Happy Friday the 13h everyone. I know this day is renowned for bad luck but I always find that I have really good days on Friday the 13th. Maybe because all the bad luck has gone elsewhere. Or maybe because I’ve been told to expect bad and it doesn’t arrive I feel it is good. For whatever reason, I am anticipating a good day. So let’s kick off the good day with a writing prompt. Set your timers for fifteen minutes, please and off we go.
Oh. I like this. Either Jala is planning something unexpected or she is going to find something unexpected in those files. I need to think of the details of the story but an half forgotten archival storage allows for all sorts of secrets to be unearthed. This could be really fun.
Friday, November 13th: Let me know when you have finished.
“Let me know when you have finished,” he said. Jala nodded but she was already looking at the boxes in front of her. There were a lot of them, far more than she imagined. She set her notepad and pencil on the table in front of her and after heaving a sigh she walked to the first row.
Thankfully the boxes were all labelled with dates if nothing else. Deciding it would be best to start at the beginning and work her way back to the present Jala walked towards the back of the space. She found the stack of boxes she wanted. Unsurprisingly the oldest was on the bottom of the stack.
They were stacked five boxes deep and she reached for the first box. She lifted it off the top of the stack and set it down on the floor. She then pulled down the second box and put it on top of the first. She continued until four of the boxes were stacked and the first box was exposed. She lifted it off the floor and took it back to the table.
There Jala began to go through the files, looking back through the records to see where it all began. Unsurprisingly it began with a land dispute. Jala looked at the records and made notations in her notebook. Occasionally she took out her phone and took pictures of certain documents for reference. She made certain to get the filing number and put the box number and location in her notes. She knew she would need to quote sections of the documents when she put her final report together and if she could do that without returning to this half-forgotten wing of the archives she would be thrilled.
The section was strange. Many of the older sections were. The documents housed there were kept because they might be needed but so rarely were that they were shifted off into side spaces that few people ever visited. The main archives had more people moving through it on a routine basis.
‘It also has a better ventilation system,’ Jala thought. She slipped off her cardigan. In the other spaces they were chilled and she needed the extra layer. Her it was too much. She hung it on the back of the chair. In one of the side pockets, she kept her pencil sharpener.
It had a container for any pencil shavings so she didn’t fear spilling pencil bits everywhere. She took the sharpener out and set it on the desk, reaching for it whenever her point grew dull.
Time passed. Jala wasn’t certain how much. She finished the box, put it back in it’s place and walked the second box back to the desk. There were more notes, more photographs and then the box was closed and walked back into place. She finished with the first column of boxes and began the same procedure with the next stack. She reversed the order and went through them, making sure they were back in their original location and order when she was done.
‘All the same except for the disturbance in the dust,’ she told herself as she worked.
‘Except there is no dust.’ The general ventilation might not have made it cool in the space but the space was free of dust. She knew there was machinery in place to keep the space clean. ‘And I guess since few people come down here there is no extra accumulation.’
Jala finally reached a stopping point for the day. Her hand was cramped and her eyes crossing. She finished the stack she was working on and put the last box in place. She checked the time. The archives would be closing soon. She gathered her stuff and put it away knowing she would be back in the morning.
It took two weeks to get through all the file boxes.
