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October 7, 2013
Sonia discovered she was a quick learner and she enjoyed being part of the campaign team. She spent her days at Rachel’s side, listening to her phone calls, and sitting in on meetings she had with a wide variety of people Sonia never thought would be involved with running a fashion house. Rachel made sure Sonia understood the computer programs she used and practiced with them to make internal memos and videos.
Sonia was so grateful to Lin for all the hours she had forced Sonia to use apps and programs to help her compensate for her visual impairment. That knowledge helped her pick up on everything Rachel threw at her, and even allowed Sonia to suggest a few programs that could be exchanged for ones she already used. Rachel often brought her team together to brainstorm how to work on a project, to share what programs they had discovered, or features they thought the team should know about. Sonia was able to demonstrate her own computer prowess, something she never thought she would have, and squash anyone’s grumbles that Sonia didn’t belong here or couldn’t do the work. Sonia’s background in fashion design also helped her with production of visual promos.
One day, Rachel sent most of the team out to scout locations for another fashion event Lawrence was planning. It didn’t make sense to send Sonia out for that sort of work, but Rachel did need some of her old computer files cleaned up and re-organized. Rachel brought Sonia into her office and had her sit at her own desk to explain what she needed.
“I have all the old ad campaigns and plans for events saved in these various files, but I need these weeded through. I want artists, musicians, and vendors to be stored into a new folder, with some of their work attached, so we can quickly see what their vibe is and if their work would fit what we are trying to accomplish. Also, archive all the old locations and support companies we used for the event. If you know of some way to group them that would make them interactive, that would be fabulous.
Sonia entered Rachel’s office like it was sacred space. She sat at the desk, listening to the hum of distant office activity. Sonia carried a mug of coffee with her, scenting the room with its rich, warm fragrance. Pride bloomed in her chest to be trusted to do this task on her own.
Rachel and the rest of the PR team would be gone that whole day, and probably the next as well. Sonia was given all of Rachel’s passwords to access the files and make the changes Rachel wanted. Sonia first set out using Speechify to hear the name of each file read, as well as the content of each file.
She spent hours looking through file folders and dictating notes into her phone about ideas she had for re-organizing the files. Sonia set up a new database of vendors and locations, as well as a slide show of images to look through.
Sonia was thrilled to be set to the task completely on her own. It meant that Rachel trusted her implicitly, since here she sat in her office, with her passwords. Sonia felt a glow of pride radiate from her while she worked at Rachel’s computer station. Sonia occasionally had to stop and look around in disbelief that she was here doing this important work, all by herself.
Sonia decided to use her lunch break away from the office to give herself time to think about her plans. As Sonia started her lunch, she thought back to Jeremy’s reaction to Sonia’s assignment.
Jeremy was impressed at how quickly Sonia was given a big role to play within the department. Jeremy had been working at Lawrence Fashions for fifteen months and still felt like he was overlooked for what he could offer. “Of course, you are seen as the golden child. You were picked from Lawrence’s favorite fashion event, and you are blind. You really wowed the HR team that was observing the event. And, of course, Lawrence had you checked out at college.”
Sonia’s face went still and her mouth fell open. “He did?”
Jeremy nodded and chewed before he responded. “Oh, yes. Lawrence is known for really checking into people’s backgrounds before giving them a chance. It’s why coming to work here is so difficult, because he really checks into their previous performance.”
“Huh,” was the only thing Sonia could think to say. Maybe Dani’s comment about spies at Lawrence Fashions wasn’t too far off.
Since Jeremy was part of the site scouting crew, Sonia wasn’t able to eat with him. She was torn as to whether she liked being able to sit here and think in quiet, or if she missed having Jeremy to talk to and bounce ideas off him.
When Sonia got back to work at Rachel’s desk, she started looking through folders marked “Collections” and found herself seeing Lawrence’s actual designs. As she kept going further, fascinated by what she found, she discovered that Rachel and Lawrence both shared access to some files. Since she was alone, and felt confident she was nearly done with everything she wanted to accomplish today, she started opening up some of the collection folders.
She smiled at the folder labeled “A Day at the Art Museum” and she opened it, guessing it would be the show she volunteered at. She clicked through image after image, marveling at the clothing. Sonia leaned close to look at the pictures taken to tell the story of the Fashion Show at the Art Museum. The lead couple wearing Lawrence’s signature outfits paused before giant art pieces while dancers swirled around them. It was the picture of performers wearing red hats that really made her laugh.
She kept looking at folder names, when she came across “Future Ideas” and she couldn’t resist clicking on it. In it she found several more folders, but the one that caught her eye first was labeled “Jonelle”. How funny, there was a woman at college two years ahead of her by that name. Sonia had gone to one of her shows when she was a freshman and was impressed with her designs.
Sonia opened the folder and randomly opened some images. She was startled to see not just one image, but two images of the outfit, side by side. As she opened image after image, it was the same, two images for each fashion design, instead of the one image in the other files. And were the images different?
A queasy feeling began roiling Sonia’s stomach as she had to acknowledge these images all looked a lot like what she remembered of Jonelle’s style. Yes, the sleeves Jonelle favored, and the silhouette seemed just like what she recalled. Sonia leaned closer to the screen, magnified the images, and noticed differences in the finishing details of the two outfits. The second image was missing the Art Deco buttons that Jonelle used as decorative pieces around the neckline. And the colors were not like the palette Jonelle leaned toward. The right-hand image showed the dress in strong jewel tones, not the pastels that Jonelle preferred.
Sonia got out of the folder, thinking perhaps she was imagining these similarities and jumping to conclusions. Even though part of her mind denied what she was seeing, her palms grew slick with sweat. She was about to get out of the folder altogether when she saw another name that caught her eye, “Rickman”. He was another recent grad that Professor Eller cited as an example of an up-and-coming designer. They also said they were disappointed that he wasn’t producing work at the speed they had come to expect of him.
Sonia opened this file and found images like the ones in “Jonelle”. Each contained not one but two designs. These designs also reminded her of designs she had seen from Frank Rickman’s CV that he’d made available to students in the Fashion Design program. As Sonia clicked through the shared folders, a knot formed in her stomach. A whirlwind of emotions swept over her — doubt, suspicion, and even fear. She felt like an intruder stumbling upon a secret she was never meant to know.
Now Sonia was breathing heavily and sweating profusely. She even felt a little dizzy. She shook her head, trying to dislodge all the questions that were forming in her head about Lawrence. What are all these designs from other people doing on his computer? Why do these images show two views where all his other designs showed only one? Sonia swallowed hard and decided she shouldn’t jump to any conclusions, so she backed out of the shared files.
Sonia sat at the desk, feeling the room spin around her. What should she do? She was torn between silence and exposure. Should she expose her boss when she wasn’t completely certain? If she kept quiet, wouldn’t that make her complicit?
Here it is, what the women in the restroom were talking about. I guess I got hired to cover something up. Now what do I do?