The Girl In Black [On Hold Till Further Notice]

"Let me live MY way..." Ending the year on a sad but hopeful note...

"I'm guessing you are Ms. Fatimah and Ms. Riley, right?" the older man asked and the two girls nodded, throwing a glance at the younger Walworth who stood beside him. "Do take a seat, both of you" he said pointing to two chairs across the carved mahogany desk. When the two girls had settled in their seats, he started pacing up and down the whole length of the room and spoke again, but this time to his son, "David, please brief them upon the reason of their visit, would you?"

"Yes, sir. So, as you must have noticed by now, these are your reports that you see on the computer screen, the ones that you gave in just this morning. These were forwarded by your supervisor, in case you've been wondering how they happened to end up here. The reason why he forwarded it was because he found them different from the whole lot, he found them almost....extraordinary. First, I would start with Ms. Riley."

"Ms. Riley, as I said before, the report we've received from you is extraordinary and I won't hesitate in saying it all over again. It is the best report we've got by a trainee since the last three or four years. Your way of writing things in simple detail so that even a lay-man would get the whole idea in a nutshell is something that we appreciated extremely, and we would like you to continue with such kind of a performance in future. Well done and good luck." Jennifer was literally gaping when he finished.

"Moving on to Ms. Fatimah..." At this point, he stopped speaking and searched her with his penetrating glance, as if he was trying to figure out her innermost thoughts. The older man stopped pacing the room, came to a standstill beside his son, and began to speak, "The reports that you give in to your supervisor are usually better than the whole lot, believe me, we checked. But this particular report has been 'exceptional' and I'm totally serious when I say that, because I don't usually show so much emotion in just one sentence. It was something that we saw for the first time done by a trainee since the inception of this organization.

"You do have a special way of doing things, don't you? Everything from analysis to conclusions is simply great. The ideas that you've put in at the end are quite practical and we found them very apt and according to the requirements of the organization in the present day. We are even thinking of applying some of them in our ongoing projects, if you don't mind, that is to say. It would be preferable if you also keep up with this performance, in fact, try to do even better. Both of you will give original hard copies of your reports by tomorrow, and a copy of them to Mr. Hammond. You may go now, and Ms. Fatimah, you'll need to stay back for a few minutes. I'm sure it wouldn't be irksome to you in any way."

Zahra nodded in acquiescence. Jennifer gave her a broad smile, thanked the two men profusely and went out. The older Walworth spoke again. "Now, Ms. Fatimah, what would you say if I told you that you're not a trainee anymore? In fact, you've just become something better than that. You are now an employee here." Hearing this statement, Zahra was stunned. She kept staring at both the men with her mouth open, thinking that they were playing some kind of a joke on her.

At last, finding her voice, she said, "I would be extremely happy, Sir, but I would test the waters first, for if they weren't what they seemed to be, I would sink if I had no rescue nearby. And frankly, I don't know how to swim." This answer made both the men laugh their heads out.

"You are a clever one, good for you. But you wouldn't have to go any deeper because this is for real. We don't give out hoax jobs. Everything has already been arranged for you. You'll work in the HR department under Mr. Steve Vaughn who is the HR head. When you come tomorrow, you'll work according to your new schedule. But, remember that you're on a trial period for six months, so you must work carefully and maintain your performance. You can go now." Coming out of the room, Zahra felt that it was all a dream and was too good to be real.

Since that day, she had not given herself even a single minute to stop and breathe a little. Her whole room had been rigged up as a makeshift office by herself and she was literally living on coffee now, working late at nights and racking her brain to bits in the office the whole day. But there's an end to everything. Before she even knew, Christmas holidays had come and she was bored to death this year. She had no friends in this place, except maybe Laura, but she lived in the room next to hers, so, where was the excitement in that. Saying that she missed her best friend horribly was the understatement of the millennium, because she had no words to describe the feeling.