The Look

They told us it was the honor system. We were held up to the standard in which everyone else was, and that no one would be watching. The test would be administered in the room, without supervision. There were only two positions available and about a dozen of us in there.

I sat upright in my chair, honor pumping through my veins, as they passed the test to each applicant. Once each of us had it, they proctor left and the key was left on the front desk. The slid closed, almost too silently, and the test began. Two pages of questions, each with five potential answers under it.

The whispers began in the back corner, between two the two them. Quickly. they stood up and went to the front of the room. They copied the answers, and sat back down.

Another pair went and came back.

Again.

Again.

Again.

At the end of the time period, only I was left. We all sat in the hushed room. The door slid open and the proctor gathered the exams. He sat down at the desk and corrected each test with a thin tipped red pen.

"You, you may leave. Thank you." His finger dropped from my direction back to the desk. I stood up, and walked out the too silent door. The elevator at the end of the hall seemed a thousand times farther than it did when I arrived. I failed? I was such a bad applicant that I was the only dismissed? I guess that's how the cookie crumbled this time. The elevator dinged and the doors rolled open.

"Yeesh, tough break man, you were the only one dismissed." A sharply dressed man smirked at my failure. My backbone remained rigid with the thought of following the orders exactly. "Yeah, I guess I wasn't cut out to be what they were looking for." The man laughed and tugged on his ear. "Lemme guess, you were the only one that didn't look at the key? Right?" I turn my head and meet his gaze. "I followed the order to not look, it was on the honor system. I wouldn't have looked even if they pointed a gun a my head." He laughed heartily. "Really? That's really respectable. I really admire that in someone." I nod and wait for the elevator to stop.

Ding. I walked out of the elevator and looking through the lobby to the street front of the building. Before the door shuts, the man hollers out. "Hey, good luck finding a warm meal tonight. Men like you aren't built for the private sector. Why don't you go crawl back into a foxhole!"