Word: Finito

finito

adjective Informal.

finished; ended.

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               Josh blinked through his exhaustion as he tightened another bolt.  He was tired, both mentally and physically.  But he had to get the project done.  He only had a few minutes left before the deadline, and if he could not make it, he would have to find another job.  But if he finished…well, he would be sitting pretty for the rest of his life.  He just had to finish.

               Hi team had all abandoned him, saying they had family and friends to see.  Weak, that’s what they were.  Well let them socialize and claim they had a good time.  He would be there, hard at work finishing what was quite probably the most important project of their lives.  It was almost done anyway.

               He wanted to rest like they were though.  He was not built for heavy physical labor.  That was more Ted’s department.  But, there he was, slaving away.  Tightening bolts and checking connections.  He did not mind the additional muscle mass he had put on while working on the project, but that was a tiny side benefit.  It would probably not last too long anyway, unless he took Ted’s advice and worked to maintain it.  That was a distraction though.  The project was all that mattered.

               Finally, he was done.  He had tightened the last bolt.  All the wires were in place.  All the connections set up.  Every moving part was in working order.  The body was done.  Now it just needed to brain.  He ran to the row of computers, each one working to compile the project’s programming.  He had been over it multiple times, of course.  It would work flawlessly once the computers finished their jobs.  He held his breath as he watched both the progress meter and the clock.

               Twenty minutes left.  Plenty of time.  One of the computers let out an almost imperceptible beep.  Josh rushed over to check it.  He roared in frustration and anger.  An error!  How could there be an error?  He had checked so many times.  Of course, he was operating on almost no sleep.  Unlike the rest of the team, who had gone home every night.  He had stayed and worked on their magnum opus.  But now those sleepless nights were haunting him. 

               He poured over the lines of code where the computer indicated the error.  He found it soon enough and breathed a sigh of relief.  It was just a simple syntax error.  Someone had left out a few important characters that made it unreadable to the computer.  Well, that was easy to fix.

               His fingers flew over the keyboard, working to correct the errors.  The moment he was finished, he told the computer to resume working.  He once again held his breath as the computers finished compiling the code.  He left out the held air and leaned back in his seat.  Ten minutes left.  He would make it.

               He began the process of uploading the files containing the code and the specs for the physical structure.  The one he had just finished was just a prototype, and would be used for future testing and development.  His employers still needed to have the data at their fingertips.  But it was a lot of information to send.  It would be an agonizingly slow process.

               Josh counted the minutes and seconds as they ticked by.  Slowly, the progress bar filled.  He sat and prayed for a clean, uninterrupted connection.  As the computer sent the precious information, he found his prayers had been answered, and he got the notification that everything had been sent successfully.

               Josh let out a loud whoop of joy.  It was finished.  It was finally done.  A year’s worth of effort.  Countless hours spent in the lab, slaving away at the project.  And it was finally done.  And one last check of the clock showed he had made it before the deadline.  The data had finished being sent with a mere twenty seconds left.

               He watched with a large smile on his face as the clock changed.  His deadline had passed without a failure to mar it.  He leaned back in his seat, breathing heavily and smiling.  Looking up at the ceiling, he felt like he should say something, even though he was alone.  He could not find anything that seem suitable though, so instead, he said the first thing he could think of.      

               “Happy god-damned New Year.” 

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Happy New Year!  And may 2020 be less sucky than 2019 was.