A Devil Unemployed

“You’re fired, Gorvip!” Another pan came sailing after him as Gorvip dashed for the door leading to the dirty streets of Bangladesh. I’m fired? How can it be! Gorvip thought to himself, turning a corner and entering an alleyway, I just started yesterday! 

First hell, then the bank, then the pet shop, and now the kitchens. And all in a week! What terrible luck he must have! 

“That foreign devil!” he heard the chef yell, somewhere down the road now, “We’re lucky he didn’t cut his own fingers off.” 

Gorvip found an old crate in the alleyway and sat down, staring at his awkward reflection in a small puddle in the cobblestones. For a devil, he looked more like a sugar plum fairy gone bad, his pointy ears drooping down like a banished house elf. Even his nose seemed to sag under the weight of his sadness. 

He’d traveled the universe in search of his purpose in life, looking for someone, anyone, who would recognize his virtues. All they seemed to see, though, were his faults, which stood out as much as his pointy hair. I didn’t choose to be a devil, he thought to himself. He was too good to be a devil, and much too bad at anything else. Being an unemployed devil—and an awkwardly ugly one at that—was awful lonely. He put his head in his trembling hands as sobs that had been pent up for years and years in his hideous face began to pour themselves out upon the dirty street. 

Having spent his tears, Gorvip heard a faint scratching and looked up to see a scrawny stray dog peeking out at him from behind a metal barrel that smelled of rusty iron and rotten chick peas. For a few moments, he and the dog just stared at each other, wondering what the other was thinking. Then, the dog crept closer, and closer towards the miserable devil, and nuzzled him on his leg. 

“What was that for?” Gorvip said, half to himself, and half to the dog, “You’re not supposed to like me. Nobody likes me.” Even so, he put his hand on the dog’s friendly head, and gave it a rub. The dog looked back up at him, and seemed to smile; the dog’s defiance surprised Gorvip, and reassured him. Maybe he wasn’t such a disappointment after all.