Bartleby of Wingate (NJ/USA)

A strange insurance-man confounds his coworkers/boss who insist he try something more 'wild' and 'escape' his life of darkness.

An adaptation of Bartleby (Melville). Thanks for reading, 

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Bartleby the scrivener worked at a Haddonfield (NJ/USA) insurance-office and was generally considered altogether eccentric and reclusive by his estranged/confounded coworkers/boss. He walked in everyday in a brown suit and white shirt and quietly worked the day's work and when asked about what he'd like most to declare about a lunch-preference or to go to lunch with one of this coworkers, he'd simply and eerily whisper, "I'd prefer not to," which gave his insurance-office in NJ/USA a rather somber atmosphere, albeit with a rather strange 'human' living humor!

BOSS: Bartleby, I insist you take lunch-break and do Facebook-fun or get a sandwich with me or Sheila!
BARTLEBY: I prefer not to...

BOSS: Why don't you try Facebook?

His boss, totally confounded, began rummaging through Google/Net news-stories and images of stories of intrigue in civilization and great tales of daring and danger, finding portraits of evildoers and runners and aliens which stirred his extra-office fascination with 'normal' world imaginations.

BOSS: Bartleby, I noticed your 'decent' gold standard finger-ring and would like you converse with me about it.

BARTLEBY: I'd prefer not to...

BOSS: Sir, I insist you take some time-off to simply unwind and chat (with me)!

BARTLEBY: Sir, I'd prefer not to...

The secret of this scrivener/insurance-man (Bartleby) was that he laid/stayed at the Wingate (hotel) in NJ/USA and kept to himself and enjoyed the amenity of WiFi and pulled out his plug-in laptop in the lobby and, with coffee, did his after-work insurance histories research and sometimes filing-research for personal financing stories from old New Jersey (United States)!

BOSS: Bartleby, tell me about where you live...the Wingate (New Jersey)?

BARTLEBY: I'd prefer not to...

Finally, his attractive/gorgeous female coworker, frustrated/confounded by his strange coworker's eerily quiet/subdued and obedient nature, decided to walk-in to the office 'one-fine-day' and wore some gaudy gold jewelry to accent and complement that standard gold finger-ring Bartleby wore everyday! Sheila, the female coworker, whispered, "I wanted to accent your gold and brown-suit (normal for you!) with these jewels and shimmering one-day style (for you, Bartleby!)...just so you'll agree to kiss me...after work today." Bartleby and Sheila made-love that night in Bartleby's hotel-room/home. He'd never forget it.

So, the following month, Bartleby the scrivener/insurance-man walked into his usual Haddonfield (NJ/USA) insurance office and wielded/boasted his brand-new shiny gold notebook! When asked by his pleased boss why he chose to flaunt such a casual finery on that fine day (randomly!), insisting he explain why it was gold, Bartleby disappointingly responded, "I prefer not to!" Even his one-time girlfriend (the gorgeous Sheila) came over to his boss to console him, reminding everyone that Bartleby was 'simply' and purely a gold-man of bureaucratic deliverance.

That's when Bartleby snapped. He got a water-gun, filled it with acid after inserting a thin glass-tube in the shooting-piston, and marched into the bank across the street from his NJ-insurance office and put on a rabbit-mask and explained to the manager, "I'm to burn a hole into Baron Kuyt's bank safe-box containing Sierra Leone 'piracy-gems' with this acid-gun and swap them with toy-gems in my pocket for a media-report about insured-gem theater-stunts about regular traffic media regarding baron-investment(s) scandals!" He was never arrested for the deed and traded the gems to buy Sheila, his one-time girlfriend a very nice Saab 9-3.

BOSS: That's it; he'd still 'prefer not to' relax with Facebook or lunch-break, so I'm bringing a media-celeb to rouse his spirit!

Bartleby died alone the next year, in his Wingate hotel, of a reported/claimed heart-attack, but some suspected suicide. His boss and his one-time girlfriend attended his funeral in NJ/USA and would always wonder exactly who they worked with in that 'enlightened' insurance-office in good old Haddonfield, a 'historic' place of traffic...and wonder(s).

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"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)