Broken Bonds - Part 1

M. Sprüngli walked the lobby of his Grandhotel. As the owner of the Hotel, he was rich enough to indulge his hobby – to collect pieces of art. The centrepiece of his lobby was a marvellous replica of the Venus de Milo, so good you could mistake it for the original. But there were other pieces of art too. Only recently, he had purchased two oriental oil lamps, which had placed on two pedestals at the edge of the lobby.
This time, his collection wasn’t the reason M. Sprüngli walked the lobby. In a few minutes, three applicants for the position of Chief of Personnel would have a job interview in his office. The first applicant was Syliva van Bommel. She had worked for years as the hotel’s receptionist and was very familiar with the personnel, but she had little experience in the economic field.
The second applicant was Bernard Poulin. He was a trained cook and already worked as the manager of a restaurant.
The third applicant was Gregory Chapham. He was the youngest of the applicants and had just graduated from a school of economics. Of all applicants he might have the best education in economics, but he certainly lacked work experience more than the others.
After a short glance at the applicants, M. Sprüngli returned to his office to prepare the first interview.

Gregory watched the faces of his opponents. Sylvia was quite good looking and a few years older than him. Maybe 28 or 29. 30 at most, he guessed. Bernard, on the other hand, was in his late thirties, maybe even over 40 years old. Since neither hadn’t talked much about themselves, Gregory couldn’t really guess their chances to beat him. But he was determined to beat both of them, no matter the cost.
All of them waited in silence until they would be called to the job interview, when Sylvia reached for her cup of coffee. It might have been sheer clumsiness, but Sylvia knocked her cup over and its contents fell right onto Gregory’s pants. Of course, she excused herself at once, but Gregory knew that this was intentional. Since he had expected some kind of foul play, he was prepared. “Excuse me!” he said, took his bag and left for the men’s restroom.

A few minutes later, Gregory returned. He was wearing a spare pair of trousers. Hurrying back to the table, he didn’t pay attention and nearly ran into a blue-haired chambermaid, who was pushing a cart full of dirty laundry. With a sudden movement, he dodged her but in the process, he knocked over a pedestal on which a brass oriental oil lamp was sitting. Frantically, Gregory tried to place the lamp on the pedestal again. Even used his sleeve to clean it a bit, when suddenly, a green smoke poured from the lamp and formed into the body of a female genie.

“I’m Martha, the genie of the lamp!” the genie stated. “You’ve got three wishes, Master!”


TO BE CONTINUED

Part 2: [link]
Part 3: [link]
Part 4: [link]

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