The Automated Jungle

Flash Fiction by Arvilla Fee

Arvilla Fee’s flash fiction explores the frustration of navigating an automated world. Between endless phone menus and impersonal voices, the speaker is caught in a cycle of disconnection, yearning for the human touch lost in modern convenience. If you enjoy this feature and would like to see more, let me know with a comment, 💌 share, ♥️ like, or better yet, a 🔄 restack!

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Please listen carefully to the following options, as our menu has recently changed. If you know your party’s extension, you may enter that four-digit number at any time. I sigh, push 1 for English, 2 for human resources, 5 for check shipment status. Hold music begins—not the pleasant lilting sounds of waterfalls and birdsong like at a day spa, but the grating, cat-scratching-post sound that inspires me to pull the phone away from my ear and put it on speaker. I pace the kitchen.

I hear a voice and dash to the table. But it’s not an actual voice. I’m sorry, the person you are trying to reach is either helping another customer or is away from her desk. If you’d like to leave a message, please do so at the beep. Wait—what? I didn’t have a person! I hang up, dial again. Please listen carefully to the following options, as our menu has recently changed. If you know your party’s extension, you may enter that four-digit number at any time. Oh, I’d kill to have four digits! The metallic music plays again. Five minutes pass.

Good afternoon, my name is Maya, how may I help? I snatch the phone, take it off speaker, and press it to my ear. Hi, Maya. Kit Nelson here. I have not received my shipment of hummingbird feeders. Confirmation number is 2300419. Can you see what happened… OK, sorry Ms. Nelson. I work orders. You need speak to status department. I transfer you now, yes?

I yell no, but it’s too late. Please listen carefully to the following options, as our menu has recently changed. If you know your party’s extension, you may enter that four-digit number at any time.

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Arvilla Fee lives in Dayton, Ohio, with her husband and children. She teaches for Clark State and has been published in numerous magazines. Her three poetry books, The Human Side (2022), This is Life (2023) and Mosaic: A Million Little Pieces (2024) can be found on Amazon.