The calm before the storm

The new boy was not going to be the target today as his gaze slid on by me. It seems clear, in hindsight based on countless performances, that he had already selected that day’s victim and he was just toying with the rest of us. Much like a cat playing idly with a mouse it had caught earlier and couldn’t quite be bothered to kill just yet. I already felt a sense of solidarity with my bothers, and one sister, in that here was a clearly identifiable common enemy. Could he possibly be that clever and trying to make as bond and therefore perform as a team? Not a chance. Frank was of the school of thought that it is every man for himself and if women were not at where they should be in the home, then they could at least look pretty at work. Home. If he saw any sign if co-operation between us, he would ruthlessly crush it by either heaping untold misery on the unfortunates, or by sacking someone. He continued to berate us all for a while, issuing insults in short machine gun like bursts. Without warning, there was a dramatic change of pace and tone he calmed down and started to speak almost gently and paternalistically. In truth, this was the literal embodiment of the calm before the storm and heralded the fact that he was now going to savage someone.