NaNoWriMoMo!
I'm attemptign NaNoWriMo for the first time! I think this is the first time since I've heard of NaNoWriMo that I haven't been traveling, at sea, doing LJ Idol, or all of the above during the month of November. So far its not too promising, I'm already way behind and I haven't even been working since the month began (but will be as of Monday!).
Anyway, here's my first 1000 words or so. I am fully aware the tense changes halfway through and a lot of it may be crap in one way or another, but, you know, this is NaNoWriMo!.
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UNTITLED
“There have been several officer-involved shooting incidents in the Los Angeles City area in the early hours of this morning, though Police Chief Charlie Beck has issued a statement assuring us that the situations were unrelated and should not be cause for alarm” [click]
“…and reportedly a fourth incident in [insert neighbourhood here” [click]
“…clearly the police are out of control Tom, I think there’s more to the story of this morning’s shootings, and I’m demanding answers…” [click] why is it always talk radio in the mornings?? David wonders. It’s something he had often wondered. The drive to work would be much more peaceful with some good music, rather than jarring banter about the news or latest entertainment gossip.
He turns off the radio and suffers through the morning rush-hour traffic in silence. It’s going to be another one of those days, he thinks to himself as he finally pulls into the parking structure at work. He walks briskly into the building, emerges from the elevator and enters the offices of the law firm at five to nine. Alyssa, the office manager, pointedly looks at her watch as he walks past. Another day in paradise, he says to himself.
“…several more shootings reported this morning. This is a bit unusual, even for Los Angeles, here’s what people are saying on twitter…” -- the news was on at the coffee stand downstairs when David was down there for another coffee at ten.
“…well John, I do think there’s something going on here, I’m thinking it might be al-qaeda, or maybe the drug cartels are going to war in LA…”
Around 11:00 David has sorted and delivered the mail, made all requested copies (and collated and sorted, and thought I spent four years in college to do THIS a dozen times), refiled all case files and loose documents that the lawyers are done looking at. He’s swept the floor and collected all the random paperclips. He’s even lined up the pens so they’re all lined up in a row on the table. He sits down to try to think of something else to do, and at that moment Alyssa walks in. She’d be attractive if she weren’t such a bitch - She’s only a few years older than David. Blonde hair in a ponytail, cute black collared shirt and knee-length pin-stripe skirt. With only a brief disapproving glance at David she steams out again.
Though she’s no longer in the room David jumps up and paces around looking for something to busy himself with. Minutes later he receives a call from the temp staffing agency whom he technically works for,
“Is everything alright, David?”
“Uh, yeah, why?
”Well, we just received a call from the office manager over there, she said you didn’t seem to be working very hard…”
Increasingly the office is atwitter with discussion of the strange events just north in LA. Well, the support staff is atwitter anyway - the lawyers are all too drowned in the pursuit of “billable hours” to notice. While delivering and collecting things from secretaries’ desks, David notes that many of them frequently have the news up on their computer monitors. It’s peculiar news, but it doesn’t make the day go any faster. If anything it makes the day seem even slower, as David becomes impatient to go on lunch and have an opportunity to catch an uninterrupted news report. The clock slowly ticks around to noon.
Finally it’s twelve and David rushes off downstairs and across the street to the food court. As he wolfs down his thai food he catches snippets from the television despite the crowd around it - “…eyewitnesses report ‘dozens and dozens’ of shots fired…” “…the police department is still saying that there’s no reason to panick, though they have added that people should not travel unnecessarily in Los Angeles today.” “…here’s an interesting new report John, we’re getting reports now of CDC vans - that’s Center for Disease Control - near some of the accident sites.”
New police shooting incidents had been occurring all morning and throughout the lunch hour. They usually involved police firing dozens of shots at a single individual, though the police were not talking were keeping the media away from the crime scenes as best they could. Eyewitnesses often reported the victim as “acting crazy” and “violent” and, if they had actually seen the shots fired, reported the victims strangely undissuaded even after receiving many gunshots. By the end of the lunch hour it was reported that the national guard was being called out, and traffic was increasing on the freeways out of Los Angeles as people began to take it upon themselves to vacate the area.
Concern about the situation was now palpable. One by one empty chairs started appearing behind desks as secretaries got permission from their lawyers to go home to their families. The firm’s partners were long gone (it was Friday anyway, most of them didn’t bother to come in), but the other lawyers seemed to take no notice - likely they had been too busy to take note of the news anyway.
By two most of the support staff had disappeared. Unfortunately since David’s immediate supervisor was Alyssa, he knew he was unlikely to get permission to leave early. Finally around three, with nearly no support staff remaining, David was walking past with a box of files when Alyssa emerged from her office looking flustered and distracted.
“Hey, um, everyone’s going home early today. You can, um, clock out and go home” she said as she locked her office door. David straightened out his work area, grabbed his coffee travel mug, and was out the door. None of the lawyers had moved.
So there you have it. Feedback is always welcome, though, again, I don't really care about nitpicky things at this moment. I know it's not THE most exciting start, but I really wanted to actually start at the beginning of the whole thing.