Smiling Box Monster

C.D. Matthews

Jan 2024 · Charlie Matthews

About this ebook

Bennington Slipdale, III is ridiculously overqualified and underskilled. With the tsunami of the global pandemic threatening, right before the shut down of the Chicago Public Schools, Bennington abandons his AP Calculus position and flees for higher ground. Now he stands on unfamiliar turf, with jobs hard to find in the new covid-driven economy. Bennington, or preferably Benny, has no choice but to deliver boxes for the mega e-commerce empire of the universe. The problem is, Benny’s painfully slow, fumbles with the evil box scanning device oddly called a Rabbit, and is under constant threat of losing his job where “calculus doesn’t get boxes to stoops.” Everything he’s learned before now is of no use. To make things worse, Benny struggles with an acute fear of failure, or atychiphobia. Slinging boxes is his only chance to redeem himself and not just become another dime a dozen atychiphobe: convinced he was never good at anything and never will be. Will becoming a master box slinger of the wild, wild midwest conquer his fear?