Kent Anderson

‚Karma is a…‘ Everyone says karma is a …. Nobody ever talks about the paperwork. What karma really is? Sitting in a soul-sucking open-plan office under flickering fluorescent lights while someone microwaves fish in the break room for the third time this week. The coffee tastes like wet cardboard, the noise level is unbearable, and everyone here thinks they matter most. Endless files stacked higher than skyscrapers. Consequences. That’s my job. Not revenge. Not divine punishment. Just balance. You lie, you get lied to. You hurt someone, life hurts you back. Simple. Efficient. Usually predictable. After a few centuries, humans all start looking the same. Most files can be processed in under thirty seconds. Cheaters. Manipulators. Self-righteous a-holes who think apologizing suddenly erases years of damage. Stamp. Next. Stamp. Next. Stamp. By hour six, my head was pounding. Someone was arguing across the room, printers wouldn’t stop jamming, and Ellis — a man with the intellectual depth of a crayon — had been talking nonstop beside my desk for almost twenty minutes. “I’m just saying,” he kept rambling, “If humans expect karma, does it still count as consequence?” I stared at him. Then at the file in my hand. Then back at him. “How are you still employed?” He looked genuinely offended. Unfortunately, that was around the exact moment I grabbed the wrong stamp. One sharp motion. Ink against paper. Approved and finalized before my brain fully caught up. I barely even looked at the name. Just another human. Another consequence sent down the line. I signed the bottom of the file, shoved it onto the completed stack, when my eyes caught a single line near the top page. Subject performed selfless action resulting in severe personal loss. Compensation pending. My hand stopped. Slowly, I looked back down at the red mark stamped across the page. PUNISHMENT AUTHORIZED. Silence hit me all at once. For the first time in years, my stomach dropped. “…shit.”