Home Again

Lorna's life evolved around business and cold steel high-rises. Each day she arose, dressed in a business suit and made her way from her high-rise apartment to the downtown district to another high-rise building where she worked eight to ten hours per day. She was surrounded by concrete and steel every minute of her day and night. The only thing that kept her going was her vacation time each June, but year after year, June felt more like an eternity away.

As she entered her office, she noticed that the cleaning girl had already been there. The air smelt of citrus and the desk was shiny clean. She went behind her desk and sat down her laptop and briefcase. She glanced at the calender, June 8th. She just had to get through the rest of this week and then she could spend two glorious weeks with what she loved most: nature.

She was just about to open her briefcase when her supervisor walked into her office, not knocking as usual. "Good morning, Mr. Kline," she said as she began taking papers out and laying them in piles on the desk.

"Good Morning, Lorna. I have some possible bad news for you," he began, seating himself across from her.

Glancing up, Lorna flashed a worry surprised look at her boss. "Oh?"

"Yes, this briefing you and Tom have been working on is due at the end of the week. Tom was in an accident last night and cannot help finish it." He saw her expression and continued,"Now now, no need to get excited here. I could assign Matthews to help you, but you know Mark, he keeps his head in the clouds. So it is up to you. Finish the briefing by Friday or you will have to work the weekend and postpone your trip."

All Lorna could do was stare at her boss in disbelief. By herself, there was still a good three to four days worth of work to do. The only way she could possible do it all was to work nearly around the clock, without overtime pay, if she still wanted to leave the City on Saturday.

After moments of thought, she smiled up at her boss and said confidently, "I'm your girl, sir," an expression used often around the office when she felt she could complete a task assigned to her.

"That's the spirit! And there just may be a little bonus in this for you if you do get it completed on time." With that, he walked out of Lorna's office, whistling.

Wednesday flew by as she gathered information from Tom's files to see where he was on his part of the briefing. She was thankful to see he'd been keeping up on his side of things and all she had to do was continue to follow his agenda, which his secretary had set up beautifully for him. It was nearing seven in the evening when she looked up from her desk, her stomach rumbling since she had skipped both breakfast and lunch that day. She called her favorite Chinese restaurant and ordered some noodles and steamed vegetables. She would need at least three more hours to get to the point they would both be tomorrow had Tom not been in an accident.

As she ate her noodles and vegetables, she dictated information on the briefing for her secretary to type up the next day for her. It was nearing ten-thirty when she finally closed her briefcase, tossed her Chinese containers in the trash, and made her way out of the office.

From cold steel to cold steel, she kept thinking as the taxi pulled up in front of her apartment building. By the time she reached the 20th floor and stepped out of the elevator, it hit her just how tired she was. Once inside her apartment, she set the timer on the coffee maker and set it up for morning and then she took a long hot shower. Before long, she was settled in bed.

The next day was a repeat of the day before, except instead of starting at her normal time of nine, she was in the office by seven and worked until midnight. By Friday morning, she was finishing up the last touches to the briefing, making sure that everything was in order and easy to understand, well as easy as legalese was to understand. Although exhausted, she proudly stood before her bosses door at five pm and handed him the completed briefing.

"Well done, Lorna. I've never seen someone so dedicated about their work."

Giving a slight chuckle, Lorna corrected him,"It wasn't about the work, sir. It was about the vacation I don't want to miss."

Opening a drawer, Mr. Kline removed a shiny object and placed on his desk in front of Lorna. "That reminds me. The bonus we talked about. This is the key to my timeshare cottage at Nags Head, North Carolina. I do believe that is where you go every June?"

Her eyes widened as she saw the key and mumbled, "Yes, sir."

"Good! Well it is yours for the next two weeks. Fully stocked and with a housekeeper on site. It sits right on the beach so close to the ocean you can practically reach out and touch her."

"Oh sir, are you sure?" she asked, taking the key from the desk.

"Indeed I am. Now get out of here and have a good vacation."

She'd slept most of Friday after work, then got up early Saturday morning to pack her car. The drive only took four hours, but by the time Lorna had reached the cottage, she was still tired. Stepping out of her car, the sea-salt air hit her and awakened her senses. She didn't even bother unpacking her car, but ran down to the beach, to the water's edge.

Dropping to her knees, she whispered, "My Ocean, my love, my heart! I am home again."