stand up and be counted

stand up and be counted

fiction
edward w pritchard

Stand up and be counted. The last one standing will have riches beyond imagination. We waited as he preached. We waited cheerfully as our company's CEO, our leader, the famous business sensation swayed, cajoled, preached, promised, and enticed. One of us, one of our companies two million eight hundred and eight employees would today leave their auditorium rich. Rich rich rich. He said you would be rich. Everyone sang. Off key maybe but with fervor and verve and hope. Hope, who wouldn't want riches. Everyone sang the beloved familiar Company anthem and everyone planned what they would do with the money if they were the one chosen to be rich. At the annual national sales and motivation meetings, one thousand employees from each region stood and sang for our company in their regions auditorium. We had just celebrated a record breaking quarter, quarter to quarter sales growth, and as usual it was an amazing, enviable record. Today we celebrate and sing for our company. One lucky one, one employee in over a million will leave the meeting today rich. The company will make one of us rich today.

Your teachers will know and hear and they will be proud of you. Your old coaches will hear and take some credit. Your wife will know immediately for they will pick her up by helicopter and the two of you will be whisked to an expensive hotel, a castle of seduction, and there will be shopping trips for her and clothes and new houses and cars and her Mother will hear and be happy too. Your children will be happy and will be impressed with you.Your neighbor will be happy for there will be riding mowers, and landscaping and new bushes and the neighborhood will be transformed and instantly you will be a good neighbor.

The leader screamed and we stood. Reach under your chair, pull out the secret number stapled to the bottom of the chair. Hold it up, its your red card. Wave your red card. All two million plus of us hopefully did and the computers shined the yellow surveillance lights overhead on the numbers on the red cards that we all waved and waved. The computers instantly matched the numbers from red card from under the seats to the green entry information application that everyone had filled in when they first applied to work at the company. The initial application for employment was your green card. The computers were matching the red card from under the seat to your green application for employment. Just to confirm the winner was legitimate, a technicality.

We entered this morning for the mass sales meeting. Hours and hours of rah rah. This was the culmination. Someone would be rich. Everyone waited for the confirmation. Don't keep us in suspense. Who won, who will be rich?

Wait there was one more card being frantically waved in the air, from under the seats than there are initial completed applications for employment on file. One person in our company hadn't conformed. The computers already knew who the fraud was. Tediously they began the process to tell the company leaders who was the miscreant.

How long could I stand before they found out. Wait they needed our unit. Fraud detection. We must act quickly, somewhere someone hadn't filled out their initial employment application properly. There was a fraud somewhere and we must find him quickly. Leave your seat, our unit must find the fraud quickly. Follow with the rest of our section, put on our special hat and carry our special clubs. All of our section must follow me for I am the leader of our section, an important manager, a lieutenant in our company's army. I am a leader not a follow. All of my unit must follow me to detect the fraud among us.

The big leader, the boss of bosses, swayed and pranced and sang as we watched him from over two hundred locations on the large monitors. Someone will be rich today. Cars and new houses and lifetime annuities and beautiful companions and expensive hotels and women in scanty costumes and books. Philosophy books, and on line courses of secret wisdom and high definition televisions, and video games and new refrigerator and tools stored in your garage in talking red storage cabinets were promised. Wine racks of vintage harvest,and gourmet food, and lawn chairs by the pool.

Stand up and be counted, everyone will be proud of you and your name will be in the papers, and people far away will see you on reality television, Just sign your name, complete the employment application in full they said. Write your secret password as you apply on the green card, the initial application for employment and entry into the company. You must use the pet name your parents called you as your password. It's snookums for me. Tell them your secret name. What's wrong with you. Don't you want employment and riches. Fill out the employment application in full and reveal your secret name that your parents called you. Tell the company everything.

The leader swayed and chanted. He was prosperously obese. Money money money. Stand up and be counted.

Our unit searched, one person hadn't filled in their application properly. How long until we found out that I hadn't conformed. What are the repercussions? Moving up and down the aisles quickly I methodically looked for myself the fraud who hadn't revealed my secret password. I am the one who won't tell the company everything. Why are there always a few miscreants who will not follow the rules? No one can win the prize today because of me. No one can be rich because there is one more red card from under the seats frantically being waved in the air than there are properly completed initial applications for employment on file. The computers will not confirm a winner. No one will leave rich today because of me.

As I lead my unit I sing the company anthem and run quickly up and down the aisles looking for myself the fraud who couldn't conform to our company's corporate culture.