route82: “Miranda continued to regard him evenly as though he hadn’t spoken at all. The

route82:

“Miranda continued to regard him evenly as though he hadn’t spoken at all. Then she reached across, slid open a desk drawer and began to extract its contents. Stuart watched as a pen holder, a glass paperweight and a pocket calculator appeared on the desk before her.

“You know,” Miranda was saying as she worked, “there are many different approaches to people management. Some bosses, for instance, are rather squeamish about discipline. Theirs is a warm, fluffy world where incentive is all about praise and reward - the proverbial ‘carrot’. Personally, I’ve always been more of a…” - and here she retrieved what she’d been hunting for, and laid it flat upon the desk - “…stick girl.”

Stuart gazed in confusion at the pale wooden paddle. It was about eighteen inches long, drilled with a neat grid of circular holes and coated in a thick varnish that gleamed under the flourescent light. It held his attention all the time that Miranda was uncrossing her long legs, rising from her chair and stepping out from behind her desk to stand behind him.“

Text borrowed from UnderlingsHumblings.blogspot.com.