Day 27

Start writing a story that…

Step 1: begins with this sentence: He found a photo in the mailbox

Step 2: include dialogue that begins with: Who took this photo?

Step 3: add a character who has a plan

-------------------------------------------------

He found a photo in the mailbox inside of a brand-new interoffice envelope that had only his name on it and no previous names scratched out. He started opening the envelope as he walked back to his cubicle, unwrapping the string to see what new paperwork required his attention. But instead of papers, all he saw was the photo. There was nothing remarkable about it at first glance, just a picture of an office door along a white wall, just like the doors in his office building. There was no name tag outside the door, nor any other identifying characteristics.

He sat down and placed the photo on his desk beside his keyboard and stared at it. He picked it up to check the back, but there was nothing written there, either. Putting it back down, face up, he returned to the envelope and the clean, black print that spelled out "Jason Brueger" on the first recipient line. He didn't recognize the handwriting and there were no other markings.

"Who took this photo?" someone asked behind him.

He turned to see Leslie standing in the cube entrance, papers and a pen in her hands.

"I don't know," he said. "It just showed up in my mailbox."

"Really?" she said. "How weird! What is it?"

"Some door," he said. "I'm not really sure. Can I help you with something?"

"I just need you to sign off on this P.O.," she said, handing him one of her papers and the pen. "Can I see it? The photo?"

He handed her the picture in exchange for the paper. He signed it quickly, pushing it right back into her hands and reaching for the photo.

"Oh, thanks," she said. "Let me know if you figure out what that's all about."

She walked away. He thought he saw her frown at his rudeness, and he felt some guilt. He couldn't really say why he felt so protective of the photo, except that it had arrived in his mailbox with his name on the envelope. Surrounded by open offices and shared spaces and team-building meetings and policies, he liked the idea of having something that was entirely his own.

That afternoon, he plowed through the work he had been avoiding to get a jump on his "to do" list. He had a plan to start searching for the door. There was no way of knowing if someone was pranking him with a picture of some storage closet or if he was being pulled into office intrigue worthy of Edward Snowden, but he had to find out.

By 3:30, he decided that he had completed enough work to satisfy anyone who needed something from him that day. He grabbed papers and a pen so that he could appear to be on work-related business and set out to investigate each door in the six-story building. He began on the sixth floor where the administrative teams, including accounting, were housed. As he walked past the cubicle farms to the walls that had actual offices with doors, he kept his head down and tried to give the appearance of being late. He nodded toward familiar faces, but kept moving. More than two hours later, after winding through many hallways and all six floors, he had found no doors that were as nondescript as the one in the photo. They each had had nametags to the side, and many had photos or other decorations affixed to them. Most also had floor-length windows to one side or the other, an extension of the "all space is shared" spirit that meant even offices with doors were on display at all times. 

By the time he got back to his desk, it was nearing 6:00 and time for him to leave. He tucked the photo into his backpack before heading out for the night, intending to study it more closely that evening. He planned to begin a new search the next day.