Louise and The Men of Transit

Campaign for Convenience

The sleek plane landed like a shining arrow on a concrete bullseye as Louise watched from the window of Jeremy's boardroom overlooking the Toronto Harbour and the Island airport. A steaming mug of tea warmed her hands as she stood soaking in the view.

"Ah. Here we are," Jeremy said from behind her.

Louise turned from her view of the sunlight dancing on the edges of tossing waves. "Good morning!" she beamed.

He grinned, "Morning, Louise. I see my assistant got you a cup of tea." Without pausing for her to reply, he proclaimed: "We love your idea. My team has had a fantastic time acting on your insight. I have to admit my wife didn't want anything to do with it, but when it takes all her energy to navigate the TTC, why would she want to think about it when she doesn't have to? I'm willing to bet, though, that when she sees the final campaign, she's going to be tickled pink." Jeremy placed his tablet in its branded cover at the head of the elliptical boardroom table and pulled out his red mesh-backed chair. At the same time, he gestured with an open palm for Louise to join him. Louise rolled out the green chair next to his. Its wheels moved smoothly across the pine plank floor. She sat with the windows behind her, and the chair supported her weight and her back. Louise luxuriated in its easy comfort and wheeled herself closer to the table, her heart thudding with nerves, her stomach flip-flopping in excitement. She sipped her tea and placed her mug down carefully with shaky hands. She could hardly believe today was happening. A few weeks of head-down office work had sidled by since she'd spoken out loud her idea to Jeremy on the subway platform, so many weeks that she had almost forgotten their conversation. Nothing had changed at CCTV. She'd written her reports, and Jim had filed them. Andy had resumed taking Jim to the CEO meetings. Her brown curls had created an invisibility shield around her once more.

No one had discerned that the chaos-creating cat had been hers.

Jeremy leaned forward on his elbows, his hands clasped, and iterated: "I have to say Louise when you suggested an ad campaign highlighting all the TTC's failings and its inner thoughts, and then creating a buzz to get the people of Toronto to stand up and say enough is enough, inclusive means inclusive, don't mess with our history, I thought it was pie in the sky. But the more I thought about it, the more excited I got. I gave the idea to my best branding and advertising campaign design people. I gave them free rein; prototype any and every idea, I told them, then distill them down to the best. I'm excited by what they've come up with. The team lead should be arriving any moment now," Jeremy finished, looking towards the open door. Louise followed his gaze and saw no one. "Ah," he said. "She's always late. Time is fluid in her parlance." He seemed unfazed as he leaned back in his chair. "While we're waiting, I wanted to mention ACAT, you know, the TTC's disability committee?"

Louise shook her head, no.

Jeremy frowned, "Remind me to email you information on them. A little mole told me they have a habit of changing their minds after management gets through with them about what's inclusive and what's not."

Suddenly, a woman appeared in the doorway carrying poster boards and an art folder tucked up under her left arm. Tall, slender, her blue-black hair tied up in ribbons and lengths of patterned cloths so that bits of her silky hair stuck out between their criss-crossed edges. Her skin was like milk chocolate; her lashes long and black. Her eyebrows arched over her murky brown eyes. Her black shirt hung down over form-hugging black jeans with patches sewn all over them, patches of reds and greens and yellows and blues. Patches with people's faces drawn on them, dogs' faces, cats' scowls. Louise blinked at the sight. The woman sauntered in and sunk into a yellow mesh chair further down the table from Louise.

Jeremy sat up and gestured toward the woman, "Louise, I want you to meet Shireen."

"Shireen, this is Louise, the person whose idea you've been working on."