The Archive

Parker glances up at the corner of her computer screen. 6:48 pm. 

Okay, I can finish this. Just three more pages and then I promise I’ll leave. She said to herself.

It was a Friday evening and everyone at the office had left early in order to avoid the blizzard. Parker had been so entranced in her work that she didn’t notice how everyone all packed up around lunch time. In fact, she skipped lunch today and she definitely did not check the weather this morning. 

“Finally!” She exclaimed as she submitted his work. She stretches his arms up in success and takes off her headphones. As she begins to pack up for the day, she finds a note at the end of her desk with a ring of keys. 

Couldn’t wait for you today. Please lock up. Parker knew the drill. She pockets the keys and dropps the note into the wastebasket.

As she approaches the exit, she realizes that she had made a mistake. Through the glass, Parker could see that there was at least a foot of snow blocking the door. The storm was raging on. Parker tries to look through the window to see if she could still see her car. The blanket of falling snow obstructs any view of the parking lot. It was void of white. 

Acknowledging her situation, Parker sighs and turns around to head back to her desk. This was not her first night in the office. She had accidentally fallen asleep at her desk many times in order to meet her daily quota. But this time he actually finished her work. She opens up her computer to check the news. The storm looks like it will stop around 4am. That means the roads should be clear by 8am. Parker was in no rush to return home. The next day was the weekend, which she was going to spend waiting for work to start again on Monday.

It’s unfortunate that Parker gets her assignments on Mondays. There wasn’t anything she could work on to get ahead or pass the time. She had never had free time at the office and now she didn’t know what to do with herself.

She turns off her computer and stares blankly at the dark screen for a few seconds before looking around. The office was an open floor plan. Rolls of long tables separated out the space into sections with three people seated on each side of the table. She looks over at her deskmates’ area and notices that they had decorated their space with little knick knacks, pictures and plants. 

Parker gets up and walks over to their seats. She inspects the picture of her colleague’s family. Jamie’s kids look nothing like him. But no one’s going to tell him that they’re not his. Parker remarks as she inspects the photo of Jamie and his college friends.

Parker looks over at her space. At least he has pictures. She thought to herself. Then she moved to the next desk. 

Parker spent an hour nosing around her colleague’s desks. She was surprised by how much she could learn through all their material possessions. There were four secret office couples, three extramarital affairs, five people shopping around for another job and a love triangle. All the snooping around had made Parker hungry so he headed over to the break room.

As Parker walks in, she is startled to find someone sitting there. It was Clarine. Instantaneously, Parker unconsciously retrieved her mental record of her desk. Clarine kept a picture of her three cats taped to the side of her computer. She’s obsessed with cats because all her stationary contain some reference to felines. She’s currently dating profusely since her calendar was marked with an average of three dates per week. Her mother was worried she would end up a spinster, which she will. She is also taking Spanish lessons.

Clarine’s shoes were off and she had made herself very comfortable on the couch. She was munching on a bag of chips and watching a drama on her phone. But she had great peripheral vision so she noticed Parker the instant he walked in. She waited for the current dialogue in her drama to finish before pausing her episode.

“So is your heat broken too?” She asks as she removes one of her ear buds. 

“Wha-,” It takes Parker a moment to process her question, after she clears her head off her desk analysis. The two of them knew of each other but never officially had a conversation with one another. She had to be careful not to let anything slip. “Um, no.” She replies. 

“Huh, I guess you missed out on the news of the storm. You’re always super focused on your work. I guess it makes sense.” 

“Yea, I guess so.”

“Well, this couch is taken for the night. I’m not sure what you’re going to do, but I think Morya might have a couch in his office. It might be locked though. You can go check?” 

“That’s fine, you can have this couch.”

“Great, thanks.” Clarine says as she puts her headphones back in. Parker walks around to the snack drawer. “Oh, there’s nothing left in there. I ate most of the snacks.” Clarine points to the small pile of trash at the end of the couch. “But you can have what is left.” She says, offering the bag of chips she was eating. 

“Um, that’s okay.” Parker’s stomach grumbles in disagreement.

“You sound hungry,” Clarine remarks. “Here.” She folds the opening of the bag and throws it at Parker. 

“Thanks.” Parker catches it and goes to sit at the table. She unfolds the bag and begins eating. She finds herself feeling very awkward and ends up picking a point on the table to stare at.

“So,” Clarine sits down in front of Parker. “What’s your deal?”

“My deal?”

“Yeah like, you never come to eat lunch with us. No one in the office knows anything about you.”

“Well, there’s nothing to really know.”

“Come on, give me something. What do they have you working on anyways. No one ever stays late like you.”

“You know I can’t answer that. Our assignments are confidential.”

“Alright, if you’re going to pull that card.” They sit in silence for a few minutes before Clarine starts talking again. “Did you know we have an archive? I thought everything was digital these days. Plus, I don’t know where we would have room for that. But I overheard Morya mentioning something about it the other day when I walked past her office. I bought it up during lunch and no one seems to know anything about it.” Parker does not respond while Clarine trails off in thought. “Don’t you ever wonder where our stories go? They make us write all these made up nonsense but for what purpose? The clients are so confidential that no one seems to know who they’re working for.”

“Does it matter? If it’s all made up anyways.”

“Yes, I want to know why I’m doing this work all for. There must be some sort of point to all this?”

“Isn’t it enough to earn a good pay?”

Clarine sits there staring at the edge of the table with a blank expression. “Forget it. Pretend I didn’t say anything” She finally says and gets up to return to the couch.

After Parker finishes her bag of chips, she returns to her desk. It wasn’t going to be a comfortable night of sleep, but she had done this many times before. 

The next morning, Parker wakes up to find Clarine standing over her with two folders in her hand. She tosses her a folder with Clarine’s full name written in gold on the corner. Parker did not need to open the folder to understand why Clarine was so solemn. Parker looks straight at Clarine as she tosses her the second folder with a simple label “Parker'' taped on the corner. 

“So you’re our writer.”