CRUMBLING WALLS

Break through barriers-physical, mental, invisible-as though an ultimate requirement of youth branded Katalyst Smith upon birth and grew within her alongside her zest for life.

The community college dropout cared little for History, her intended major, due to passive reviewing of what she judged as boring. She preferred to be free in embrace of life during a time new information about the world, the people in it, and their aspirations rode the winds that circulated through her community. 

Stagnant Falls was a small city in comparison with River Heights that shared its border. Mostly homemakers, farmers, and theologians resided in Stagnant Falls leading lives Katalyst believed were on the edge of extinction. River Heights flowed with bankers, lawyers, business owners, along with the citizens who consumed their services and products. Here she hoped to thrive, even if only a consumer.

Kat, as she preferred to be called, decided to leave Stagnant Falls after high school for occupation of her portion of space in River Heights. Once college failed to maintain her attention, a friend of her family knew someone, who knew someone, who hired her at a local book publishing company even though she lacked experience other than what she'd learned on her own inspired by aspirations to one day see her creative writing in print. 

Three months passed with Katalyst as a manuscript consultant labored with the arduous task of assisting authors with restructuring manuscripts to comply with Spangled Banner Press' guidelines as listed in contracts often under read. Right away Kat realized authors resented making changes to their works of art. Naturally, she agreed with them-and it was this agreement that served as a catalyst to the event that made her say, "I quit," despite having no other income to support her residency in a pricey condo.

The morning Kat quit her job, she had stopped on her way to work to give a grungy man holding a 'HOMELESS' sign one of two twenty dollar bills left in her billfold. The man had uttered to her talk about conspiracies that took him from his executive office and thrown him to the streets as though a sack of trash. She empathized with the fellow human's plight without understanding what he had meant by all was said. The story sounded oddly familiar, yet she didn't mention this. She bid him good luck and went on her way not wanting to be late for a meeting with the director.

The director, Christie Thunder, scheduled the meeting to discuss a critical matter that needed to be resolved, immediately. She was a tall meaty woman, who seemed to enjoy bossing other people around. It was Christie who disliked the reality of Katalyst being employed through nontraditional means. The owner of Spangled Banner Press made the decision for reasons invisible to the director. It had been heard of her to say she felt violated by such a decision bypassing her rigorous hiring procedure. 

Spangled Banner Press' owner resided in another country, so the director oftentimes functioned as though the owner.

Christie was around age fifty and held firm beliefs that mirrored a popular worldview of an earlier River Heights. Superiority was based upon age and ability to adhere to traditions of old. New ways of doing things was unacceptable, and it was this attribute that had been stenciled into SBP that aroused conflict between the elder and the youngest employee.

Over a thousand manuscripts had survived Spangled Banner Press' stipulations allowing them to be transformed into paperbacks and hardbacks that went on to the next phase of a book's travel. Local bookstores purchased many of SBP's products that failed to appeal to modern readers. Several books from Spangled Banner Press were claimed by the local library where mostly old-timers frequented. 

The manuscript consultant of SBP was responsible for weeding out works that strayed from bland safe topics the company was known for promoting. This meant expression of opinions different from what was already known in River Heights, or what was thought to be widely accepted about the world at large and the way it operated, these sorts of works were to be either transformed or dismissed by the manuscript consultant. Kat's open-mindedness pushed against these walls several times, and she was warned on several occasions to discontinue to avoid being fired.

In the meeting between director and manuscript consultant, Christie confronted Kat about a manuscript that had been delivered to the print team that defied SBP's guidelines. The story was presented as fiction detailing an event of government conspiracy that uprooted a man residing in River Heights from a prominent political position resulting in him living as a vagabond warning others of a threat to not only the city, but to the world at large.

Before the meeting, Kat had overlooked the encounter she'd had with the man holding the homeless sign. Words he spoke revisited her mind. She had never met the author of the manuscript titled 'Crumbling Walls' in person. They communicated through email. 

Crumbling Walls gained her interest with a poetic prose and thrilling plot. It was a fresh piece of work that held her attention from beginning to end. She was shocked by the ending when a bomb blew up River Heights Library as an attempt to destroy evidence of foul play. The story had potential for success among a younger generation of readers hungry for more mental stimulation than what had been provided thus far. 

"You know absolutely nothing about this industry," Christie had said to Kat from the center of her wide desk. "You're too stubborn to follow tried and true guidelines. That is why you should have never been hired, if you ask me."

No one had asked Christie, because her opinion of Katalyst was unecessary. Kat observed malice coming through dark eyes aimed at her like lasers. She blinked her acceptance of this woman's viewpoint. There was no need to defend herself, nor to apologize for disregarding the norm that was set before she arrived. She did what was best for, both, herself and Spangled Banner Press. She stood from the stiff wooden chair in front of Christie's desk, and then said softly with her head held upright, "I quit."

A month passed before she was evicted from her condo forcing her to return to her family in Stagnant Falls. 

The explosion in River Heights was loud. Some in Stagnant Falls heard the destructive sound though they couldn't see the devastation. At the moment the local radio station reported the calamity that claimed River Heights Library, Kat was milking a cow. She laughed, unexpectedly, causing the creature to look back at her with concern. The matter wasn't funny on a deeper level, yet irony was.

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