Intellectual starvation

Of course, just slowing Linda down would not do the whole job. Though it did help prevent growing suspicion as more changes began to appear in her life.

The no-nonsense girl had often read a novel, or checked the news during lunch or any breaks. Suddenly, people had a habit of 'tidying away' any serious literature she brought into work. Her kindle had somehow been lost in her apartment too! Of course, those magazines from the break room were still always there and soon it was a common sight to see Linda flicking through a glossy fashion magazine at her serious oak desk.

Her computer was playing up too. News websites, political commentaries, sometimes even film review sites would load on her laptop and the work desktop with a painfully slow pace. The IT department said there was no issue they could find, but slowly Linda's usual sources of current affairs were becoming useless to her! She almost felt like she should be more concerned, but a cup of coffee was usually enough to calm her.

As Linda found herself increasingly out of the loop, casual water cooler chatter was starting to disappear from her life. She tended to be all work and no play, but even the most ambitious wage-**** would dabble in a little discussion about the headlines. As soon as Linda could not keep up, her co-workers seemed happy to point out her inadequacies and make no effort to catch her up.

"Really Linda? It's the biggest political scandal of the last four years and you know nothing about it?"

"Of course I could ask you 'what do you think about the Korea issue?' but I might as well talk to a plant!"

"Maybe you would have a more.... stimulating conversation with the receptionist, hmm?"

It was bizarre! It was as if all her co-workers and casual acquaintances had agreed to leap on any failings in her part! The net effect was that Linda was becoming far less likely to even seek out conversations with her peers.

Her technological problems were only getting worse too. Even her phone was now struggling to open any search engines and her last attempt to call IT had met with what seemed like an accusation that all her electrical woes were due to her not using the equipment properly!