Kevin swore at the diversity webinar, showing an older white man in a suit surrounded by several younger Black men, all drumming and smiling. Captions read “RESPECTFUL RELATIONS”. The voiceover declared respect for different traditions was important for the workplace.

He couldn’t believe they were forcing him to do this shit. Another two hours were left- he had actual work. Now he would be behind, and have to work weekend. Fuck Sally for ratting on his collection of voodoo paper dolls of colleagues, fuck Human Resources.

***

Kevin had been eight when he learned if you make a little doll of someone, using a personal possession, and stuck a needle in it, it would hurt them. He knew instantly he had that power- he didn’t know how, he just knew he could do it. He cut out a clumsy human figure, colored it in with pencils he had taken from Derek’s desk, and stabbed a needle in the figure’s hand.

Ten minutes later Derek’s hand slammed in the class door, and he was taken, howling, to the hospital. He had six broken bones in his hand.

As a bespectacled bookish boy, Kevin had been the victim of bullying. Now he had the power to put his bullies out of commission. He did so, one by one, ruthlessly. He was doing everyone a favour.

But, as time passed, he started overreaching. When Molly rejected him, he made a doll with a lock of her golden hair he had secretly snipped off, and then stabbed a needle through the eye. Next day, Molly’s brother broke a window just when she was looking out, shards of glass went flying, one lodged in her eye. She lost sight.

When his stepdad refused to let Mom buy him an Xbox, he made a doll, using his cologne. Then stabbed its crotch. He didn’t know the details but his stepdad had to be taken screaming to Emergency, his pants covered in blood. Soon after him and Mom broke up.

As he grew older, Kevin tried to control his urge to hurt anyone who crossed him, mostly out of fear of being caught. He was amazed thus far, noone had made the connection, but he intended to keep it that way. It was hard – especially at this toxic workplace, full of petty quarrels and hostility.

Despite his best intentions, his drawer soon became full of paper dolls. There was Darla from Accounting with her unmistakable giant breasts, who always got his paperwork wrong – Michael his supervisor, and Sarah the red-headed bitch who blamed him for faulty measurements – all had needles stuck in their paper dolls.

All suffered accordingly.

Then Sally spotted the dolls. She knew immediately what they were.

HR didn’t make big fuss like Sally – Kevin felt if it wasn’t for her, they wouldn’t have done anything at all. But they told him he was disrespectful of cultural traditions, possibly racist, and stuck him here in Diversity Training.

He felt Sally’s earring in his pocket.