Fandango’s Story Starter | 26.05.2026
Story Starter #248
This week’s Story Starter teaser is: Gerald had to make sure that none of his colleagues noticed.
Fandango’s Story Starter #248
The Thing He Couldn’t Let Them See
Gerald had to make sure that none of his colleagues noticed.
The timing had to be perfect.
Not too early, or someone would ask questions. Not too late, or he’d risk being seen.
Routine was everything in an office. People noticed when habits changed.
Especially people with too much coffee and too little purpose.
At precisely 12:43 every Tuesday and Thursday, Gerald stood, stretched just enough to look natural, and walked casually toward the archive room.
No one ever questioned the archive room.
Nothing interesting ever happened there.
That was the point.
He closed the door carefully behind him and waited a moment, listening for footsteps. Silence.
Only then did he reach into the bottom drawer of the old filing cabinet — beneath forgotten reports and expired policies — and remove the small velvet pouch.
His hands softened the moment he touched it.
Inside was yarn.
Tiny crochet hooks.
And half-finished flowers in impossible colors.
Purple roses. Golden sunflowers. Small stars stitched into soft blankets no one in the office would ever expect a man like Gerald to make.
At sixty-three, with pressed shirts and serious shoes, Gerald had perfected the art of appearing predictable.
People expected spreadsheets from him.
Quiet nods.
Mild opinions about weather.
Not softness.
Never softness.
So he worked in secret during lunch breaks, adding row after careful row to blankets he donated anonymously to the neonatal ward at the hospital.
Tiny things for tiny lives.
No one knew.
No one except the nurse who once wrote him a note tucked quietly into a returned box:
The parents cry when they see them. Thank you for making something warm during frightening days.
Gerald folded the note carefully every time he read it.
Then slipped everything back into the drawer before returning to his desk.
By 1:00 PM he was again exactly who everyone expected him to be.
And perhaps, he thought quietly, that was alright.
Some kindness grows better when no one is watching.
With love
— Maggie The Afterlove Voice 💫
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