Far Eastern Adventure

When she asked after his health, he whispered hoarsely that
he was still feeling poorly, but hoped to be back in the office
in the morning. She looked at him oddly, making him even more
nervous. As if the encounter of the previous evening had not
been sufficient, here was his worst nightmare staring him in the
face. But then to his relief she did not insist on coming in,
but instead handed him a letter from a colleague overseas and
took her leave. As she turned to go she wished him good night
and hoped that he would make a speedy recovery from what ever was
ailing him. He slipped back inside the safety of his apartment
after watching her stride forcefully down the hall. He nearly
fell into his favorite armchair and tried to assess the damage.
He glanced down at his feet and noticed to his horror that he had
forgotten to remove the bright pink polish from his toenails.

It was several weeks after this incident that his boss had
finally called him into her office for an important meeting. She
smiled almost smugly when he entered as if she had found a
satisfactory answer to whatever problem had been worrying her.
He felt once more her piercing stare and wondered with a tremor
if she had discovered his secret. Instead of denouncing him on
the spot as some kind of pervert, she asked him to sit down and
explained what she had planned for him. She said that she had
felt for a while that his talents were being wasted on the
domestic scene and wanted to give him a taste of the exotic. She
had decided that the Orient was the place for him and was
transferring him to Singapore as of the first of the month. He
was to spend the first month or so “getting acclimated” and
preparing only background pieces on the local culture. Then he
was to begin writing more in depth pieces on local culture and
the arts.
He tried to explain that while he had studied liberal arts
in college, he had never done any writing of this kind. She