Bent Over Backward

Daily Writers Cramp ~ Prompt

Write a story with the following title.

Bent Over Backward

         Sally was an attractive and socially active young woman; she was born in New York City and grew up in Astoria Queens.  With all of her street smarts and interaction with others, she still lacked common sense.  Sally always fell for the simple jokes and pranks of her friends. 

         Everyone nicknamed her Snow White because she was so innocent.  Her dearest friend Ellen always tried to protect her, but Sally bravely fell into all the traps and pratfalls, laughing with everyone at the resulting outcomes. 

         After Sally’s parents moved to Montana, Ellen married and moved to Long Island.  Sally acquired an accounting job in an insurance company in Manhattan.  She kept a low profile in the office, feeling if anyone discovered her vulnerabilities she would be embarrassed.

         Sally always went out to lunch by herself.  She avoided conversations outside of business and never socialized.  She discovered how mean and confrontational the men in the office could be when she witnessed a hurtful office prank, perpetrated against a coworker.   

         She liked the work and her salary, but considered the office environment abusive and distracting.  Speaking to her supervisor, she managed a workspace away from the rest and buried herself in disbursements. 

         A year went by and she advanced into a supervisory position in accounts receivable.  She had a small staff of newcomers who did not want to rock the boat.  She felt things were going along just fine when there was a discrepancy in some of the accounts.  She noticed that the return addresses for over three hundred accounts were in the same residence and the people didn’t seem to exist. 

         Sally created a folder with all the questionable insured parties and brought it to her manager’s office. 

         “What’s the matter Sally?”  Erwin Marsh rolled back in his office chair, reading glasses perched on his forehead, smiling.

         “Sir, I think you should look these over.  I think there is a problem.”  Sally placed the thick folder down in the middle of his uncluttered desk. 

         He pulled his reading glasses down to the bridge of his nose and opened the folder.  He carefully paged through the first five or six sheets expressionless. “These seem to be normal, full life accounts?”

         “Look at the residence information, on all of them.”  She leaned forward and pointed at the block of information in question. “48-01 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City…  They look like they were copied and different names put on each…”

         Looking only at the first two, “It’s probably a corporate account… Employee life insurance…” Gazing down at the bottom of the page, “See, the beneficiary information is Tony’s Salvage & Carting Yard in Whitestone.”  He firmly closed the folder.

         “I Googled the address… it’s an empty lot…” She noticed his calm expression had turned cold.  “Something doesn’t seem right sir!”

         “How many did you find?”

         “My first sweep turned up three hundred and fifty-five!  And I recognized ten who are receiving dividend checks equivalent to their premium payments.”

         Mr. Marsh paused for a moment; she could see he was pondering his next move.  “Very good Ms. Colon!”  Marsh placed the folder into an empty desk draw.  “I will bring this up at the next security meeting and see if Investigations can come up with something.  Good work!”  He stood up and reached across the desk to take her hand.  She gripped it and found it to be wet and clammy. 

* * *

         In the ensuing week Sally accumulated over two hundred more questionable accounts.  She also found that all of them were receiving dividend checks that almost equaled what they were paying.  Upon consulting investigations she was put on hold and dropped four times. 

         That Friday night she decided to take in a movie; maybe she would call her friend and visit her in Bay Shore on Saturday.  She loved Disney movies and a new one was playing at her local theater.  Short after eleven she came home to a ransacked apartment, everything had been pulled out of all the draws and the place was a shambles.  A small amount of cash, a TV and some costume jewelry were missing; the police deemed it a simple burglary and told her to get gates for the windows. 

         Sally stayed at a local motel that weekend.  Monday her desk was piled with folders.  She asked the office manager what was going on and was told that the file storage area was being moved to the basement, once relocated the folders would be removed. 

         Tuesday the folders were gone, along with the one containing the two hundred questionable accounts.  Sally went to Marsh’s office to find the nameplate changed to Anthony Capaccio. 

         She knocked and heard him call out, “Com’on in, da doors open!”

         A very heavyset man in a tailored shirt and silk vest was straightening a diploma on the wall behind the desk chair.  “Ms. Colon, yeah, com’on… Sit, relax…”

         Cautiously she crossed to the chair and sat on the edge.

         “Heard yer quite an investigator…” he moved around the desk and sat on the edge, towering over her. 

         “I did bring some questions to Mr. Marsh.  I was curious if he found anything out about the accounts?”

         He smiled at her, “It’s in da woiks, we got it covered!”  He looked down at a piece of paper on the desk, “Oh yeah, I’m sorry ta hear about yer apartment, shame…”

         “What happened to Mr. Marsh?”

         “He graduated, ya know, a promotion…” Tony looked about the office, “I’m gonna like it here, nice office and beautiful babes…” He held out his hand to help her up.  “Is there gonna be any ting else I kin help wit?”


         After that conversation Sally went out of her way to wear blinders and not get in anyone’s way in the office.  She bent over backward to go along with the status quo, at least until the Securities and Exchange Commission arrived to arrest everyone involved in money laundering.

         Sally is now Susan Collins and lives in Utah.

Word Count = 998