New Hope For Small Men: Chapter 39
by Grant Bailie
New Hope For Small Men is a serial novel, with new chapters published each Monday and Friday. A list of installments appears to the right.The manager was fired. Not the next day or the day after that but a week or so later, under mysterious circumstances for unspecified reasons. A memo was released to all personnel saying that he had decided to pursue other opportunities and the company wished him well, but all personnel had seen those memos before and knew what they meant.
A new manager came — a man who stayed in his office most of the time, and used only one color marker. He shook Robert’s hand on his first day, made a point of introducing himself to Robert and telling him how impressed he was with what he had done. It had felt good when the new manager said it, in a way it had not felt good when the police or his coworkers had called him a hero.
The day after that, Bree started coming to work in blouses and blazers and sensible skirts or slacks. Her shirts always covered the tattoo of the squirrel on her arm now. Robert never asked her why and they still had cigarettes together on their breaks and took the same train home from work. Nothing changed there. They were friends, and the memory of her in short skirts remained the fodder of his dreams, but became in time, a memory of something less clear than the girl he sat next to at work. The back of her knee, the small of her back, the glimpse he once saw down the front of her blouse on the train became as vivid and unreal as the heaven and angels he had imagined as a child.
But work went on, the board in front of the office was a matter of simple numbers now. Robert’s numbers were no better than before, but he served a function — he was the semi-famous human face of the cable company, and he was never criticized for taking too long with a call or not making a sale. The difficult and the lonely were transferred back to his desk. He was the hero of the dispossessed. Even Frank Taylor had thanked him. And if Kate never called, if Bree never wore another short plaid skirt, if Mr. Carleton’s daughter never came, at least he was that.
The story so far...
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
About the author
New Hope For Small Men was written during Grant's participation in Novel: A Living Installation, for which he spent thirty days writing in an architect-designed habitat at New York's Flux Factory.
Acknowledgements
But most especially I would like to dedicate this book to Sara Clarke, who was there for me when I was willing to sell the dedication of this book for a pack of cigarettes. This book is for you, Sara. I have since quit smoking.


