Similarly to last month’s discussed story, “Saturated Mud” by Evan Burkin, “Irreplaceable” by Fiona Murray has a great opening line: ‘After our boss quit, the senior executives replaced him with a coffee machine.’ It’s fun and quirky but also intriguing and possibly a little sad. As readers, we don’t know yet how this story is going to play out, which is what pulls us in and compels us to read on. 

For the first half of the story, all is well. Murray uses lots of positive descriptions and adjectives, such as: ‘We poured in the beans lovingly’ and ‘caressed the button’ and ‘the fragrant liquor that poured lusciously.’ Not only that, but the coffee machine—which the employees anthropomorphize by giving it a name: Sean—brings ‘the team together in ways that we hadn’t experienced before.’ In the ‘soft moments,’ as they’re gathered around the machine in the morning, people start sharing their innermost feelings. 

But the story wouldn’t work if it ended here. Murray introduces an obstacle for the employees: one of the executives has decided Sean is out of line and has put him ‘back in his place’ by ‘redeploy[ing him] to the building manager’s office.’ What now? The employees are ‘bereft’. But all is not lost—something will replace the irreplaceable Sean. 

Then she arrived—shiny and new, looking like a picture of perfection. She was a sparkling new toasted sandwich maker. Her name was Sharon.

There were ‘ripples of satisfaction’ and the employees ‘basked in the sensation of a hug from a mother we never had.’ All’s well that ends well. Or does it? Look at the ending: 

We were sluggishly full of carbs, too content to complain about anything, so after nodding to each other cordially, we went methodically back to our tasks.

The final sentence describes how the employees have been brought in line by Sharon (via the boss) and get on with their work without complaint. Note the adverbs used—sluggishly, cordially, methodically—are no longer joyful. This is a great ending—showing that although the employees think they’ve got a great deal, they are, in fact, being controlled even more by the boss. 

“Irreplaceable” is a good example of a Pattern Story: one thing happens, then a similar thing happens, and then another similar thing happens, each time raising the stakes higher and higher. These ‘pattern stories’ are more common within short stories rather than flash fiction simply because there is more space for something same-but-different to happen over and over. However, Murray does a great job of introducing two same-but-different machines into the workplace, each time with stronger repercussions for the employees. Along with that, her choice of vocabulary subtly guides the reader through the ups and downs of the story. A fantastic read!