The Code

January, 2008
all rights reserved
by
Wendy Morrow

"Where is that password? " Lindsay grabbed handfuls of paper from the box that only weeks ago she had stuffed full of desk detritis in an effort to find her apartment keys. The keys were eventually found and the box kicked further back under the desk. She never had the time or the inclination to sort through the computer bean bag charms, the curled yellow stickies, the fuzzie cough drops and the MacDonald burger coupons
Now she had to mine the box again for a wrinkled piece of lined note paper with several code names written in pencil. "I knew I should have put the stupid code in my day timer or scratched it on my keyboard or texted myself with it." she muttered. She found two credit card applications that had been filled out and discarded, and a scratch and win lottery ticket with 'try again' in the window. Alas,no note paper with the code.
"Damn!" She snagged her perfect shell pink pinkie nail on a carpet tack which had somehow found its way into the box. The blood from the torn quick of her nail bed was dripping onto the plastic chair mat. She kneeled in the blood spot and reached over her head with her other hand blindly patting the top of her desk until she found the kleenex box. Her fingers brushed her coffee cup. She pulled out a handful of tissue and blotted the blood stains. Her coffee cup teetered and swayed propelled by the cold curdled liquid inside. As it tilted near the edge of the desk, the cup tipped over and washed the contents down Lindsay's neck. She turned with the shock of it and fought her way out from the nest of cords and winter boots. The crack of her head banging on the underside of her desk sounded like a gun shot.
She grabbed more kleenex and mopped herself. She could feel the cold sludge dripping down her back and the coffee stain spreading across her silk shirt. The stain was creeping. The hair on the back of her head was plastered to her skull, cold coffee or blood, she couldn't be sure which. It was a warm summer morning when she left home and she hadn't worn a jacket. She couldn't hide the stain.

Last night Linday had forgone the usual drink with her friends at the local pub and instead she spent the evening getting ready to stage the first step in her career plan.
She had soaked for hours in the tub, she exfoliated and scrubbed and lathered herself with fine scents and creams. She had meticulously applied the lovely coral pink colour to her beautifully manicured nails. She visualized herself standing no, sitting in front of the HR's desk as the HR admired her CV and her stunning confident self.
She set her alarm and and slept like the righteous right through the night. In the morning she reset her hair and applied her make up . She ripped the tags off of her lovely new shirt and got to her desk half an hour before her work mates arrived.

Yesterday she had requested an appointment with the head of HR. In the ladies room, she had overheard a conversation between two employees in a department which oversaw hers and in which she had longed to work. One of them was about to hand in her resignation and the vacancy would no doubt be filled in house. Lindsay was qualified, academically at least. She knew she would love this job.

Yesterday she been so full of herself and so confident that she would soon be the lord queen boss of all of the underlings in the department that she told the whole world in her facebook page blog. She wasted most of the afternoon tapping on and on about how she was going to make the cliquey 'power chicks' snivel and crawl for her. She pressed 'publish post' and then went home. On the bus, she thought "Oh my God, what if someone from the company reads my blog"
She ran from the bus stop to her building. Opening her door she saw that her trusty little laptop friend was waiting for her on her couch resting on an empty Lay's bag. She had barely put down her keys and poured herself a glass of red wine before she kicked off her shoes, opened the computer and pressed the ON button. Nothing happened. Nothing. She checked the connection, it was in. The power in the apartment was on. Why wasn't her lap top working? This unreliable piece of crap!
Slowly a green glow began in one corner of the screen, then it spread getting brighter and greener until it covered the entire screen except for a red stripe that ran down one side. Then the green glow faded to black and her lap top died with barely a death rattle.

"Thank God I have a computer at work and if I get there before anyone else, I will just edit my blog and no one will ever be the wiser." Lindsay rolled over in bed and slept the sleep of the innocent.
In the morning Lindsay sashayed into the office tower leaving a trail of perfume. Her company's office door was open. The office manager was on some kind of power trip to be the first to work everyday. This worked well in her favour she thought. She clicked down the hall past his door to show him that she was second in the door in the morning. In case that mattered. 'Oh! Lindsay", he called, "Glad to see you are in so early, can you show me how to get into that Facebook thing? My kids told me I should get with it and get on Facebook.
Lindsay blanched. "Oh my God!" she thought "He will see my posts. I am screwed!"
"Just a minute, I'll be right there to help you. Let me put my purse down."
She ran down the hall and into her cubicle.
"Don't Panic! Turn on the computer! Hurry hurry! Oh God where is the Favourites? Jeeze, why is this so slow? Okay what is the password... " she tapped out an e-mail name....no that isn't it. Not Found! Damn! okay what else could it be? I had the damn thing yesterday....calm down, think" She tapped in another. "Not found" Oh shit what is it....Where did I write it?" Oh, yes! its on a piece of paper in that box, I saw it just a few days ago. "
Where is that password? Lindsay dragged out the box and began to dig around inside.
She could hear her boss coming down the hall.