IT WAS nearing five o'clock at the new york times headquarters and the sound of tired typewriters filled the atmosphere. evelyn fox was in her office, searching through a filing cabinet for a piece of information she needed to write an article she had been working on most of the day.
shortly after her fiancé, bobby, died at war, she was promoted to have her own column when she reported on president kennedy's affair with actress, marilyn monroe. since then, each week, all of america waited for her reviews on certain topics like political issues, pop-culture, restaurants, etc. throwing herself into her work was one of the ways she coped living without bobby. writing distracted her from the pain of his absence.
"hey," melanie, evelyn's assistant, poked her head into her office. "haverford wants to see you." deborah haverford has been the editor in chief of new york times for just over ten years now and was very fond of evelyn's work.
"thank you." evelyn replied, still roaming through the filing cabinet. "why don't you leave early today? you've been working so hard."
"you want me to pick up chinese food on the way home again, don't you?" melanie asked with a tepid visage.
melanie was a beautiful african american woman who radiated sunshine everywhere she went. evelyn had met melanie when they were just children, and have been inseparable since. now that bobby was gone, melanie was quite literally the only person who knew evelyn like the back of her hand.
"you're the best." evelyn sang, closing the filing cabinet after she failed to find what she was looking for.
"yeah, yeah." melanie smiled with an eye roll as she walked away to go pick up food.
evelyn looked in the tiny round mirror placed above the cabinet and made sure her hair looked presentable for her boss. professionalism became like a religion to her.
she then walked to her boss's office that was in the very back of the newsroom floor. it had nice giant windows and was close to twice the size of evelyn's office.
"you wanted to see me?" evelyn asked, standing in the doorway.
"ah, yes. come in." deborah greeted her, slight wrinkles forming around the corners of her mouth. she was middleaged with grey strands beginning to peak through her chocolate roots if one looked closely. "i talked with my colleagues up at corporate and we have chosen you to cover a very special story." she said excitedly.
