Notebook, Missing

The office was on the second floor, so he ascended the stairs as the elevator was non-operational. Once in his office he opened his notebook and wrote down his list of tasks for today. The important one was to submit documents to the Attorney General’s Office to approve destruction of expired documents. He looked around at his office to find the stack of documents that needed the General’s signature. He carefully reviewed that it had all the right signatures before it can be submitted. It was ready for submission.

While writing all of this down, he had received a phone call from one of the officers. 

“H, we need some toilet paper down at the port office.” The caller said.

“I’m sorry who is this?” Hugo responded inquisitively.

“Oh this is Officer Joseph.” The caller revealed himself.

“Oh, yes sir. I’ll have that down there by end of today.” Hugo said and ended the phone call.

Port: 1 case toilet paper. Hugo added to his list of taskings.

Another phone call. Hugo answered the phone call.

“Hello?”

“Good morning Pwipwi, are you in this morning?”

“Good morning Captain, yes I am.”

“Alright we’re about to start a division meeting, so we’ll need you on the other side.” His supervisor stated.

“Yes Ma’am. I’ll be right over.” Hugo responded before he ended the call.

Hugo opened a blank page on his notebook and scrawled out at the top of the page Updates as of 10/30/2019 and began writing down his list of completed tasks and the progress of ongoing projects. Hugo left his office and went over to the conference room, the “War Room” for the division meeting. Hugo had once asked why is it dubbed the “War Room,” to which he got the answer: Under previous directorships of the Agency, people would go into the conference room and there would be a lot of arguments and clashing of personalities, similar to chaos on the battlefield. This is why they dubbed it the “War Room.”

Hugo stepped into the “War Room” with his notebook and two pens, one black and one blue. Everyone within the division was settling into the room and seating themselves with no coordination except that at one end of the table sat the division chief.

As everyone went around the room, Hugo was last to do a report so he opened his notebook and began noting and coding down what everyone was saying so as to keep him appraised of the divisions activities.

As each of the different sections gave their reports, Hugo had written down the status of each activity within the notebook. He made sure to give each section a brand new page so as to not confuse himself when he would have to read and review it later on.

Hugo came up next with mentioning of how today he will focus on reviewing and submitting the documents to the Attorney General’s Office for signature. He also indicated the bureaucratic process and his struggle with trying to push in getting more signatures from other parties to sign off on destruction of outdated documents.

The meeting had ended, Hugo still buried in his notebook writing down last minute thoughts about the meeting, before heading to lunch. Submit documents to AG (Attorn. Gen. Office), get stamped received. Call Gary re: documents for turn in old equipment.

Lunch was over. Hugo went back upstairs to his office. He had to gather the documents and his thoughts before preparing to go out of the building and head to the Attorney General’s office. He pulled his phone from his pocket and called one of the other workers, Fahad. The phone was ringing. Someone picked up.

“Fahad. You wanna follow me? I’m going to the AG’s office.”

“What? You’re going to go pay child support?”

“No, going to go deliver the documents so we can finally start shredding these documents.”

“Oh… Okay, you got the key?”

“Yes. I’ll be down in five minutes.”

The call ended. 

A little while later the pair pulled into the parking lot of the building which housed the Attorney General Office’s different divisions for the services to the public that it provided. They walked through the double doors and proceeded to head to the elevators. Hugo looked at the building map layout to figure out which office to head towards.

“I’m guessing I’ll go to the Solicitor’s Division first.” Hugo said after looking at the layout.

“Okay, I’ll meet you there. I’ll go to the fifth floor to check if I need to make payment.” Fahad responded.

They stepped into the elevator and it ascended. Fahad got off at the fifth floor. Hugo got off at the seventh floor.

As he stepped out of the elevator. He looked left and right to see if there was a sign for the Solicitor’s division. He spotted the sign on the left and walked towards the small waiting area. The small waiting area had two glass columns that acted as a demarcation for where the waiting area began. There was a door there with a security lock that required someone to punch in the dials to unlock the door, and a glass window which was the booth where visitors had to sign in on a computer and fill out an electronic form to indicate their purpose of being there. Hugo proceeded to fill out the form but wasn’t sure if he was supposed to meet with an attorney or paralegal, but there was another option “Other,” which he selected. After filling out the form and submitting it Hugo stood there and looked at the glass window. On the other side was a short thirty-something petite lady who glanced once at him but never acknowledged him. Hugo stood for five minutes before knocking on the window.

“Excuse me ma’am.” Hugo said as he knocked.

The lady glanced at Hugo and said, “Sir, please ring the bell. Have you already signed in?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Oh, okay.” The lady began looking at her computer screen.

“Sir, who do you need to see?”

“I’m not sure ma’am, but I was instructed that I need to submit this form to the AG’s office in order to get his signature.” Hugo brought out the authorization form.

“What is this for?”

“Records destruction ma’am.”

“Oh okay, I can take that and I will stamp receive that and… do you have a copy for all the documents that you are submitting?”

“Yes, I do.” Hugo pulled out the stack of authorization forms and their copies and separated them into two piles. The receptionist went to work. Stamping and receiving the originals, and returning the copies with an acknowledgement stamp on each cover page. After she counted and verified the original documents she returned it to Hugo.

Hugo placed them back in his backpack. Hugo pulled out his notebook and wrote down the time he was at the Attorney General’s Office, specifically the Solicitor’s division. Additionally, he wrote down the actions that transpired.

As he wrote that down, a voice came from behind.

“You asked for her number?” the voice asked.

Hugo turned around , Fahad sitting on a chair behind Fahad.

“ah, no. I’m just noting down the time and what happened here.”

“3:45 got her number. 7 PM go to dinner with her.” Fahad responded loudly in a joking tone.

“The fuck man? No!” Hugo spoke loudly in response.

The pair left and headed back to HQ. Yet, Hugo forgot to put away his notebook, which sat on the desk where the receptionist booth was. The notebook contained a volume of details regarding the days leading up to that day which he turned in the documents. Additionally, it also had some details of which Hugo did not share with the rest of his co-workers.

He stopped by his supervisor’s desk to keep her up to date regarding the different projects and their status. Hugo rummaged through his backpack to look for his notebook. He stopped feeling very calm and began to frantically search the different pockets. But he did not find his notebook.

Oh shit. Where is it? He thought to himself. Sweat beginning to bead down his face.

“What’s wrong Hugo?” Captain Bella asked. Noticing the change in mood from Hugo. As she noticed he was ruffling through his backpack.

“Are you missing something?” She asked.

“Have you seen my notebook?” Hugo asked nervously.

“I saw you had it on you earlier today in the meeting. You probably left it in your office.”

“You’re right, I’ll be right back.” Hugo went off to his office.

He searched his desk. Nothing.

He re-searched his backpack. Nothing.

He searched the cabinets and drawers. NOTHING!

Fuck!? Where is it? Hugo began to engage in a mental exercise and re-trace his steps.

War Room? No. Mess Hall? No. Fuck did I leave it downstairs? Hugo reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone and called Fahad.

“Yeah.”

“Hey, is my notebook downstairs with you?”

“Nope. We cleared out from there at 4:30 PM.”

“Fuck, okay thanks.”

“Oh shit, here we go—“ And Hugo hung up the phone. Sweat racing down his face. His senses trying to sharpen to see if he just misplaced it somewhere nearby. Yet, try as he might he did not fathom where it could be.

I always have it with me. Except now. Hugo thought to himself.

After a few minutes of frantic searching he gave up and slumped his head in defeat. Hugo went back to Captain Bella’s desk and sat down with a defeated look on his face.

“Ma’am, I lost my notebook.” Hugo said nervously.

“Oh no… Well, you can get yourself a new one. What is it now? Book number three?” She said trying to lighten the moment.

“Ugh. I need that notebook as it has all my notes regarding the projects.”

“Oh… you tried retracing your steps?” Captain Bella asked.

“Yes.”

“How about the AG’s office? Did you bring it there?”

A lightbulb went off in Hugo’s head.

“Ah…Yeah, I forgot to get it because Fahad was talking to me, so I was busy.”

“Yeah. You should probably check tomorrow since they’re already closed.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Hugo went home with a defeated look on his face knowing he left something important in another agency’s office. Hopefully, they didn’t open and read it. He thought to himself. However he felt there had been a silver lining. At least I have an idea of where it is. He just needed to go and get it back.