Turmoil

By Plamen Nonov

The ruthless pursuit of income by an ambitious Eastern-European, who decides to try his luck in London.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 9, 2020
• ISBN: 9781984586438

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Copyright © 2020 by Plamen Nonov.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 07/07/2020

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CONTENTS

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

1

The job interview had been set to start at 14:00.

Paul sat in a dimly lit, cosily furnished room with four black leather chairs, coupled round a square table of the same color. A lavish arrangement of flowers stuck from a flashy vase in its middle, which nuanced prettily with the bleached ambiance of the office. He was impatient for the talk to finally commence and had every expectation that his potential employers will embrace his ability to meet their requirements.

The interviewer quietly rushed into the room, greeted him, sat on the left and faced him with a quick, evaluating glance. He took notice of her young age, which visibly was not more than very early twenties and the laptop she started to bang on with quick, elegant motions. He was briefly presented with the specifics and demands of the job and was asked invitingly to tell more about himself. After a brief self-presentation about his previous job experience and a convincing explanation why he possesses the required skill to start on the available position, the talk evolved into more details about the company’s global status and the variety of services provided to countless happy customers.

Paul listened by giving the appearance of honest recognition of the needs of the discussed job-offer. He had absolute confidence that the meeting will end with a contractual go-ahead for him to start on his new duties and was preparing other fitting responses to the lady’s torrent of questions. He had been listening to her continuous, oral display of endless accomplishments the company had been piling up by the hour and was finally given the chance to reaffirm his professional competence and efficacy.

His previous job was at a technical-support call-centre and it was there where he got his foreign nickname from. He started well on that position and had been proficient at answering the demanding needs of the company’s endless list of subscribers. His performance secured him a good record of professional consistency and his possible ascent on the corporate ladder had been considered by the management. His good practice had also been counterbalanced by the intolerable conduct he had to the expanding number of co-workers in the packed offices of the same business. Paul was mostly avoided and difficult to work with, unless the need for decisive, collective intervention to resolve a pressing case required his reluctant assistance. He mostly had absolute dislike for the same personnel and they had been responding to him with the same aversion, which had not been expressed too openly due to his commanding physical appearance. Throughout his time there, he carefully picked his words to articulate his animosity and talks about the necessity of effective team-work had often ended with his direct dismissal. He eventually slowed down on his efforts to stay productive on his duties and his relationship with the staff had further deteriorated in result. He was sacked from the job in two years of unending, arduous talks to dissatisfied people over the phone and continuous isolation, since no one had single patience left for his ongoing negligence of all corporate demands and regulations, abuse of company policy and not least, his inability to create any lasting bond with any of the vast number of co-workers. He was an outcast, not of the heroic, stoic type, but the kind that men had unspoken resentment for and women diligently avert and snub. Paul wasn’t too happy with the way he left, but still felt good about having an option to finally be somewhere else. He felt positive about the chance to have another go and start fresh.

The lady-interviewer had no further queries and was excited to inform him that before the meeting, a single phone-call had been made to his previous employer and the complete information about his disgraceful departure was presented in good detail. It took seconds for Paul to unwillingly notice that he lost control of the seemingly well-going conversation. His confidence in the positive outcome of the meeting had shifted to his routine readiness to contest the imminent dismissal. He did that very unconvincingly and in few minutes the questioning ended with a half uttered, wish-to-him-best-of-luck-in-his-future-endeavors farewell. Paul left the modern, five-storey, steely office building, noticed the late afternoon hour, hectic two-lane traffic and setting sun, which appeared to him as having great fun of his situation, safely concealing itself behind the overbuilt, busy scenery. He headed to his derelict red Peugeot 307, which he obtained long time ago with the little cash he had saved and was still then in a good, reliable shape, but now rarely missed a month without repair.

*     *     *

Paul entered his dilapidated vehicle and his patient efforts to ignite the engine took him five minutes. He entered the busy road, trying not to exceed the local speed-limit and stay mindful of the unpaid fines he had collected. He maneuvered his way around the speeding traffic, passed a busy juncture and could not bypass on time the decaying carcass of an unlucky, recently ran over stray dog, which blocked his way. The unsightly obstruction was a regular thing to witness in the Eastern-European country he lived in and his winter tires flattened the forsaken mess of hair and flesh. He left a bright, reddish track of bloody muck behind and paid no attention to the disapproving horns of the drivers that followed him. Paul relaxed his head behind the wheel and pondered on the limited array of options he had in his course.

He was in his late 20’s and had no plans to settle down or start a family. The girl he had been with, had stuck to him for five years and during that time he couldn’t work out how to convincingly respond to her with great affection. The irreconcilable differences that they had further aggravated their fragile union and it finally reached its inevitable, catastrophic end. Paul choose not to engage too soon in another demanding relationship and took the logical step to pursue and enjoy the company of a varying number of effortlessly available call-girls and street walkers. He had a pessimistic mindset, which had been cultivated with the progress of years, his lack of accomplishments and flops in the past. His way to channel the same dissatisfaction had mostly been with verbal, caustic jabs, which he addressed at some of the more emotionally fragile characters he could meet in his town. He practiced the same craft to temporarily evade boredom and feel more