English in Mind 3
Unit 3 Fiction in Mind
THE BOOK OF THOUGHTS
Chester was feeling more tired than usual after a hard day at the office. He had joined the company only two years before. He had come straight from university then, but now he was a junior manager in one of the biggest companies in Singapore. It was an important position to have and meant lots of extra work.
He could understand the jealousy that some of the other workers might feel against the 'new boy', as they still called him. He had risen quickly in the company. Many of them, however, had been there for years doing the same jobs. He could understand how bad feeling towards him might lie hidden behind their smiles.
But it didn't make life any easier.
He needed people whose advice he could trust when he had to make difficult decisions. He had to be sure that the bad feelings of the other workers didn't get in the way of the important business decisions he had to make. He knew he would never become a manager unless he could be sure of people.
Then there was Dorothy. […]
Ah, Dorothy!
Take today, for example. He had been given some new figures to check and he had asked Dorothy to read some of the details to him while he took notes. It was not until she had left that he realized that he had not written notes at all. Instead he had written Dorothy's name several times. He was too embarrassed to ask Dorothy for the details again, so he had to look them up in the office of old Mr. Shaw.
Mr. Shaw was known for always being in a bad mood and he was no different this time. He didn't like having to stay late to check figures for some junior manager. He didn't like it at all.
Chester hated it when he made mistakes. It didn't look good. But it didn't happen often.
He decided he would walk home instead of taking the train. It was late in the evening but he felt he needed the walk to clear his thoughts after a busy day. Anyway, it would be a little punishment for being so stupid earlier on. He decided that he would eat at the shopping center near his home.
As he walked towards his favorite Chinese restaurant, he saw that the lights were still on in an old antique shop. […]There were boxes full of old books piled outside the shop. […]
There was one small, old book, however, that he noticed at once. It looked much older than the rest of the books. He picked it up.
“Take it!” said a voice behind him.