Introduction - Lilliana Fargo
Sitting in her cluttered cubicle, surrounded by stacks of tractor feed, 12 pin dot matrix printout of Java source code, Lilliana Fargo flipped through pages circling line after line with a ballpoint pen The 6 foot tall liger, lion tiger mix, was always dressed in business attire when on the job, today wearing a pleated black skirt and white button up shirt with a black feminine bow tie; from behind her came a melodic voice, "You know that is easier to fix if you just do it all on the computer."
Spinning in her high back ergonomic chair to face the kangaroo, "And if I was getting paid to fix the programmer's code for them, I would do that. These morons are still using functions that were depreciated years ago. Come look at this."
Tiana tilted her head as she leaned against the cubicle divider, "You know damn well I don't know Java."
"Neither do the developers from the looks of this shit." Turning back to her desk she picks up the stack she was working on and drops it into the recycling bin, "It doesn't matter anyway. Tomorrow my contract is up and they have yet to offer me enough to make me want to stay in this dump. Besides, I finished my Masters in Information Systems Technology, and was thinking about getting out of the contracting biz."
"So what are you going to do now if you're not taking a new contract?"
Leaning back in her chair and stretching her arms over her head, "I was thinking about getting a job as a teacher."
"You? Teach? With that mouth? I hope you're talking about college."
"I spent eight years working with college students and professors that didn't know their ass for a hole in the ground. I want to get to them before they're stuck in stupid."
"And talking like that is what's going to get you in trouble."
Lilly leaned forward and hit the enter key on the terminal in front of her before standing up and grabbing her suit jacket. "And that is all she wrote. You have a good time working here, Tiana. You got my LinkedIn. Feel free to drop me a line if you need any real help."
Looking at the text flying up the screen too fast to read, Tiana asked, "What did you just do, and who is going to fix it?"
"I just started my wiper program to get all my 'Contract protected' code off these systems. No one but me should have been using it anyway." Walking out the sealed vault door, "Hasta nunca, folks."
After tossing her access badge at the security guard on her way out of the building, Lilly made a beeline to her candy apple red '73 Chevy Camaro Z28, which sported twin black racing stripes from the hood to the tail. She had spent years completely restoring the classic car from a rusted out hulk she picked up out of a junkyard. Dropping into the driver seat and pulling the door shut, she sat for a moment just thinking about the next few weeks with nothing to do, and no place to be, just time to relax and look for a new job and place to live. She had sold off everything that would not fit in the tiny trunk and backseat of the sports coupe, keeping only a duffle bag worth of clothes and her gaming consoles. It was time to move on to a new life, and she could hardly contain the excitement.
She checked her purse for her passport before bringing the slumbering beast of a muscle car to life. Revving the engine a few times, setting off nearby car alarms, she dropped the car into first and released the clutch. The tires squealed, leaving black marks and the smell of burning rubber as she left the parking lot to her future.