Letters to an Architect To my best friend, the architect in this story, who has no idea how proud of her I am, in advance for when she is the architect, and now, for dreaming big. Love you, bestie. Chapter One Alice sits at her desk, sipping coffee, staring out the window, deep in thought. Her office door bangs open. “Alice! Are you done with your blueprint yet? We need to send it to the engineers immediately.” Sophie, her boss, says frantically. “Oh, shoot! Sorry, I’ve been daydreaming about when it’s built. I’m almost finished, though. Give me five minutes,” she replies quickly. “Okay, but it won’t be built if you don’t get the blueprint done!” Sophie walks out, closing the door behind her. Alice hurries to finish the blueprint, then rolls it up, slides a rubber band over the print to keep it in place, and walks out into the hallway. She heads up the spiral staircase she designed herself to the 20th floor, the top, where Sophie’s office is, along with the other bosses. Alice knocks quietly, afraid another one of Sophie’s outbursts will occur. Sophie is a great boss, but when she’s worried about something, she can be a little…nutty. Thankfully, Sophie has calmed down considerably and merely takes the blueprint with a sigh of relief and a thank you. Chapter Two The next day, Alice sits at her desk again, awaiting her next building assignment. She waits for hours. Soon, when the workday is about to end, she decides to head up to Sophie’s office and ask her what was going on. Why wasn’t her assignment arriving? When she made it there, however, the door to Sophie’s office was locked. Defeated, Alice left the building and drove home. The mailbox flag was up, so she removed the one envelope inside and lowered the flag. Oddly, the letter was from her office. Confused, she hurried inside, eager to open the letter. She would not have been so eager if she had known what information was enclosed on that single piece of paper. She now understood what her friend, an author, meant when she said that every word you write matters and can change the course of the story, or in this case, someone’s life. For whatever reason (the letter did not say), Alice had been laid off. She was unemployed. Unsure of what to do, she decided to go for a run. All of a sudden, she had a surge of energy, and running always cleared her mind, helped her make sense of things. It didn’t work. Her mind was still just as cloudy as before. Alice had trouble falling asleep that night. She tossed and turned, but no matter what she tried, she just could not fall asleep. She gave up trying at about 5:00 am, and took comfort in reading one of her favorite books, Wonder. While it is a children’s book, it was also one that brought her comfort, something she needed right then.
Chapter Four The headline read, “Amazingly Skilled Architect Laid Off for No Reason; Protests are Being Organized Immediately” What? Alice thought, confused by the headline. Is this about me? Continuing to read the article, she learned that it was, in fact, about her. She and Claire’s close friend had written an article about her being laid off! Apparently, protests were starting the next day in front of the office where she used to work, and protestors had been writing letters to Sophie to get her to re-hire Alice. Shocked, she called Claire back. Claire didn’t even say hello; she immediately skipped to “Well?” “Is all of this true?” Alice asked her. “Yep! And guess what?” “I don’t know, what?” “Chicken butt! But also, I’m in town to join the protests!” “Seriously?” “Seriously! We need to meet up for coffee or something while I’m here!” “Definitely. I probably shouldn’t join the protests, though, because people might get mad if I’m there.” “No, you’re going! You need to make a statement about this, and just being there will be enough!” “Ok, I guess I will,” Alice says before hanging up. Chapter Five Alice met Claire at the protest. Claire carried two signs, and she handed Alice one of them. Together, they joined the large crowd and began yelling and bouncing their signs in the air. During a bit of a slowdown in the action, Alice felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning around, she saw a boy, probably eight, standing before her. “Miss Alice? Did you get my letter? About the reading nooks in the hallways in my apartment?” Alice smiled. “I did, and it made me very happy to hear that.” “Miss Alice? I have another question for you.” “Ask away!” “Ca-Can I….Can I have your autograph?” “Yes, of course,” Alice said to him quietly, speaking only to him. “Do you have something I can sign, and maybe a pen, too?” “I do,” his mother said, removing a pad of paper and a fountain pen from her purse and handing them to Alice. “Thank you,” Alice said to the woman, scribbling her name and a short note for the boy. As they disappeared back into the crowd, Alice began to turn around but was stopped by another tap on her shoulder. A small girl looked up at her and said feebly, “We would all like autographs too,” motioning behind her to the line of kids with one or both of their parents. Alice couldn’t hide her surprise this time. “Really? I’d love to!” she said, rummaging around in her bag for a pen, a Sharpie, even a pencil, anything to write with. Claire tapped her on the shoulder and stuffed a pen into her hand. “You’ve done some great things,” she whispered, “I can’t wait to see what you do next.” She, too, then turned and disappeared into the sea of people that surrounded them. Chapter Six The next day, the office called Alice. “Hello?” Alice answered, nervous, expecting the worst. “You’ve got your job back,” Sophie’s voice came out of the phone distorted, like she was really annoyed she had to say these words. Alice understood why in a moment, however. “And I won’t be your boss anymore,” Sophie added. “I’ve been fired for not being the nicest boss to you and your colleagues.” “I’m sorry about that,” Alice replied. “Me too, but there’s nothing we can do about it now, is there? And besides, the important thing is that the world hasn’t lost one of its most skilled architects history has ever seen.” “Thank you for the compliment, but I’m afraid I don’t deserve it.” “Well, why on Earth is that?” “I’m always daydreaming instead of making my blueprints.” “That can be easily remedied.” “How?” “Just set yourself a timer! You can daydream, but only for a limited amount of time.” “I’ll try that. And don’t worry, I’ll be sure to tell people who ask that I got the idea from my old boss, the best one I’ve ever had.” “Thank you, but you can be sure that’s one compliment that should go to someone else, not me.” “I’ll say it anyway,” Alice says with a smile before hanging up.
