read the manuscript for an upcoming set of Space Legend novels. He cleared his throat and sat down in a chair. Deloris looked up from the manuscript.

You here to interview for the computer media position? she asked, suddenly all business.

Yes, Booker said, handing her his resume.

Well, you’re the only one who showed up for the interview, so the job is basically yours, Deloris said.

Booker flinched, fearing that he’d be fired in the next few weeks, like the other people who’d held this position. The whole applying again when the next person was fired had started to seem more like a backup plan, and Booker was hoping to be hired at one of his other interviews today. But how could he say that? He recovered from his flinch and tried to look eager for the job. Deloris eyed him in a confused way.

So, what’s your previous experience working with computers? asked Deloris.

Mostly data entry, answered Booker Wells.

Can you set up a website? she asked.

No, Booker said, but nowadays that should be easy to learn, right?

Yes, said Deloris, but no one here has time to train you. You’ll have to do some research online, learn html if you can, and basically update the websites we have until the next new line comes out. Then you should be able to get us a site that lets people buy the new line on the web, some sort of parental protection for the message boards, because people love to criticize us and use foul language on our message boards. Monitor the forums, set up new sites, work closely with our copywriters on the text selling the line, and try to keep it visual. Lots of pictures. That’s the extent of your Internet duties. You think you can handle it?

Uh, I guess so, said Booker.

Good. What about games? Can you program a game based on a line of action figures? Maybe an iPhone app that’s a game? We need to stay current, and that’s what we’ve been looking for. Is that possible?

Yes, said Booker. I’ve made a few projects that are games, back when I was programming. I only did it as a hobby, but if you’ll pay me for that, I guess I’m in the right place.

As he said it, it occurred to him that he probably was in the right place after all.

Don’t let it get in the way of your Internet duties, but we appreciate the need to have gaming options for our customers. Anything to sell more action figures, right?

Right, said Booker.

When can you start? she asked.

Chapter 2

Booker arrived at SameBrain for his first day of his job at 7:45. He got on the elevator and pressed the button for floor four. The man in the black coat was outside of office 4B, in tears.

They moved us, he said. They moved us right next to each other! Somebody knows more than they say they know, and nobody listened when I told them to stop doing it.

Sorry to hear that, said Booker, annoyed. Then he continued into the office, where a skinny nerd-type waved at him, beckoning him over to his new desk.

Good morning, Mr. Wells, he said. I’m Jimmy Taylor, your assistant.

Where’s the rest of the computer media department? asked Booker.

You and me, said Jimmy Taylor. That’s it. You’d think there’d be a staff, but that’s SameBrain for you. They overwork two people and still expect miracles. You get a load of the guy in the black coat outside?

Yes, said Booker. What’s up with that guy?

That’s Simmons from Accounting, said Jimmy. I’ve worked with him before. He’s usually not this - emotional - but definitely the weirdest dude I ever met. Before I got hired on in Creative, I had to put up with Simmons every day.

He seems like a crazy man, said Booker.

Yeah, said Jimmy, laughing. But he’s a legend at SameBrain. Apparently, he does extraordinary work as an accountant, but he always takes his work home with him. At the office, you usually find him spacing out and walking around, like he’s hatching schemes for whatever his true passion is. Our bosses keep him on either as a joke or because they feel sorry for him. I kid you not, there’s actually been talk of a sort of novelty item, the Simmons from Accounting action figure. If you still work here by Christmas, that’ll probably be your company gift. They’ll be laughing their butts off about it upstairs.

Booker smiled and shook his head. Jimmy nodded and sat at his small desk, to the right of Booker’s desk. Booker got started by deleting a bunch of profanity from the website forums. He then started to look up some reference material about websites and html. After lunch, he’d already started to adapt one of his games to the Space Legend backstory. All of the information he needed was well-organized, in a pile

Reviews for Simmons from Accounting

[calicocat901 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The premise of this book was interesting, but the story dragged in the middle, the time travel theories were confusing and I found it hard to relate to the characters at all. The beginning was well-written and then ending was intriguing, but the book needed to be edited and the plot better developed.

[rretzler_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Booker Wells takes a new job with SameBrain Corporation, whose slogan used to be "SameBrain, Toys of the Future." As his department, Creative, shares office space with Accounting, he soon meets a tall man in a long, black coat, who turns out to be Simmons, from Accounting.On his first day, Booker finds out that Simmons can time travel via a device that he carries with him. Apparently, there are others who can also time travel, as Booker soon meets a jester in the men's room trying to flush his jester clothing down the toilet. Soon, Booker is involved in an adventure with Simmons to save the micro-cam prophets from being murdered and Denver from being blown up.I have mixed feelings about this book. For the first chapter or so, I was intrigued by the plot. Time travel books are enjoyable to me as I like to see the creativity with which each author explains how time travel is possible and deals with alternate universes. This concept was unique to me, and I wanted to read more.Then, I got to the middle of the book. This part seemed repetitive as Booker and Simmons visit the different worlds of the various micro-cam prophets. I feel that this part was too bare-bones, perhaps too formulaic. Each world differed only in its visual appearance and how Booker and Simmons finally managed to save the prophet. There was not much detail to the different worlds - it would have been more interesting to me to know how the micro-cam prophet came to be there, how Simmons had come to the world the first time, how the world evolved as it did, etc. Unfortunately, it just seemed to be the same thing over and over.Also, I wasn't really sure that I understood where the author was going with the "odds calculation" or how Simmons and Booker were able to enter alternate parallel realities without really changing anything.But then, the end came and I was again intrigued. Of course, with many time travel books there is a surprise ending, which in this case I think was inventive, even though I didn't necessarily understand some of the reasoning behind what happened. It could also have used a little more detail, but it was definitely something that I did not see coming. Overall, I probably enjoyed the book more than not. The writing was fairly well done -- not as professionally polished as some best-selling novels, but better than some publishing house books that I have read. It was a light, easy read with a fun concept. I think with some tweaking with the middle and end, but keeping the general overall story line, I would have enjoyed it more.I received this book as a LibraryThing Giveaway in exchange for a fair review.

[sjm2227 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I initially liked the idea of a time traveller in a quiet occupation but when I started reading I didn't like the story, and in the end I never managed to finish the book. I was a bit worried when I got the book as it said it was aimed at 8 - 12 year olds and I thought it would be too simple a story for a mature adult. I needn't have worried as in the end I thought it used too complicated language and expressions for the target age group, but it didn't read right to me either.

[debsanswers · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I wanted this to be much better than it was. I love time travel stories, but this one really didn't go anywhere. The writing is stilted and there was very little emotion at all.