Reaper

The sun was up and blasting its way through the drawn curtains. Abstract rays of light peeked through the gaps and danced across my face. I groaned and rolled over; trying to escape the sun’s annoyingly bright light. All I could think was that the shining light was telling me how much of a beautiful day it was outside, how great a place the world is. All of it filthy lies.

The shining red numbers said that it was 7:00 am; time for me to get up. I groaned loudly and sat up, wiping the fatigue from my eyes. In two and a half hours I would be at the newspaper office, my work experience began today and I knew I had to be civil otherwise everything would go to hell even further than it already had.

After I was dressed and decent I made my way into the kitchen to prepare sustenance. Ever since my little explosion on Friday night, Mum and Dad had been tiptoeing around me, generally avoiding conversation and other things. This really wasn’t much of a change to my regular home-life for the past six months, so I wasn’t exactly troubled about it. Thankfully, the coffee-maker was full of the holy brown liquid that I craved so much. I poured myself a cup and reveled in the sweet smell of caffeine. But I didn’t notice Mum sitting at the dining room table.

“Should I leave you two alone?” she asked. She was in her usual nurse’s uniform, pink scrubs, nursing her own cup of coffee and the morning newspaper sitting before her. “When you’re done ogling your girlfriend,” she gestured at the cup, “I’ll drive you to the newspaper office on my way to work.”

“Thanks,” I said simply and took a large swig of my coffee to excuse myself from saying anymore. The rest of the morning carried on in silence. After a half-assed attempt at small-talk with Dad, I was in the car and on my way to the corporate office of The Chronicle.

The building was located in the business district of the city, a giant eye-sore of a building surrounded by more giant eye-sores of buildings. I could feel myself getting dizzy just looking up at the sheer height of the structure. It was then I became aware of how much of a retard I must have looked like, standing in a courtyard staring upwards like a bewildered tourist who had just ventured out from under a rock for the first time. All I needed was a camera hanging around my neck and I would be in character. I could practically hear my brain screaming “For God’s sake, hurry up” at my legs, so I snapped out of my daze and headed into the giant behemoth.

The reception area was intimidating enough by itself. I found myself trying to describe the large room, completely open and surrounded by windows, the immaculately polished floor that I could basically see myself in, the stainless steel elevator doors without a single smudge or fingerprint on them and the mahogany reception desk that formed circle in the middle of the room. I was dumbfounded by the sight of it, and the only word I could think was clean. The place was insanely clean, so spick and span I swear I could smell a crude combination of ammonia and Windex. This much clean cannot be natural, it’s worse than the state my neat-freak mother keeps the house, but she works in a sterile environment, so that’s understandable. But this is just weird, I actually physically shuddered.

“Can I help you?”

One of the receptionists behind the circular desk spoke up. She was a young woman with shoulder length blonde hair, pulled into a tidy ponytail. She had fair skin and bright blue eyes, and a badge saying that her name was Kirsty. I approached her timidly, for some reason a wave of shyness had dropped on me the moment someone acknowledged my presence.

“Hi, I’m Charlie Kane, I’m meant to be doing work experience with Aidan Messor,” I said as confidently as I could muster.

Kirtsy’s face seemed to soften. “Oh, work experience, well don’t worry it’ll be fine. Aidan’s a very nice guy. I’ll just call him.” She picked up and phone and started dialing.

“I’m not worried,“ I said defensively, more to myself than anyone else in the room.

Kirsty carried on a brief conversation with someone on the other end of the line. She wrapped it up with a quick “Thanks very much”, then hung up the phone and turned to me. “Aidan actually isn’t here yet, but his assistant is on her way down to meet you. If you’ll just take a seat over there, she’ll be down shortly.”

“Thank you,” I said quietly and headed over to a vacant chair. Sitting down, I could feel myself getting fidgety. I absentmindedly picked up an older copy of Rolling Stone and began randomly flipping through it, looking up at the elevator doors at random intervals. After skimming through an interview with Axl Rose, in regards to him actually meeting an album deadline, the silence of the lobby was broken by a soft ping and one of the elevator’s doors slid open.

A short woman came into the lobby, the clicking of her high heels piercing the room. I stood up to greet and immediately noticed that she was short, shorter than me. She had olive skin and black hair tied back into a neat bun. She had deep brown eyes that were soft and warm, and her presence seemed to calm. She approached me and introduced herself in a high-pitched voice. “Hi, Charlie, I’m Louise.” She held her hand out in greeting.

I timidly shook her hand and had to physically bring myself to make eye-contact. “Hi, so you’re Aidan’s assistant.”

She gave a laugh, “No actually I’m the intern for the entertainment department,” she said light-heartedly.

“Oh, sorry,” I blushed slightly at my mistake. I gestured as discreetly as possible to the reception desk “Kirsty said you were an assistant.”

“Kirsty’s a cow,” Louise said quietly, “she hates me because I beat her for the intern position.” She noticed my surprised expression and added. “Don’t worry; I’m not a total bitch. It’s just some office rivalry. Oh God, I hope I didn’t put you off with that.”

I felt a grin spread across my lips. “No, you didn’t put me off. In fact, I like you already,” I said, the smile growing into a full-blown smile, despite myself.

“Great!” Louise said enthusiastically. “Ok, enough time wasting, let’s go up to the office and I’ll give you a tour while we wait for Aidan, he shouldn’t be too long.” I followed Louise into the elevator and watched her in slight horror when she pushed the 15 button. I’ve never been a fan of heights and it was just my luck that the office had to be on the highest floor. Louise talked the whole ride up, only stopping her monologue to greet those who got on at different floors. The doors finally opened to the fifteenth floor and Louise practically dragged me out of the cubicle.

The floor was made up of a bullpen of cubicles, each with a computer and a person manning said computers. Every workspace was littered with personal belongings and other random objects. Louise went through all the departments, pointing out the Television, Film, Arts and finally Music. The difference with the Music area was that there were a few of the bullpen cubicles and one room, completely boxed off from the rest, made up of a wooden door and distorted glass around the walls, making looking inside impossible.

“That’s Aidan’s office, since he’s the head of the Music department,” Louise said.
“But I thought he was a freelance worker,” I piped up for the first time since the lobby.
“He is, but he’s also employed as the editor of the music section. The freelance just means he can come and go whenever he wants,” Louise explained. She then pointed to an empty cubicle. “You can use this work station for the week. I suppose there’s nothing to do except wait for Aidan to get here. Would you like some tea, or hot chocolate, or coffee?”

The name of one true love snapped me to attention. “Yes, please, I’m dying for a cup of coffee,” I said.

“Haha, a caffeine addict? Well you and Aidan will definitely get along,” Louise said, her smile still plastered across her face. I was beginning to wonder if it was surgically fastened to her face. She pointed to the far wall, where a small kitchenette sat, with a sink, fridge and hot water urn. “That’s the refreshment station, go help yourself. Two rules though, if it has someone’s name on it, no touch. And wash whatever you use.”

I nodded and headed for the kitchenette. I fixed myself a cup of coffee and was sure to not even breathe on anything that belonged to other people. As I stirred the sweet concoction and added milk gradually, I began to wonder what this Aidan person would be like. If he was anything like Louise was building him up to be, maybe this work experience would actually be fun.

I returned to the bullpen, coffee cup in hand. Louise was sitting at her computer and swiveled her chair to face me. “Well it’s time for the moment of truth,” she said with a giggle. “Aidan just got here. He’s in his office and is very anxious to meet you.”