Building Bridges
Posted by Amias on Thursday, January 7, 2010 | 4 Comments
He hated her, she was just a dumb ass nigger, Peter said under his breath. He is white, had a college degree, and worked in corporate America. How could she win over him!
It wasn’t about education or skin color, his boss had said to him in private. It was about innovatively using commonsense to resolve a problem that saved the company millions of dollars. But Peter did not want to hear it. There was no comparison; in his eyes he is far more superior. There were bridges that she shouldn’t be allowed to cross.
Linda had run across men like Peter before, arrogant and self-centered. Thinking they owned the world, and everyone else were their slaves. She was a high school drop-out, working as a lowly janitor; but she was smarter than he would ever be. She was a trash collector. In the age of paper shedders, it was beyond her, why they were not used by employees of such a large firm. But in the end, she was glad, as she collected their secrets daily, compiled them in a file, and connected the dots.
Peter was in charge of Marketing at Crisco Technology, a company known around the world for creating innovative ways of preserving food. He had been given the only print copy on their latest formula to come up with a good marketing strategy. The company computer got hacked, and a virus whipped out the hard drive before the last back-up. They lost valuable information, and the chemist was unable to put all the dots together to recreate the formula. When Peter was summoned to the office, he could not produce the paper work. Unbeknownst to him, he had mistakenly put it in the trash.
Linda waited for her opportunity, and when all seemed lost, she approached the company’s President, and offered him two years of trash she collected from his employees. Among her collection were CD’s and documentation meant for the shedders. She was hailed as the company’s heroine, given a plush job in the Security Department, and Peter got canned.
Her first memo to the department heads, in revamping the security department was, “to build bridges in any company, one must ensure structure integrity, with respect for all employees.”
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For Inkwell Drops
The Metamorphic Of A Blur
Posted by Amias on Friday, December 11, 2009 | 2 Comments
When Lidia was younger, she could sense when she wasn’t wanted. Being invisible in such a large family, it was easy to be ignored. Back then, being the baby was somewhat of a burden. She learned very early how to entertain herself to ease the loneliness.
This was Lidia’s first year in school and she was excited. There would be kids her age, and she was looking forward to making friends. That morning, her mother combed her hair, but it was too short for ribbons and Lidia wound up with a head full of small plaits sticking up like spikes. Dressing very carefully in her best hand-me-down dress and a pair of hand-me-down shoes two sizes too big, she hurried to the bus stop. Ignoring the children's snickers, with bowed head she moved to the back of the bus. No one spoke or sat beside her.
It was a foggy morning. The bus moved at a snail’s pace through the waning whiteness. Her mind shut out everything except an occasional soundless bird gliding through the branches. Like Lidia, this world seemed to be a black and white blur with no defining colors, just ghostly silhouettes seen in the corner of others’ eyes.
She was the last one off the bus; head held high and a smile plastered across her face. After such a long period of being a blur, she eagerly embraced her visibility. Even though everyone was laughing at her, this was indeed the happiest day of her life!
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Written & Copyrighted 12/11/09 by Amias. All rights reserved.
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