Hello! This is the first release of my novella, Peeved. I will be releasing each chapter of the entire novella over the course of the year. This story has been sitting inside my computer for over 5 years and I think it’s time it saw the light of day. I hope you enjoy ❤
‘Thank you for calling Alliance Technical Support. You’re speaking with Arjun. How can I help you today?’
‘My internet is shithouse. I want you to send someone to my place and fix it right now.’
‘I’m sorry that our service hasn’t been acceptable, mam. Let me-’
‘I’m a fucking bloke, you idiot!’
‘Oh no! I’m so sorry, sir.’
‘Fuck you and your fucking company, mate. Listen, I’m so sick of speaking to you brown cunts every time I call this piece of shit telco. I want to speak to someone in Australia. An Australian in Australia! Why is that so fucking hard?!’
‘Sir, I am in Australian in Australia, and if you continue to speak to me this way, I’m afraid I am going to have to terminate this call.’
‘Shove it up your ass! My internet has fucked itself and I’m not hanging up till you fix it for me.’
‘Sir, this is your final warning.’
‘FUCK Y-’
Beep. Beep. Beep. I hung up the call.
The phone rang again — a new caller. I answered , ‘Thank you for calling Alliance Technical Support. You’re speaking with Arjun. How can I help you today?’
Welcome to my life. I take fifty of those calls a day.
I’ve been in my job for about two years now, and it hasn’t gotten any better since my first day. I’m a pretty good technician so I should be up for promotion soon, but that’ll mean even worse calls because you know what’s above a Technical Support Officer? An Escalation Officer where pretty much every call is the same as that one. So you can understand why I’m not dying to get in line.
My friend, Sayed, told me to use a fake name for my calls. He changed his phone name to Sam to stop having people requesting to speak to an Australian. He hasn’t had one escalation or transfer since he made the switch, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. My name is Arjun, and no one is going to call me anything different.
Maybe I’m in the wrong line of work. But it’s all I know, so I’m not quitting any time soon.
I’ve got a plan, though. From tomorrow, I’m speaking my mind. Not just at work, but everywhere. Any person acting out of line, I’m going to let them know.
I’m going to fix this world, one person at a time.
I had my first opportunity the next morning. I was driving to the train station when I stopped for a man walking across a zebra crossing.
I couldn’t even call his walk a shuffle. I’m telling you, my ninety year old grandma with a walking frame was quicker than him. Except this guy was a fit, ripped like Arnie in his heyday. He had no excuse.
He just stared at the ground while he slimed across.
Perpetrator number one. This was going to be it. I had to do it. I always hated people who had no respect for people’s time, and I was going to miss my train if he didn’t hurry up.
I pulled my head out the window, ‘Oi!’
The sullen man didn’t even turn. I beeped the car for good measure and yelled again, ‘Oi, hurry the hell up!’
The man jumped. He was annoyed at first, but after seeing the lineup of cars behind me he hurried across.
‘Thank you!’ I called.
Mission One – Success.
Soon after, I arrived at Gymea train station. I quickly parked and ran onto the train.
I always picked the quiet carriage, but every seat was taken, and now, most of the standing room was too. But low and behold, there was a guy laying down over two seats, looking out the window.
He was an older man, red-faced from the lack of air conditioning on the carriage. You could tell he was begging for someone to ask for the spot, just so he could scare them or something.
I stood at the end of the seat. A shy, pregnant woman stood next to me.
‘Excuse me, sir,’ I whispered to the man, ‘Do you mind giving this spare seat to this lady?’
The man ignored me. You could hear the crinkling of freshly ironed shirts and dresses as some commuters turned to look at me.
The pregnant woman hushed, ‘Oh, don’t worry about it. I’ll be okay.’
‘He should let you have a seat,’ I politely nudged the man’s foot, ‘Excuse me.’
‘Don’t touch me!’ the man boomed. Everyone was staring at us now, most with a look of weary annoyance.
‘Sorry, I think this lady would like to sit. Just calm down.’
‘No, no, it’s alright. It’s really alright,’ the woman added.
The man turned to look at the woman and when he saw her belly his softened his face. He still made a big show of taking his legs off the seat.
‘It’s alright, please don’t worry about it,’ she said.
‘Just take it. It’s alright,’ I said, making room for her to squeeze by.
She plopped into the seat and stared down at her shoes. Fine, no thank you for me, I guess. The man glared at me, shaking his head. I puffed my chest and grinned back.
Read the next chapter:
Isaiah Prasad 