by Alan Townend42. Expressions with the word order or «Order into chaos»
In this story you will find words and expressions in the first half to do
with order, tidiness and correctness but in the second half you will
find their opposite — words and expressions to do with disorder.
That is why I have called this story
«Order into chaos»
Maurice Carpenter used to love order. Everything had to be in its
place. You only had to look at his desk to realise that; there were
three rows of pencils all lined up, two rows of pens and a pad of
paper dead centre in the middle of his desk. Everything you could
say was in apple pie order. His appearance also gave you a clue to
his fondness for fastidiousness. His head was immaculate as there
wasn't a hair out of place. His tie, as he always wore one even on
holiday, was totally symmetrical.
Maurice had a very important job, at least he thought so. He worked
for the district council as one of the planning officers. He and his
colleagues had the responsibility to check whether the local residents
had submitted plans for alterations to their houses correctly.
Whereas the other two were fairly lenient, Maurice was a nitpicker,
which is another word for a fusspot, which is another word for
someone who insists that every detail is correct and all the «i's» are
dotted and all the «t's» are crossed. People would sometimes have to
wait weeks for a decision if their plans were not correct down to the
last detail. He inherited this liking for precision from his father whose
favourite saying was «There's a place for everything and everything
has its place.» He grew up knowing where everything was in the
house. As a result nothing was ever lost or misplaced. His long-
suffering mother knew her place as well. Heaven forbid if she didn't
lay the cutlery in the right way at mealtimes. If a fork or a knife were
even slightly askew, there would be a long lecture about tidiness.
Correct car parking was another obsession that Maurice inherited
from his father. Whenever he went shopping in a large supermarket,
he would take down the numbers of those cars that were not
properly aligned within the white lines and report them to reception.
Most of the receptionists knew him and assured him the matter
would be reported and then did nothing about it. At work he would
also accept what his boss told him even when he really disagreed. He
never stepped out of line. His boss knew he could rely on him to toe
the line on every occasion. But all this stopped one hot July morning
3 years ago.
At precisely 8.36 Maurice arrived at work having parked his car in his
special space and having assured himself that the car was bang in
the middle. As he walked into his office he saw a young woman
sitting by his desk. At first glance he thought how untidy and
dishevelled she was. She was the complete antithesis of what a
young woman should look like. Her hair was a mess, for starters. Her
jacket was crumpled as well. Maurice found it difficult not to tut tut