{File By EX} ~ "Trust me, He Said"

In this month's installment of File By EX in the Ottawa CItizen, Sarah, a senior analyst in the Civil Service, has been lured by another department with the temptation of more responsibilities and a staff underneath her. Her dilemma? She is loyal. To a fault. She feels she owes her present department and boss knowledge of this fact since he had been loyal to her. That would be Francois. Francois's loyalty to Sarah was less altruistic than she realizes. He is actually very incompetent. Without her, he'd be exposed. His dilemma? How to sabotage Sarah's flight from his department but not have Sarah know? He makes her an offer she can't refuse: same deal, same pay, same responsibilities offered her in the other department will be given to her by Francois - starting immediately! Then he'll square all the details with HR afterwards. "Trust me" he tells Sarah. She does. Through general incompetence and deliberate sabotage, Francois scuppers Sarah's future. My dilemma? how to show this. I opted to show trusting Sarah 'falling backwards' into Francois's 'safety net' however it is only an illusion, drawn on the floor, and Sarah will discover the hard reality of her mistake.
Done using Chinese ink brushes, ink sticks, and stone; commercial inks, dip pen nibs, sponges on watercolor paper