Hey, guys! Thanks for sticking with the story so far. I hope you enjoy this chapter! I had a lot of fun writing it! It was fun trying to envision some of the (many) changes that might have occurred in the ten years that have passed. You might see some brief cameos from some characters you recognize. But we're not going to get to them yet! So hold on and be patient, they're coming!
Ch. 3- "The Daily Grind."
"Ulrich! Ulrich, over here!" came a nasally voice from behind the brunette.
Ulrich looked to see who was calling his name. A short man, with thick glasses, a garish sweater vest, and a bow tie poked his head out from around a corner. Ulrich walked over to the actual mail room part of the mail room. There were two other people in the room already, both of them were guys. The room was small, and mostly made of concrete. The lights were dim in the room, and almost made it hard to see. Many clear tubes snaked and wound their way around the back wall. Ulrich recognized them as a set of vacuum tubes that collected all the mail to be delivered to the rest of the company. They were currently off, and that made the room quiet so that they were able to talk.
"Standing up to the boss again? That's why you're the cool one in the mail room, Ulrich," he said in his nasally voice.
"Thanks, Herb." said Ulrich glumly, recognizing the nerd.
Older Ulrich immediately recognized Herb. And even with ten years having passed, Younger Ulrich could still recognize the face of Herb Pichon. Both Ulrichs remembered Herb from school, he was one of the two whole members of the unofficial 'Sissi Club'. Younger Ulrich didn't hang out often with Herb mainly due to Sissi and her obnoxious personality, which meant he didn't know much about the nerd, but apparently he knew Ulrich. Older Ulrich had a fuzzy memory of Herb. He knew that they were friends, heaven knows why. But for the most part, Older Ulrich did have some pleasant memories of Herb. His thoughts collided on this, he wasn't sure if he wanted to continue to be friends with him, or try to put their relationship at just a professional level.
"We thought that we would wait for you to get here before we started work today," said Herb,
"But we didn't know you were going to be this late!"
"Yeah, sorry about that. Um- traffic was terrible," lied Ulrich. It sounded like something an adult would say. At least it was something that he had heard often from his dad growing up.
"Oh, yeah, I know, right?" said Herb, buying the bluff, "Well we couldn't get started until we had all three of us here, the mailroom kinda needs three to work. And we all know that a certain someone won't…" Herb dropped off into low mumbles and grumbling. Ulrich had never seen Herb get so irked, but all of his frustration seemed to be pointed in the direction of William's office door. Ulrich began to understand and even felt the same way.
"Hey, Ulrich, can you make game night tonight? We're playing Dungeon Master Seven!" said the other occupant of the small room.
Ulrich recognized the other worker as Nicholas Poliakoff. Nicholas was the other member of the 'Sissi Club', the club that was organized to pay homage to their idol and club namesake, Sissi, or Elizabeth Delmas. Younger Ulrich's memory of Sissi was not a pleasant one. Sissi constantly thought she was Ulrich's love interest, and tried her best to get Ulrich to like her. But her personality was like a clingy octopus made out of cactus, and as such, made Ulrich more turned off to her advances. However, that didn't stop Nicholas and Herb from following her around like puppy dogs. Older Ulrich didn't have any memories of Sissi, which he didn't know whether to be confused or relieved that he couldn't remember her. But Older Ulrich did have several, vague memories of Nicholas and Herb. They were co-workers here in the mail room, mainly because their fathers had helped them all land jobs there, and through working together, the three had formed a friendship. Ulrich didn't know how he felt being friends with them. It didn't really feel like it was the kind of thing he would do normally. Nicholas stood there waiting for a response, so Ulrich thought quickly and said,
"No, I think my mom- has something planned. Sorry Nic." lied Ulrich. He may have been friends with these guys before, but Ulrich figured it was time to find some new ones, he just didn't want to hurt Nicholas' feelings.
Nicholas' face fell.
"Oh that's okay, I figured you'd probably say that anyway." Ulrich felt bad now, there was really no good way of dealing with this, but he didn't quite know what to say.
"What's on the schedule today Nic?" asked Herb, trying to lighten the mood.
"You know what it is! We deliver mail to everyone, and then they don't thank us, and then we do it again! And we get paid almost minimum wage for doing so!" snapped Nicholas. Herb frowned.
"I was hoping you would play along this time!" whined Herb.
"Oh get over it Herb, we're never getting out of the mail room, stop trying to cheer me up." said Nicholas. Ulrich couldn't help but feel he was responsible for Nicholas' sour attitude, but he really had no idea what to do.
"What do you mean no one gets out of the mail room?" asked Ulrich.
It didn't take Ulrich very long to get right down on trying to decipher all the ins and outs of Older Ulrich's life. If this proved permanent, he wanted to make sure he could function, and even survive and eventually thrive the best he could without having to relearn everything again. That meant even the little things, like how he got his job, and whether or not this career was something that led somewhere, like in the way of any available promotions. So far, it wasn't looking good.
"You know what I mean!" said Nicholas, "The mail room is just where they send those people that they don't want to see anymore, just like…" Nicholas was cut short.
"Hey!" said a voice, getting all of their attention, "I don't pay you to stand around, telling each other your dreams! Get to work!" said Mr. Dunbar, poking his head out of his office.
William stepped out of the office, walked over to the corner and grabbed one of the many metal framed carts on wheels. The wheels squeaked slightly as William maneuvered it. Mr. Dunbar walked over towards his subordinates, and he shoved the handle into Herb's hands, pointed at Nicholas and then towards a large switch on the wall and snapped his fingers rapidly to get him to move. Ulrich waited for his instruction, but instead he only got a glare from William. Ulrich wanted to glare back so bad, but he had a sinking feeling of what would happen if he did. Herb and Nicholas muttered apologies, and got straight to work. Nicholas walked over to the large switch and flipped it, the switch turned on the vacuum tubes that ran across the back wall of the room. The tubes hummed and whirred as they turned on, signaling the start of the mail system. Almost immediately, they started getting mail flowing through the tubes, and into slots in the wall. Nicholas sorted the mail, and Herb put it all in the carts where it needed to go. As soon as a cart was full, Herb pushed the cart into Ulrich's hands and shouted at him over the noise of the vacuum tubes.
"Marketing!"
"What?" asked Ulrich, not that he didn't hear him. He just wasn't sure what he meant.
"Marketing!" reiterated Herb
"…What?" asked Ulrich, he still didn't know what Herb meant.
"Have you lost your marbles Ulrich?" asked Herb, "We fill these carts and then it's your job to deliver them to the people in that department,"
"Oh, right…" said Ulrich. He wasn't so sure how he felt about the crash course in his job, but any explanation was better than none.
"And don't come back until it's done!" joked Herb.
"Okay!" shouted Ulrich back, a little unsure about himself, but he did as he was told and he walked the cart out of the mail room and towards the elevator.
The sound of the mail room seemed to die as he walked around the corner, but he could still hear as Nicholas switched on a radio and started to sing along in an off-key. He was glad that it seemed to be his job to run the mail out to where it needed to go, and not stay in the basement all day, listening to that noise. Ulrich pressed the button to call the elevator and then when it arrived he pushed the cart in.
He didn't know where Marketing was, there were too many floors listed on the elevator panel, and none of them were marked. Ulrich's earlier plan to go to the lobby started to come back to him as a good idea, so he pushed the button for the lobby and figured he would take it from there. Ulrich figured the lobby ought to have a directory or a map for those visiting the building to use. Ulrich hoped to be able to find that and from there, he could find the right floor for Marketing. The elevator traveled up and the doors opened with the familiar "ding!"
Ulrich scooted out of the elevator in time before the doors closed on him, and then he pushed his cart out into the lobby. Ulrich gasped, the lobby was huge! Most of the lobby was decorated in dark stone slabs and metal. Anything that wasn't stone or metal was dark, lacquered wood. The whole lobby looked bigger than it actually was probably due to the dark colors of the stone and the wood. Ulrich still couldn't believe it either way.
Two large desks flanked each opposite wall near the many revolving doors that lead in and out of the spacious office building. The desks were sectioned off into even smaller desks and each labeled with a name. Ulrich read a few of the names and realized that they were the names of the individual departments, like 'Sales' or 'Legal'. Ulrich didn't know what all of it meant, but he figured he could just ask the person sat behind the 'Marketing' desk. However, the line to speak to the person behind the desk was large, and growing. And to top it all off, the person wasn't even there. Instead there was a sign showing when it was expected that the person would return. Ulrich didn't want to wait, since he didn't know if he was timed or anything on his job.
So Ulrich decided to keep looking for that map. As far as he could tell, there wasn't one. It made sense to Ulrich that there should be one, but as he looked around the lobby, he could only see so much through the crowds of people milling around. Ulrich navigated his cart carefully to avoid running over other people. But that didn't stop other people from running into him. Ulrich thought it was rude, but he didn't get the chance to mention that to anyone. Many of the passersby were busy on their phones, with phone calls, meeting details, or just in their own little world. The atrium seemed a lot less crowed in the middle of the room, so Ulrich moved that way and saw why.
A large fountain bubbled in the middle of the atrium, the centerpiece was a tall, dignified man cast in bronze. The plaque at its feet read: "Our Founder: Winston Cardiff." There were several signs warning people not to throw their change into the fountain like a wishing well. Ulrich wondered why, but then he saw. A large koi fish darted past, followed by several other variously sized koi fish. Ulrich watched as the koi fish swam around in concentric circles and loops. Apparently the signs were to keep the coins from poisoning the fishes' home with excess metal. Ulrich didn't know how valid that was, but another sign warned that any change found in the fountain would be considered a donation directly to Cardiff Entertainment Media. One look around the lobby would explain why the bottom of the fountain was so bare and clean. Either people decided that the company didn't need it, or the people rushing by were so cheap that they never thought of throwing their change into the fountain in the first place. Another sign, underneath the one of the statue's mentioned that the fish were generously donated by the Ishiyama family.
There were those names again! Cardiff, Ishiyama, where had he heard these names? Ulrich didn't recognize the likeness of Winston, but that was probably because Ulrich didn't have much to do with the man. In fact, if he had to bet, he had probably never met the man, whether as Older Ulrich, or Younger Ulrich. But still, the names sounded so familiar, but he couldn't place his finger on why. The voice in his head assured him that if he stuck to it that he would be able to find out. Ulrich didn't know why the voice didn't come out and tell him everything he wanted to know right there, but apparently it wasn't going to be that easy. The voice reminded him he had a job to do, and Ulrich's thoughts came back to reality. He remembered that he needed to be finding the Marketing department, but the lobby had no directory board or map to speak of. However, Ulrich did notice a slightly smaller desk nestled in the middle of the lobby with large letters on it that said 'information'
Ulrich made his way to the desk. As he got closer, Ulrich noticed that someone had taped a small note to the silver letters on the desk, Ulrich got closer and read what it said. The note was hastily scribbled and simply read 'Concierge'. This puzzled Ulrich, who would have taped this to the already existing sign? And weren't 'information' and 'concierge' basically the same? Ulrich looked up from the note and up at the person sitting behind the desk. There was a boy sat behind the desk who looked to be about the same age as Ulrich. The boy was doing something on the computer, and muttering to himself. He didn't notice when Ulrich walked up. Noticing a small bell on the counter of the black granite top of the desk, Ulrich gave it a sharp ring. The boy jolted away from what he was doing and quickly turned off the monitor to his computer. He rolled his wheeled chair around to where Ulrich stood.
"Y-yes? Can I direct to where to go?" stuttered the boy, straightening his glasses and looking up at Ulrich.
The boy had neat, blonde hair, but one of his bangs drooped down almost to the point where it touched his glasses. And speaking of his glasses, Ulrich figured they might have been even thicker than Herb's. He was wearing a blue turtle neck sweater, and a pair of black slacks. Pinned to his chest was a small, shiny name tag that just simply read 'Information'. Ulrich could see some attempts by the boy to scratch out the words and replace them with the beginnings of what looked like 'concier-'. Ulrich was then able to put two and two together. Apparently someone around here liked the sound of his made up title rather than his actual title.
"I need to find the Marketing department, can you help me?" asked Ulrich, hoping to get this exchange over with quickly. The boy straightened his glasses again and frowned. Something seemed familiar with the blonde sitting behind the desk, but Ulrich ignored that thought. He still wasn't sure if he was being timed, so any time wasted could look bad on him.
"Aren't you Mr. Stern's son- Udolph- was it?" said the boy, scrunching up his brow.
Ulrich sighed at the butchering of his name but decided to keep things cordial, "Ulrich" he corrected the blonde, "And yes, you're right, I am Mr. Stern's son, can you tell me where his department is?" Ulrich remembered William saying something about where his dad worked, so he hoped this didn't reflect poorly on him or his dad.
"Uh, yes, Marketing is on the sixteenth floor, just after HR, and just before Development." said the boy, looking down to find something on the desk.
The boy thumbed through a stack of papers and handed Ulrich one of the sheets in the pile. Ulrich looked at it and realized it was a map of the building. The boy held up the map and pointed with his pen to where Marketing was. Ulrich asked if he could take a copy of the map and the boy agreed and handed it over to Ulrich. He thanked the boy and looked at the map as he walked away. Ulrich wound his way again through the bustling crowd and back towards the elevators. All the floors were listed along with some other information like the Department Heads, and their extensions to reach them by phone. Ulrich skimmed through the list quickly just to get a general idea of the layout of the building. The map read as follows:
(Lv. 30) Executive Offices-
President- Winston Cardiff
Co-CEO- Sean Cardiff
Co-CEO- Seth Cardiff
Executive Secretary- Amelie Cardiff
(For more information about the governing board please visit our website.)
(Lv. 29) Operations- Russell Melson, PhD.
(Lv. 28) Licensing- Alan Boyd
(Lv. 27) Purchasing- Amy Zon
(Lv. 26) Market Development- Davie Crocker
(Lv. 25) Strategy- M.B.I. Watson
(Lv. 24) Research- Edward Elric
(Lv. 23) Production- Gabe Newell
(Lv. 22) Admissions- Acar Altinsel
(Lv. 21) Film/Scripting- Seth Cardiff
(Lv. 20) Writing- Sean Cardiff
(Lv. 19) Recording- Troy Baker
(Lv. 18) Animation/Sound- Aelita Schaeffer
(Lv. 17) Development- Odd Della Robbia
(Lv. 16) Marketing- Otto Stern
(Lv. 15) HR- Rashaun O'Neal
(Lv. 14) Customer Service- Todd Dempsey
(Lv. 13) -Employee Parking Structure Bridge-
(Lv. 12) Quality Assurance- Samuel Pepys
(Lv. 11) Sales- Joe Girard
(Lv. 10) Financing/ Auditing- Kevin R. Jergensen
(Lv. 9) Accounting- Arthur Anderson
(Lv. 8) Insurance- Stan Stanman
(Lv. 7) Legal- Eugene Pichon
(Lv. 6) Dispatch- Florence Stanley
(Lv. 5) Cafeteria/ Dining Room- Ramsey Gordon
(Lv. 4) Business Meeting Rooms - (Scheduling: Amelie Cardiff)
(Lv. 3) Library- Sean Cardiff
(Lv. 2) Auditioning (Film) - Seth Cardiff
(Lv. 1) Lobby/Information- Jeremy Belpois
(B1) Storage- Barry Weiss
(B2) Maintenance- Felix Fernandez Jr.
(SB1) Mail (Shipping/ Receiving) - William Dunbar
(SB2) IT/Servers- Sam Flynn
(SB3) Executive Parking (Restricted access)
The building was huge! It spanned thirty stories tall, and was at least five stories deep when you added on the basements. The list of the Department Heads was also interesting. At a glance, Ulrich saw his dad's name printed there '(Lv. 16) Marketing- Otto Stern'. There were some other names that Ulrich thought were interesting. And lastly, there were some that seemed to be oddly familiar. Ulrich couldn't recall where he had heard those names, but the Department Heads for Animation, Development, and specifically the name Cardiff stood out to Ulrich, he just couldn't put his finger on why. Also, on closer observation, the supposed 'head of the lobby' was written in by hand using a pen. Ulrich almost didn't notice because the handwriting matched so closely the font of the rest of the map. He wondered who would have done something like that, or even cared. He wondered if it was that boy at the information desk. Belpois…there was another name that sounded weirdly familiar. Ulrich wished that he had the time to go back and talk to Jeremy, but he had a feeling that he might regret it. Ulrich folded up the map and put it in his pocket. He was sure that it was going to come in handy during the day.
Ulrich tapped his toe as he waited for an available elevator, one that would fit not only him but his bulky cart. So far he hadn't been lucky, each elevator that had arrived was quickly filled by business professionals and other people. It almost seemed like he was invisible. Finally, an empty elevator came, and just as he was about to enter it when a woman he didn't see came rushing out of it. The woman was moving super-fast, and was chatting away on her phone that she almost didn't notice Ulrich as he stood there. And she also didn't notice that she was about to run into his cart. Ulrich thought quickly and pulled the cart out of the way. But the woman didn't even stop to say anything. She just kept her break-neck pace, and went on her way. Ulrich, finally fed up with it all, was about to shout something at her, but she was half-way across the lobby when Ulrich turned around.
"Geez, she moves fast…" thought Ulrich.
Ulrich knew that it wasn't just others around him; he too had to be careful, before someone higher up ran headlong into his cart and then decided that he no longer deserved a job. So he made a mental note to be more careful, and also to keep an eye out for that lady in case he ever saw her again. The woman seemed pretty non-descript, but Ulrich did notice the fact that her hair was bright pink, something Ulrich thought was slightly out of place in a professional atmosphere. And at the same time, it struck Ulrich as if he had seen that shade of hair somewhere else before. Ulrich shrugged it off and got into the elevator before it took off without him.
Ulrich pulled out the map of the building and read it again on the way up to the sixteenth floor. If he was going to be any good at this job, he had to know where things were. Ulrich gave the map one last look, and then folded it up and placed it back in his pocket. The doors to the elevator slid open and Ulrich pushed the cart out into the Marketing floor. Then Ulrich realized he had another problem. He didn't actually know any of the people that were listed on the packages and letters.
Thankfully, the people in the marketing department were nice enough to help him, and were able to point him to where he needed to go. Also, Ulrich started to notice that some of the smaller cubicles had name plates, and the larger offices also had the names of their occupants listed on the door. Once Ulrich realized this, he was able to go through the rest of the mail in a snap. Ulrich got to the bottom of the cart and saw the last stack of letters with the name 'Stern'. Ulrich grinned and went to find his dad's office. Ulrich found it and knocked on the door before he entered and his dad looked up from his computer and smiled. Mr. Stern's office was very nondescript. However, two of the walls opened up to see out over all of downtown Paris, making his dad's office the prime corner location to work. And, at first glance, the office seemed really empty; a desk, a couple bookshelves, and a couple chairs and a small table in the corner that Ulrich assumed were for small meetings in the office. But then Ulrich began to look around and saw that nearly every surface had a picture of him or his mother on it. Mr. Stern had pictures dating back all the way to when Ulrich was a kid, and all the way up until now. And everything between, Ulrich's first car, a soccer match of his where his team won, even his graduation. Ulrich tried to lean in and read the writing on the picture but all of it was too small to be read.
"Heya, sport! What a pleasant surprise!" he said, standing up from behind his desk to hug his son.
"Dad! I'm working..." whined Ulrich.
"Oh, that's right, my big professional son, doing his job!" said Mr. Stern proudly, playfully punching Ulrich on the shoulder.
"Dad..." whined Ulrich again.
"Oh, sorry son." said Mr. Stern trying to pull a serious face, "Hey! Whatcha got there for your old man?" said Mr. Stern, noticing the stack of letters Ulrich held in his hand.
"Um- mail for you- Mr. Stern." said Ulrich, holding out his arm. Ulrich was trying desperately to retain some dignity.
"Oh please, Ulrich, you can call me dad!" said Mr. Stern, taking the stack of letters and opening the first one.
A couple of the younger workers in the cubicles just outside the office heard him, and snickered. Mr. Stern shot them a look and the workers got right back to work. Ulrich snickered to himself. He couldn't tell what was more embarrassing, the fact that his dad called him 'sport' in front of the other people in his department, or the fact that his face was plastered all over Mr. Stern's office for all to see, even in some photos that Ulrich wished never had seen the light of day. But he was still glad that his dad was looking out for him. It didn't surprise Ulrich at all that his father ran such a tight ship that those who worked under him fell in line even at a mere glance. What did surprise him though was when he heard his father start to exclaim, then shout.
"Oh, what's this? That blonde haired freak thinks he can do my job again?" said Mr. Stern, looking at the first letter.
"What's wrong dad?" asked Ulrich.
"Nothing son, you get back to work, and I need to have a word with a certain member of the Development department." said Mr. Stern, waving his hand at his son to dismiss his outburst. Mr. Stern picked up his phone and dialed a number. A second later, Mr. Stern was in a shouting match with another person.
"That's dad!" thought Ulrich. He could hear his dad as he walked down the hallway back to the elevator.
"Oh yeah, your name isn't the only thing ODD about you, you freak!" shouted Mr. Stern, "You get back to your job, and let me worry about mine!" Ulrich could hear his dad until the doors to the elevator slid shut, and Ulrich descended into the depths of the building again.
Ulrich took the time in the elevator trip to do a quick recap and see if he had learned anything new that could be of use, or answer one of the many questions he had. But so far he had learned very little and felt like the list of questions he had almost tripled. He knew that he felt like he wanted to punch his boss, but decided it would be a bad idea to do so. He was slowly learning how to do his job well enough that he was no longer afraid that someone would think he was crazy anymore. And he knew the next time that he could, that he wanted to try talking to Jeremy when he had a free moment. Ulrich wondered how he, himself, could manage to keep a job at a place such as this. He knew that most of it was due to his dad, but then, how was his dad even able to work here?
The offices of Cardiff Entertainment Media seemed as massive as to leave it in the category of 'places you only dream of working in your lifetime'. Which meant that getting hired, let alone landing an interview had to be a difficult process. Ulrich knew that his dad probably had what it took to make it in such a fast-paced and competitive environment. Both Ulrichs could remember their dad doing well in business, so after some thought, it was no stretch to imagine that once CEM started to rise that Mr. Stern would be able to get on board all of that. And Ulrich was also sure that if his dad didn't start out as the head of his own department, that it probably wouldn't have taken long for him to rise up the ranks. The elevator finally landed on the floor he wanted and the doors slid open. Ulrich walked back to the mail room, and Herb was already there, looking a little nervous.
"Where have you been? We have five carts ready to go, and people need their mail!" shouted Herb over the noise.
"Sorry- elevators were a little full this morning!" shouted Ulrich back. Herb rolled his eyes and pushed another cart into Ulrich's hands.
"Development!" shouted Herb.
Ulrich nodded, and walked back to the elevator. Once he was able to get into one of the elevators and the doors shut so no one could see, he pulled out his map. Ulrich saw that development was on the seventeenth floor. He also noticed that the head of that department was one of those names he thought he recognized. He made a mental note to be sure to talk to this 'Odd Della Robbia' if he had the chance. But then Ulrich started to think about what his dad had said about someone 'Odd' in the Development department and wondered if that comment was literal or figurative. Then Ulrich hesitated, if his dad had some negative things to say, would he want to talk to this guy? He figured there was only one way to find out. So, Ulrich pressed the number '17' on the elevator panel, and he started the long journey from the basement up.
Ulrich stepped out of the elevator, and right into a scene from a kid's imagination. All sorts of characters, big and small, decorated the walls, cubicles, and floor of the office. Cardboard cut-outs, plush toys, and all kinds of versions of characters that Older Ulrich could remember that he had seen before on television either growing up or in the last few months. And then there were some that he had never seen before, and he could only assume were in production to becoming characters in the near future. The whole department seemed to be full of energy and life. Even the walls were decorated in warm, bright colors that just seemed to give the whole room a different atmosphere to the rest of the company. Some people were laughing, and others were standing around in a large group around someone's computer, looking at a funny video. Ulrich couldn't stop himself from smiling. It almost felt natural and infectious and perhaps even a little criminal not to smile on this floor. Ulrich didn't know much about this company, or even all its departments, but he knew if there was one place where he wanted to work, this was it.
Ulrich laughed a little and got right down to work, but couldn't stop himself from letting his gaze wander while he navigated the floor, staring at the characters, and wondering what they were all about. This floor wasn't hard because most of the employees were gathered around in a central area, so all Ulrich had to do was call out names on the mail and the employees would call out or raise their hands in response. Ulrich saw a stack of letters for the Department Head, a Mr. Della Robbia. When Ulrich asked where he was, the employees said he was in a meeting and wouldn't be back until later, so Ulrich walked over to the office labeled 'Della Robbia'. He was a little disappointed that this "Odd" guy wasn't in. He was really looking forward to being able to speak to him. Ulrich knocked on the door just in case, and there was no answer. One of the employees suggested he just go in and leave the mail on Mr. Della Robbia's desk. Ulrich took the advice and tried the door handle, and the door swung open. The office was jam-packed full of models and wire-frames of several characters that Ulrich didn't recognize. He made the assumption that these were characters that no one had ever seen before. And if Ulrich wasn't sure, but it looked like Odd had never seen these characters either, the office was more a disaster area than an actual work space.
Ulrich worked his way past all the mess and put the stack of letters on the desk on one of the only free spaces he could find. The phone started to ring as Ulrich walked away, and Ulrich couldn't resist looking to see who it was. The phone's display read 'MARKETING- STERN' which made Ulrich assume that it was his father calling. He then flashed back to what his dad had said about calling a member of the development department. Ulrich wondered if the person his father was calling was this 'Della Robbia' person. He wanted to answer the phone, but he thought that he could get in a lot of trouble if he did. When Ulrich was done, he exited the office, shut the door and returned to the mail room to continue his duties. Herb seemed to have calmed down a little, and pushed another cart into Ulrich's hands.
"Legal, then when you come back we have a cart that's ready to go to Admissions!"
The rest of the day seemed to fly by. Ulrich felt like he visited almost all of the floors by lunch time, and so far, he decided that legal was not only the most boring level but also the most boring group of people he had ever met. Sales was kind of interesting, and the Recording floor was fun, but really quiet since the entire floor was made up entirely of recording booths and studios. So Ulrich had to be quiet the entire time to avoid interrupting any recording going on at the time. But, nothing could beat his trip to the Development floor. Ulrich still couldn't stop smiling whenever he thought of it. When he got back to the mail room, Nicholas was still there, sorting mail, and taking bites out of a burrito during larger gaps in the mail. He told Ulrich that the system had slowed for a moment, and that he and Herb could go to lunch and that he would take over from here.
"Lunch?" asked Ulrich, "I thought that the mail room needed three people to run properly?"
"Well, it does at the beginning of the day," said Nic, "But around this time when everyone else is going to lunch, there isn't that much mail that comes through."
"But then don't you get a break?" asked Ulrich.
"I know you're all concerned to make sure I get a break, Ulrich," said Nic.
"But as I've told you before, I don't mind working through my lunch break, besides, all the good songs on the radio are during this hour, if I left the mail room, I'd miss them all!" said Nic, tapping the radio that was nearby.
"Okay, but only if you say so…" said Ulrich. He was a little thrown that Nic was referencing a conversation he couldn't remember. But he was certainly glad it was his break time and that he didn't have to listen to a full hour of Nicholas' singing.
Mr. Dunbar walked out of his office and yelled at Nicholas to not slack off while they were gone, and then the three of them went to lunch. The elevator was quiet as Herb and Ulrich didn't know what to say. William stood there, tapping his foot impatiently. They took the elevator up to the fifth floor, past the business meeting rooms, and the doors slid open. Ulrich's jaw dropped, he had never seen a cafeteria this big before! He stepped out and looked around. William and Herb acted like it was nothing new, and went to get lunch from the many different places around the cafeteria. Ulrich looked around, there was a station for all sorts of food imaginable. Barbeque, a deli, international foods, all sorts of other foods imaginable! There was even an entire station for just pizza. Ulrich grabbed a tray and went where his nose led him. He finally found a station that served delicious looking burgers.
"What can I get you son?" asked the person taking orders.
"Um- I'll have-" Ulrich looked up at the board and saw all the options he could have on the burger. Ulrich decided to keep it simple.
"I'll have just a burger, done, with lettuce, tomato, pickle, and a medium fry." said Ulrich. He didn't know what half the things he said, but it sounded good, and he was hungry.
The person behind the counter nodded, and he called out to the person running the grill. The cook nodded and got started right away. Ulrich stood there leaning against the counter for a minute and looked around the cafeteria, and out into the dining area. The dining area looked impressive. There were all sorts of elevated booths and single tables for people to sit at, and the whole area opened up to a large, curved glass window that let in the sunlight, and looked down to the street below. Past the window was a patio area for people to be able to enjoy some fresh air while eating. Ulrich's food was done and he thanked the person and went to grab a bottle of juice from the cooler near the wall. He went up to the cashier who rang him up, and Ulrich paid for his food, using his own money. Ulrich liked this new him, he had money!
Ulrich walked out into the expansive dining area, and looked around. He saw Herb sitting with Mr. Dunbar. Mr. Dunbar was sulking as usual, and Herb was trying to avoid his gaze. Ulrich looked around and saw that most of the tables were already taken, so Ulrich found a small table tucked away in a corner and ate his food by himself. Ulrich didn't want to sit with his boss, or Herb, but he didn't know anyone else yet. Ulrich mindlessly munched on his food while he took another mental inventory. Ulrich felt a buzzing in his pocket and felt around until he found its source.
It was a cell phone that Ulrich could only assume was his. He wasn't sure earlier that morning when he grabbed it and put it in his pocket. But it was sat next to his wallet and other things that looked like he carried regularly. But the phone didn't look anything like a phone, at least to Younger Ulrich. He was used to a little flip phone, but this thing had a large touchscreen and no buttons except for a few small ones on the outside. Ulrich had no idea how to operate something like this. The screen was lit up saying that he had missed a call, but had no idea how to check that. At the bottom of the screen were the instructions to 'slide to unlock'. Ulrich dropped the phone on the table and slid it across the top. But that didn't work. Some people started to notice him after he loudly dropped his phone on the table. Ulrich looked around and saw someone who had just walked into the cafeteria as they slid their finger across the screen of their phone and Ulrich got it. So Ulrich slid his finger across the screen. The screen faded into a set of numbers and another instruction to 'enter passcode'. Ulrich had no idea what that meant, nor did he think he'd be able to guess his own passcode.
"There's got to be, what…? Like, nine thousand different combinations?" he thought to himself.
Ulrich tipped the phone in the light to see if there were any tell-tale fingerprints that could clue him in on what the code was. But there was nothing. And on top of it all, he didn't know if the passcode was something personal, like a special number. But then Ulrich noticed something, the passcode could spell something, since each button had a set of letters on it as well. And if it were up to him, or if he were to act according to how he remembered himself, Ulrich was sure that he would want something special behind his passcode. But that still boiled down the code to a special group of numbers. The passcode was at least four numbers, which meant that even if it did spell a word, it would only spell a four letter word. Ulrich couldn't remember a lot of four-letter words that seemed important to him.
"9864," whispered the voice in his head.
"Oh! So now you give me some help?" thought Ulrich to himself, but the voice didn't respond.
Ulrich entered the code into the phone and the device clicked as it allowed him access. 9864? What was so special about those numbers? Each number had a set of letters associated with it, which meant that he couldn't just guess it outright. And what made it harder was the fact that the '9' button had four letters on it, which meant added another letter to the mix, increasing the amount of words it could be. Ulrich wanted to take the time to figure out why that number was so important, but the phone buzzed again to remind him that he had a missed call. Ulrich tapped on the little icon that looked like a phone and then tapped again on the icon for missed calls and voice mail.
Once there the phone had several phone calls on the registry of both calls that he had made, and calls that he had received. Which also included that recent missed call. But while most of the previous incoming and outgoing calls had names associated with them as 'Mom' or 'Herb'. However, the call that Ulrich had missed didn't have a name associated with it. It just said 'Unknown'. Ulrich even checked to see if the person calling had left a message, but there was nothing. Ulrich tried tapping on the line with the unknown caller, but without any details, the phone wasn't able to even launch the call. Ulrich wished that he knew who it was that called. He had a feeling that the call could have been from someone he knew, or at least that Younger Ulrich knew and could have offered some answers. But without a message, there was no way to know for sure.
"Well what's the point in calling if you're not even going to leave a message?!" thought Ulrich to himself.
Ulrich continued to munch on his food while digging through his phone. Nothing really seemed to help him. There were only a handful of contacts in the phone to begin with, and most of them were either work or home related. There was a group called 'Soccer League' but when Ulrich opened the group, there were no contacts in it. Ulrich didn't know what to make of that. Ulrich continued to dig through the phone, but it wasn't really able to glean much from it. Most of the texts were between him and his parents and co-workers and were only about the day to day things. And Ulrich didn't even want to begin to try and decipher how this new "social media" thing worked. Younger Ulrich had never heard of it, and Older Ulrich couldn't remember anything about it either. And all the rest of programs were things that made the phone probably more powerful than the thought of that supercalculator that Ulrich had floating around in the back of his head.
Nothing made sense, but the voice encouraged him to keep it up. Ulrich saw William and Herb get up from their table, so he got up as well, figuring that his lunch break was over. He followed the nerd and his short manager, towards the exit, on the way they put their trays on a moving conveyor belt that led to a back room. Ulrich figured that was where all the dishes were done since he could heat the clinking of plates and cutlery. Suddenly, Ulrich was glad to have a job in the mail room, at least he wasn't washing dishes all day. Ulrich followed suit and placed his tray on the belt, then returned to the elevators so that he and his co-workers could return to the mail room together. When the elevator returned to the mail room, there was Nicholas standing with a cart, waiting to get into the elevator. William gave Nicholas a look and then returned to his office. He slammed the door behind him and the three subordinates flinched at the sound. Herb looked at Nicholas he seemed to be trying very nonchalantly to get into the elevator unnoticed.
"What are you doing Nic?" questioned Herb.
"Oh? Um- me? I- I'm not doing anything…" stuttered Nicholas.
"Where are you going with that cart, Nic?"
"Um- to, um- Legal…"
"Hey, didn't I already take a cart to Legal?" asked Ulrich, remembering his trip to the very dull department.
"Um, so you did!" said Nicholas.
"So where is this cart going? Legal shouldn't have enough mail for the rest of the day to merit having to go back up there!" said Herb, looking a little more hostile, Herb started looking at the mail in the cart and Nicholas tried to stop him.
"This is going to the Executive Offices!" said Herb when he had read the names on a few of the letters.
"How do you know?" asked Ulrich
"Because most of these letters are for the Cardiff's!" said Herb, holding up one of the letters for Ulrich to look at.
The letter was in a pink envelope, and as Herb waved it around, Ulrich caught a whiff of something that smelled of…perfume? What kind of letter was that? And why was it going to the Cardiff's? Herb shoved the letter back into the cart and was now arguing with Nicholas.
"You know you can't do that! Remember, what Mr. Dunbar said he would do if he caught you going up there again. Your record can't handle another pointless sexual harassment charge on it, or you'll get fired!" said Herb.
Nicholas sighed and admitted defeat and went back to sorting mail. Herb took the cart and then wheeled it back to the main room. Herb turned to Nicholas.
"Most girls don't react well when you ask them if they want to go for a breathtaking experience under the moonlight Nic, so stop using that line!" said Herb, loading up the last of the mail that needed to go to the Executive Offices into the mail cart.
Once he was done, Herb announced he was trading Ulrich positions for the moment and would be the one taking the mail carts and would be back later to switch out with Nicholas. Ulrich nodded, and Nicholas rolled his eyes, and then Herb disappeared around the corner towards the elevators.
"Why do you want to go to the Executive Offices so bad?" asked Ulrich. Nicholas laughed, and to Ulrich it sounded a little creepy.
"You ought to know Ulrich," said Nicholas, but when Ulrich looked confused, Nicholas sighed and said, "All the cute girls work in the Executive Offices…" Ulrich felt like Nicholas was just looking for excuses, but at the same time he felt like there was some truth to the matter. Is that where all his 'dating problems' came from? If so, he didn't know if he wanted to go to the top floor offices right away.
Nicholas turned around and got busy taking mail out of the vacuum tubes and slots and sorting them into piles. Once the piles got big enough, he told Ulrich to take them, sort them into piles of the recipients and then once he had all the mail for that person, he would bind them together with rubber bands. And then once all the mail for the people on that floor was collected, he was told put all the stack into a metal framed cart. And once a cart was full, Ulrich wheeled it out in the direction of the elevators so that whenever Herb returned, he could just take the cart and wheel it away.
As the day wore on, Herb came back from another one of his mail trips and said he would switch Nicholas, but made sure to definitely warn him once again what would happen if he were to stray up to the Executive Offices. Nicholas nodded, but Ulrich wouldn't be surprised if they heard something about him not listening to that warning later on in the day. Ulrich was glad for the relief since Nicholas had taken it upon him to sing each and every song that came on the radio in an off-key, and really loudly. Ulrich wanted to say something, but he didn't know if he had it in him to stop Nic. He seemed so happy to be singing, even if he couldn't tell if he was singing so poorly. Ulrich just decided to grin and bear it, but after two and a half hours, Ulrich was getting at the end of his rope. Herb popped back once again and saw the look on Ulrich's face.
"Hey Nic, who sings this one,?" asked Herb.
"Oh, the Subdigitals 2.0!" said Nicholas, "It's their new album!"
"Hey you know what?" asked Herb. Ulrich wasn't sure where he was going with this line of thought, "Let's keep it that way…"
Nicholas' face dropped, "Sorry, guys, I was doing it again…"
"No…" said Ulrich in a strained voice, "It was good…really…" trying his best to console.
"Oh come on Ulrich," said Nic, "There's no need to patronize me, I understand that my singing is just too good for mortal ears to hear," Ulrich didn't know whether to laugh or be concerned for Nicholas because he looked like he said that in all seriousness.
As the day came to a close, the amount of mail that came through the tubes started to peter off, almost to the point that they only got a couple letters every few minutes instead of the constant stream that started at the beginning of the day. Every so often, there would be a ringing sound through the mail room, and William would emerge from his office, walk to a door down a hall at the back of the mail room, open it and let in the person at the door. Usually it was just someone delivering packages or large sacks full of mail, so William would sign for the packages and mail, and then he would show the mail person out, take the mail and dump it on a table in the middle of the mail sorting room. William would then shout at whoever looked like they were slacking off the most to sort the mail and then put it into the carts where it needed to go, so Ulrich quickly realized that he needed to look busy whenever he heard that bell for the door ring.
William would then return to his office with a slam of his door. Ulrich seemed a little concerned that every time William entered and exited his office, he almost always managed to loudly slam his office door. It seemed like William had some issues, but Ulrich didn't want to be the one to point them out.
Right around five-thirty in the evening, William emerged from his office, a briefcase and coat in hand. He quietly shut his office door, pulled on the large, tan colored trench coat, and a pair of black leather gloves. Ulrich was surprised that William could quietly shut a door, but without saying another word, William waved to his subordinates, (which also surprised Ulrich), made for the elevator, and then disappeared around the corner. Nicholas and Herb seemed to know what that meant, as they started packing up for the day. Nicholas walked over the large switch on the wall, and flipped it to the 'off' position, and then the mail room seemed to be deathly quiet. Ulrich joked that he could hear himself think now, and he got a couple laughs from Nicholas and Herb. Herb finished sorting the last of the mail to be delivered tomorrow. Ulrich's co-workers gathered their things and Ulrich just stood there rocking back and forth on his heels since he didn't really know what to do. Then the two nerds walked towards the elevator.
Ulrich realized what this meant, it was now time to go home! Ulrich followed Nicholas and Herb and got into one of the elevators. Apparently the people in the mail room weren't the only ones going home for the day. As the elevator ascended towards the parking structure bridge, more and more people got into the elevator Ulrich was in. They were pulling on overcoats and clutching briefcases and belongings and jingling their car keys nervously as they waited for the elevator to reach the thirteenth floor, the level of the bridge. Ulrich was really wishing he had brought a coat. During the day he found out that it was the middle of November and temperatures were really starting to dip. Once the elevator opened, the people spilled out and went their different ways towards their respective vehicles. Ulrich stumbled out into the crisp air. His breath was readily visible in the air every time he exhaled, and Ulrich started to shiver. It took Ulrich a moment to find his car, but when he did, he inserted the key, turned it and the door popped out again. Ulrich got in, worked with the car to get it started. Ulrich cranked on the heater to get it running and was grateful that it still worked. Then he pulled out of the large parking structure.
It was then that Ulrich made one of his final realizations for the night, while it may have been easy to get to work, he had no memory of how he got to work, and that meant he had no idea how to get home. Ulrich sat panicking for a moment, but he knew that he couldn't sit there forever, especially since there were people behind him honking for him to get out of the way. Fortunately for Ulrich, as he sat there, he saw a large garage door open near the employee parking structure, and out pulled a long, red sports car, and behind the wheel, was his dad! Ulrich quickly pulled around and started following his dad all the way home. Ulrich made special note to make sure he remembered what roads his dad took so that he could get to work and back again.
Ulrich still hadn't figured out what happened to him, and why it seemed like ten years had passed. It might have just been because he was busy playing the role of Older Ulrich, and keeping up appearances, he didn't want people to think he went crazy, even though he felt like it at some points during the day. And it didn't help that there were many gaps in Ulrich's memory, so it felt like he was trying to put together a puzzle without all the pieces present. But Ulrich had a good feeling that if he stayed persistent he would be able to find answers. The other overwhelming feeling was that Ulrich would be able to find his answers by continuing to go to work. He couldn't explain it, but Ulrich knew that if he woke up tomorrow and he was still twenty-three, he was going to try and get to the bottom of this mystery. And so that meant that Ulrich the mail room employee was here to stay…for now.
There you go! I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Also, five bucks to the first person who can tell me where I got all the names for the building execs and the correct four-letter word for Ulrich's passcode. Ulrich's phone code will be revealed later on, but I want to see how many of you can correctly guess the names on the map Ulrich read earlier in the chapter! Most of them should be easy since they are names of the characters. But you may have to do some research to find the other ones. So have fun! I am going to keep working on this story for a while until I either finish it, or take a break to go back to work on one of my other stories. Until then, good day, and good reading to you all.