Sitting in the lobby of a large corporate office, a black man in a brown tailored suit sits on a wooden bench smoking a cigarette. His suit jacket unbuttoned and his tie left strewn carelessly across his chest, he leans forward to tie his shoe, making note to double knot it this time. He sits back up and takes in a long drag as he gazes at the “No Smoking” sign, smirking slightly he slowly exhales the soothing anathema. Tapping the ash of his cigarette into a used coffee cup, he watches two men across the room. One is older, probably in his sixties, and he walks out into the dreary rain without cover. The younger man, maybe thirty, prepares his umbrella.
“I insist that I see him now, it’s urgent!”shouts a young woman across the lobby. From what he observes she’s fairly attractive, red hair tied in a bun and a slim, pale skinned body. The broad shoulders of her jacket give her a look of authority in contrast to the tight skirt she wears.
“I’m sorry ma’am, he’s out at the moment and won’t return until five o’clock.” Explains the secretary.
“He gets done at five!” Her fists now clenched.
“I’m sorry ma’am, I can take a message, but there is nothing more I can do.”
“Forget it, I’ll deliver my message to him myself!”
Red in the face, she turns and heads to the door, pauses when she sees the now heavy rain, then storms out all the same.
He continues to stare out after her until he is broken from his trance.
“Hey Carl, you alright?” It’s Lou, good ol’ Louie. Lou was a hard worker and always there to lend a hand. Carl often wondered how Lou, tall and fairly muscular, had yet to marry or even get himself a girlfriend at the age of thirty-four.
“Yeah, I’m cool, just gonna wait until my shift is done before I go home, you know?”
“Yeah I gotcha… You know, give me a call tomorrow, I’m off then. We can, uh, you know, do somethin’.”
Carl gives a nod and watches him depart, only after Louie is out of view does he slouch forward and place his head in his hands, covering what little expression was left on his face. He sits like that for a while, ignorant of the time until the lobby clock finally chimes five. He looks up at the clock, then outside. It has stopped raining and the sun is slowly breaking through.
Carl stands up, straightens his tie and buttons his suit jacket. He smoothes out any wrinkles with his hands and stoops forward to pull at his bunched up socks. Turning to his left, Carl picks up the cardboard box and walks toward the door, stopping briefly to throw his makeshift ashtray into the trashcan.
As he walks, he glances down at the box; a picture of his wife and two young daughters sits half buried in the junk from his desk. They will expect him home for dinner soon. As he opens the door, although the late afternoon sun warms his face he lets out a sigh at the fact he no longer has reason to return to this lobby again. Yet somehow, the thought is relieving. He looks again at the photograph, and for the first time that day, Carl finally breaks into a smile.
Note: I didn't intend for this story to have such a happy ending, in fact, I recall wanting it to have quite a dreary and depressing ending, however it was for a writing assignment my friend had and one of the requirements was that it had to be "uplifting". Oh yeah, and turned out he got an "A" :D .
