being fired - quotes and descriptions to inspire creative writing

There is no sound in the house, yet everyone is moving, moving and not talking. Mom walks back and forth by the front window, always in easy reach of the phone. Dad is doing the jobs he has been meaning to do for months, somehow they are now pressing, urgent even. I sit, unable to read, foot tapping up and down like some dumb wind up toy. In the next five minutes the phone will ring...or it won't. If it rings then Mom, Dad, or both of them have lost their jobs. This is the fun way their employer dreamt up to let people know if they still had work or not. A phone call before 9:30am means you're out; otherwise you can make your way into the office. They've been at the factory all my life, how can they retrain now? What skills do they have? So I sit, Mom paces, Dad keeps busy...