Short story #2

DATA ENTRY CLERK DEAD FOR THREE DAYS


Daily Star
Monday, November 26, 1989, Section 3-A

Supervisors at the Spring Creek Finance regional complex in the Springfield township of Illinois are trying to determine why no one noticed that one of their employees had been sitting at his desk for three days before anyone asked if he was feeling all right.

Michael Corwin, 58, who had been employed with the company as a data entry clerk for 25 years, suffered a heart attack in the office he shared with twenty four office workers. He quietly passed away last Thursday at his desk, but nobody noticed until late Saturday evening, when a custodian asked how the data entry clerk could still be working with all the lights off.

Mr. Corwin's supervisor, William Douglas, was quoted as saying 'Michael was always the first person to arrive at work. Well regarded around the workplace, he always kept to himself and focused diligently on his work. So no one found it unusual that he was in the same position all that time and didn't say anything.'

The Coroner's Office revealed that he had been dead for three days after suffering a coronary. Ironically he was preparing data for medical partnerships in the area where he died.