Teresa from The Haunted Wordsmith has given the Story Starter Challenge of:

“Heavens to betsy, why’d you do that?“

Betsy had been a nervous child since infancy. Loud noises caused an exaggerated startle reflex. Strangers meant running and hiding behind her mother. When school started, Betsy was too timid to speak to the other children. She was virtually invisible at school unless she was blessed enough to get a kindly teacher who was attuned to the more sensitive students.

Betsy dutifully completed high school, then took secretarial courses at the business college. She soon found herself employed by the rotund and overbearing presence of her boss, Mr. Claybanks. Mr. Claybanks was the Director of the Sales Division and had a lot of meetings both inside the building and out of the office. A businessman’s lunch is what some called it.

Betsy not only did letters, arrange meetings, and make a damned fine pot of coffee, she was responsible for turning all receipts in to accounting for Mr. Claybanks. The first month she was there, Betsy gathered every receipt from the tray Mr. Claybanks threw his receipts into and began to prepare the itemized report to submit. Honest to a fault, as she was going through the receipts, she noticed some of them had no connection with any business meeting her boss had been to. She promptly set them aside and continued. By the time she was finished, there was quite a stack of non-business-related receipts. She then submitted the report to accounting and felt quite proud of herself.

The next morning, Mr. Claybanks came in at 9:30a.m., the usual time for him, even though the office opened at 8. He went into his office and noticed the large stack of receipts sitting next to the receipt tray. He called Betsy and asked her to come in to his office.

“Betsy, what’s going on with these receipts?”

“Mr. Claybanks, I noticed that a lot of the receipts were mistakenly put in the tray. They had nothing to do with business expenses so I set them aside.”

Mr. Claybanks’ face turned a bright red and his lungs started sucking in extra oxygen. His voice raised several decibels as he said, Heavens to Betsy, why’d you do that!?!?”

Betsy cringed, her vocal chords paralyzed.

Mr. Claybanks said, “Next time you include EVERY receipt you find in that tray or you’ll be looking for another job.”