It was a beautiful summer night on the verdant slopes of Moldavia. Fireflies danced in the space between the castle walls and the dark, old growth forest. Or so it seemed from up high. After a long, hard flight accompanied by a disappointing meal, he descended to his bedroom where Boris was waiting to towel him off and put on his smoking jacket.
“Master,” Boris began, “Did you see the…”
“Yes, I saw them.”
“They’re not happy about the latest dismissal, sir.”
“It couldn’t be helped. He didn’t pull his weight. The matter is completely out of my hands.”
“But he was only eight years old, Master. How much…”
“It wasn’t enough, I tell you. I work hard. He had youth on his side. He was incredibly quick. Like a jackrabbit. Do you know how old I am, Boris?”
“Well, I know that I came under your employ when my father…”
“It was on a night just like this, wasn’t it?”
“I was scarcely older than the lad you dismissed tonight, Master, but I remember it well because it was the night that I lost my dear papa.”
“They had some sort of labor protest that night as well, did they not?”
“As I recall, it had to do with workplace safety. They felt it unfair that when they labored for you, their lives were in constant danger.”
“Lives that they owe to me in their entirety.” his eyes began to glow with outrage. “Crops plucked from soil so rich that seeds need only be scattered, not planted. My soil. Cattle fattened in fields thick with grass. My grass. Plump, sweet fruit plucked from boughs sagging with the weight of their bounty. My orchards. I nourish them well. I provide them employment for life. What cause have they for complaint, Boris?”
“I think it’s the dismissals, Master. They find them disappointing and they wonder if they might be next. It doesn’t give them much in the way of job security.”
“But I provide them with employment for life!”
“Yes, Master. You do. That is certainly true.”
“I think I will go out and set them straight. Boris, fetch my cape!”
“Remember what happened last time, Master? I still can’t grow hair on those spots on my head.”
“Do it now, Boris, unless you want to join your dear papa for a nightcap!”
Boris acquiesced, just as everyone else did, and lowered the drawbridge halfway; enough for The Master to appear above the moat, but not enough to allow entry for the unruly mob assembled on the other side.
“I am the sole employer in this valley. Every one of you owes your entire livelihood to me and yet“- he lowered his voice dramatically so that the gathered crowd would listen carefully – “there are those of you who would find fault with my business decisions. I will admit that the dismissal of young… um…”
“Why do you call sucking the blood out of someone until they’re lifeless dismissal?”
“Business school.”
Literature in Small Doses 