Chapter 1 - Minor Delays
Chapter 2 - Telephone Tag
Chapter 3 - Alex's Plan
Chapter 4 - Unexpected Surprises
Chapter 5 - Presenting the Proposal
Chapter 6 - Setting the Plan in Motion
Chapter 7 - On Your Marks, Get Set...
Chapter 8 - Prepare For Takeoff
Chapter 9 - On the Right Track?
Chapter 10 - Clue #2 is Found!
Chapter 11 - Railroad Warriors are right on track
Chapter 12 - A Few Bumps Along the Way
Chapter 13 - The Bittersweet End

Chapter 1 

Minor Delays
The day started out like every other workday, with traffic jams on all major roads used to get to work. Alex sat in his car listening to the trying-to-be-clever DJ’s on the local radio station.

People would always mock Alex for his choice in stations; however, he always knew what the traffic was like, how the weather was going to be and all the latest news!

Traffic slowly inched forward. There really wasn’t anything that bugged Alex as much as the sight of a sea of brake lights, to say he had no patience when it came to traffic jams would be a severe understatement.

Time ticked by and finally cars began to move. Only twenty minutes to get to work, Alex put the pedal to the metal and coasted freely in the left lane.

With five minutes to spare, Alex pulled into the parking garage. After a brisk walk to his office building, he patiently waited for an available elevator. It always made him laugh, he could make it to the office on-time after battling traffic, bad weather, sun glare and most other morning interruptions however, would end up late to his desk, a phenomenon he liked to refer to as The Curse of the Elevator!

With an abrupt DING, the elevator doors opened and he stepped into the vacant lift. On the way up he began tapping his foot to the lame music playing. Another thing that made Alex chuckle, everyone would make fun of and criticize elevator music, yet everyone knows the beat and most words to the songs played!

9:02am and at last Alex reached his desk. He turned his computer on and got ready to begin his day.

Alex worked for the well-known Stay The Night hotel chain. After starting his career with Stay The Night as a front-desk clerk at a local hotel, Alex had climbed the ladder to attain the title of Head Editor. He was responsible for creating the catchy slogans and memorable ads seen and heard on TV and the radio. He would also take care of writing descriptions for their hotels along with writing and sending all of their promotional publications.

While Alex loved his job he learned, soon after accepting the position, that he would have very little free time. The fact that he was connecting with new people daily through his work helped make his efforts worthwhile and he wouldn’t trade it for anything.

As his computer logged on, he went to the break room to get a cup of coffee. He met Josh in the room and exchanged Good Mornings with him. Joshua Polner was a manager in the reservation center. He and Alex worked together for a few years before hitting the corporate crossroads. Each chose a new and unique path to further their careers with. The two remained close and would count on the other when in need of help.

Josh and Alex briefly caught up with the latest news and swapped weekend stories. While Alex lived alone and had the usual single life tales to tell, Josh, on the other hand, had a wife and two kids, very active kids! Alex would listen to stories of birthday parties and outings in the park. As he listened to each story, each memory recalled by Josh, he would think to himself “gee, I’m really missing out”, but those thoughts would typically be disrupted by a deadline calling to him.

The two men concluded their conversation and went to their respective areas of the office.

Opening Outlook up, Alex began reading his email. There were 47 messages requiring his attention once the 132 junk messages were filtered out.

As Alex scrolled through his messages he got to an email from Ruby. Ruby was another colleague of Alex’s; they briefly worked together but became good friends. They would occasionally schedule lunch together and catch-up. Opening the message, Alex grew quite concerned. It read:

Hey there,

Just saw you and Josh talking in the break room, were you discussing Millie? I assume you’ve heard about what’s happened to her? Well anyway, can you believe that? It makes four people in the company now, its terrible news. Makes you wonder, “Who’s next?” Got some reports to run, talk to you at lunch maybe.

Ruby

“What has happened to Millie?” Alex thought. Judging by the wording of the email it seemed either Millie was the newest victim of health troubles, or, she had been affected by the recent layoffs. Alex would need to get the scoop on what was going on.

Millie was one of those people that every office had. That person who went through life bearing a smile on her face no matter what. She had a way of making everyone around her feel good even if she, herself, was broken up inside or upset.

Though Millie didn’t work in the same office building as Alex, she was ever-present in the minds of all she worked with.

Alex worked on several big projects with Millie in the past. Their personalities matched up so well--mainly due to the fact that they both dreamed big and would not settle for anything less than perfect.

With his hand on the phone getting ready to call Millie, Alex’s boss approached him.

“Morning Alex, I know our conference call was scheduled for 11am, but I have another meeting to attend so we need to change it to right now.”

It never failed. Whenever Alex had some personal mission to complete, there was always some meeting or emergency requiring his attention, to interrupt him.

“Okay, no problem. I’ll grab my pad and pencil and will meet you in your office.”

 by Amiee Koos