Yours Sincerely

Yours Sincerely

The boss bulked large in front of my desk. He held out a file and grated out the words, “What is the meaning of this?”

I recognised the file, of course. It had spent several days on my desk and I knew exactly what the boss was getting at with his question.

It was the letter that caused the problem. The whole thing was written in some language that I didn’t recognise. I had stared at it for ages, hoping that a word or two might spark some sort of memory, but nothing occurred.

In the end, I decided to take the problem to the computer. I tried the whole text on Google Translate and it just gazed back at me. A sentence selected for its vaguely familiar sounds produced the same blank stare. In desperation, I entered each word individually. Three words from the end it produced a response at last.

“Yours,” announced Translate.

Apparently, “DZery” meant “Yours” in Armenian. Clearly, this was part of the signing off and the remaining words meant something like “sincerely,” and a name.

That did not help me with understanding the rest of the letter but I now had something to work with. Figuring that it was probably the usual request for information regarding our products, I translated our standard letter into Armenian, enclosed a catalogue, and sent it off.

And now here was the boss, wanting to know what the letter meant. I started by explaining that it was Armenian but he interrupted.

“No, you idiot, what the hell do you mean by this reply you sent?”

I explained. His face reddened and he started shouting.

“You should know by now that I am Armenian. And you’ve replied to my invite to my cousin’s wedding with this garbage!”


Word count: 296
For the Daily Flash Fiction Challenge, 02.01.23
Prompt: Write a story that includes the line: “What is the meaning of this?”