Phoenix 2125

Posted By Alexander Hollins on May 26, 2008

Muted earth tone walls, spotted here and there with the occasional painting or picture of a building, curved to the right, coming back towards the main room they had started in. Tom was introduced, praised, questioned, stared at, and fawned over in the mailroom, secretary pool, and call center. Having curved a full half circle, they stood on the other side of double doors that Tom had seen at the far end of the communal office shared by all the architects and himself. Directly opposite was a large open desk in front of a glass fronted office, and a hallway leading back further. Karen sat down at the desk, spinning lazily around in her chair.

“And this expanse of filing cabinets and blueprint bins is my own desk. Felicity’s office is directly behind me.”

“Must be a bit much, having the boss looking over your shoulder all the time.” Tom mused aloud. “Speaking of, where is Ms. Craven?”

Deborah chuckled. “It’s not so bad, actually. She doesn’t micro manage, which is always a plus. And she’s still in Philadelphia, actually. Conference ran a day longer than expected, and then I’m sure you heard about the earthquake yesterday shutting the airport down.” Tom nodded as Deborah continued. “Felicity was supposed to take a train to New York, to handle some other business she had there, and fly back in tonight. She got stuck in D.C. though. She sends her regrets, and looks forward to meeting you tomorrow if she makes it in.

Deborah stood, grabbing a small case from on top of her desk. She ushered Tom down the hallway behind her desk. “Here we have various conference rooms and drafting studios.” Pointing at a rather imposing door, covered in sound proofing and with a large, old fashioned number pad lock, Deborah turned to Tom in a conspiratorial manner. “And that is the old man’s private studio. When the red light is on, it means do not disturb, or else!”

Two small led lights were mounted above the door. One was lit, a bright green. “And when it’s green?” Tom asked.

“Then you can press the page button here for his attention, but only when it’s important. Right in here, now.” Saying this, Deborah unlocked a conference room door, and ushered Tom inside. As he walked past the entrance, lights flicked on, revealing a rather standard large oval table with seats around it, and a white wall at the far end, obviously for use with a projector hidden somewhere in the ceiling. Closing the door behind her, Deborah leaned back against the wood, and smiled broadly.

“Now,” She said throatily, “We can have some real fun.“

All of Tom’s early uncontrolled fantasies came screaming back to the front of his mind. He could feel sweat break out on his forehead. “Umm, Deborah, what exactly…”

Grinning even broader, Deborah brought up the hand with the black case in front of her. “Movie time!”
“Ohh” was all Tom said, relief evident on his face. “Classics? Comedy? Adventure? A good sci fi maybe?”

Deborah laughed, unzipping the case and taking from it small plastic cubes, holding each up to the light for a moment before moving to the next one. “Nope, I wish. Good old fashioned training films. Mr. Morrow’s idea. He says that anyone that can stomach a one hour training film can stomach working with architects all day. It’s a little dry, in a middle of the desert at high noon in July kind of way.“ Finding the cube she was looking for, she pressed on the table top and a small window appeared in the wood grain. Pushing the cube into a small slot on the edge of the table, she dragged a finger along the glass window and stabbed at it twice. The white wall lit up blue.

“She looked up at Tom, a mischievous grin on her face. “Why Tom, if I didn’t know any better I’d think that was your way of asking me out to a movie. I’m flattered, but I barely know you. Ask me again next week.” Tom flustered and stammered, turning red. Obviously enjoying the reaction, Deborah’s eyes twinkled as she leaned in close to Tom. She whispered directly into his ear “Or perhaps you had hoped I brought you in here for some ”alone” time?”

The twitch of her lips nearly brushing his ear brought the feeling of heat back as strong as ever. His skin thrummed and vibrated as if flames danced across it. He gave up even trying to formulate a reply, and stood there, silent, bottom lip pressed firmly against his top teeth.

Deborah stood back up and laughed. “You’re embarrassed? My my, how refreshing. I’m sorry, I’ll not tease you any longer. Enjoy the movie, and I’ll be back in an hour.“

With that, she stabbed at the window on the desk top again, and the blue wall began shifting. She let herself out, and, after she had gone, Tom took several deep breaths, and sat down to watch as the audio started.

The lights dimmed automatically as canned music rose while the screen displayed the state seal of Arizona. Small text on the bottom of the screen warned of unspeakable things that would be done to people who copied or distributed the film, although Tom thought to himself that having a job that required bootlegging stuffy training films was probably punishment enough.

A title scrolled across the screen to an accompanied rise in the volume and intensity of the music. “Planning, Revising, And YOU!”

The view changed to a rather non descript office, and a much younger Edward Morrow walked onto the set and sat down.

Looking out at the screen, he said, “Hello, my name is Ed Morrow. Congratulations, and welcome to Planning and Revising, or P and R, as we like to call it. P and R has, since its creation in 2104, been responsible for the creation, upkeep, and implementation of city planning for the entire combined Phoenix metropolitan area, and later Maricopa county as a whole. After the rampant destruction of the big one in 2100, and the change of climate from suddenly becoming a beach front city, a tight controlled approach to rebuilding and to new growth was essential.”

The image changed to an overhead view of the valley, taken shortly after the monster earthquake and mountain building caused by it. Smoke still billowed from the new Estella Peaks’ central crater, and Tom looked at the south face, black and featureless from this height. He found himself imagining the steel girders sticking up out of slowly cooling rock, an image he’d seen on the news shortly after arriving with a bus full of fellow wards of the state in New York. A wave of emotion hit him sideways, sadness and loss coming to the forefront. Tom shook off the melancholy, wondering at the weak control he had over all his emotions that day. The scene changed to one of construction, on the new state capitol building it appeared. He realized he had missed a few minutes of Ed’s voiceover in his recollection.

“And after the completion of the new Copper Dome by the Office of Reconstruction, and after the existing urban planning offices had failed in trying to properly rebuild the rest of the capitol, they were all merged into Planning and Revising. So enthralled with the architect who designed the Copper Dome, one Edward Morrow, they asked him to head up this new governmental department. That would be me, in case you weren’t paying attention earlier.“ Tom chuckled softly at the joke. “Lucky for everyone involved, I accepted. Planning and Revising has grown by leaps and bounds since those days, and we now control every aspect of business zoning, home inspection, road planning, and of course, design of government buildings. We currently employ nearly six thousand people state wide, several hundred of whom work in this building.”

Tom started for a moment. Those were current numbers. But this film was obviously a decade old. Had they recorded multiple videos then for growth? That made no sense, he thought.

The younger Ed Morrow continued speaking, back on camera directly. “And you make us one step closer to six thousand mark, Tom. By keeping our databases running smoothly, and all equipment and software up to date, you will help ensure that our people can do their work in keeping Arizona growing at a healthy rate.” The onscreen Ed Morrow’s eyes seemed to zoom directly into Tom’s. The voice continued to speak, but again in general terms. For a moment, Tom thought perhaps he had imagined it, that the ten year old video was speaking directly to him. Then he caught it. Ed was blinking in sequence. It was a long pattern, but it repeated. “Clever.” He muttered to himself.

The video moved to maps of the building, showing the area he had already explored, as well as two basements full of records and computer equipment, someplace he would probably spend more time than at his desk.

The movie soon drawled its way to the end, after disgorging more history and facts about the department and the capitol in general. The ending music swelled up, the lights went back on, and the door popped open. Deborah slipped into the room.

“One hour on the dot. So, what did you think?”

Tom rubbed his eyes and stood up. “Well, for one thing, that’s a bang up computer model of Mr. Morrow. Took me a few minutes to catch on. “

Deborah threw her head back and laughed. Her laugh was rather infectious, and Tom found himself giggling.

“Ah, I lost the bet. Yeah, Janet actually ran the modeler back in the day when Ed first came up with the idea. I figured having him talk directly to you was overkill, but that you’d still be mystified. Guess I was wrong. Well, it looks like lunchtime to me. What’s your pleasure, Mexican or Oriental?”