The Ax

by Donald E. Westlake

when the yellow slip was presented to me with my paycheck in October of 1995, I wasn’t as shocked as I might have been, and I wasn’t even at first all that unhappy. Everything seemed so businesslike, so well-thought-out, so professional, that it was more like being nurtured than weaned. But I was being weaned.

But the middle

class is used to a smooth progress through life. We give up the highs, and in return we’re supposed to be protected from the lows. We give our loyalty to a company, and in return they’re supposed to give us a smooth ride through life. And now it isn’t happening, and we feel betrayed.

But when we slip back, just a little bit, and it goes on for month after month, and it goes on for year after year, and maybe we’re never going to get back to that particular level of solvency and protection and self-esteem we used to enjoy, it throws us. It throws us.

did the right thing with Billy, and the reason I did the right thing, and could even think about the problem the right way, is because I don’t trust them anymore. None of them. Now I know it; nobody will take care of me and mine but

Today, our moral code is based on the idea that the end justifies the means.

end of what I’m doing, the purpose, the goal, is good, clearly good. I want to take care of my family; I want to be a productive part of society; I want to put my skills to use; I want to work and pay my own way and not be a burden to the taxpayers. The means to that end has been difficult, but I’ve kept my eye on the goal, the purpose. The end justifies the means.