S

• Elissa Alam, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2019

Tom was excited to go with his dad to work, since his father, Ben didn’t say much about it, and all he knew was that it was for the government and that it was ‘top secret businesses’. Tom concluded that it was top secret because every day after school his father’s response to work was ‘paperwork’ and ‘emails’ which sounded so boring. Tom was very creative and imaginative and he was excessively excited to see what his fathers ‘work’ was really like.
The security was abundant, scanning each person as they entered and instantly Tom felt very important. This made him admire his father more and couldn’t wait to see what the ‘paperwork and emails’ really were.
“Hi, Ben,” a woman dressed in a navy suit said, acknowledging their presence.
“Good morning” he replied.
“This is my desk, computer and all of the papers that I need to deal with”. He said to Tom
Tom wasn’t impressed as he saw a mountain of papers that took over the desk making it hard to see what else was on there. Tom was already uninterested, maybe his father’s work wasn’t as fun as he thought, and Tom was disappointed and decided to head out the door exploring. “You can wander around but don’t go too far” he heard his dad’s voice in the background.
There were huge paintings of old people hung on the walls and massive statues that stared at him like they had souls trying to rip him apart. Tom started to walk rapidly as he wanted to escape the fake eyes following him and kept on moving down the hall and turned right. Without thinking, Tom opened the door and found four men staring at him. The confused look on their face for seeing a young child at their workplace shocked them and promptly, Tom slammed the door and ran. Many rooms kept passing him, filled with people in meetings. He kept running until he stopped and found an elevator. He loved elevators because it meant that he could explore much more, he jumped in and pressed all the levels, the doors opened like a lion’s mouth ready for the kill. The elevator closed and went up, Tom was thrilled to see what the doors would open up to. Tom’s imaginative mind made him think that it would be some hidden secret business, Tom realized that the elevator started to speed up and he started to get dizzy. The elevator felt as if it was spinning and Toms' head was circling like a Ferris wheel, he was continuously calling the emergency elevator button but no-one would pick up. The elevators doors opened wide and Tom was relieved, he ran out and he immediately knew where he was.
Tom saw the enormous paintings of old people and bolted to his father’s office, he was so puffed out, and he could hardly breathe. He rested in his father’s office the whole day and Tom knew now that his father’s work was just an ordinary workplace and nothing special, it wasn’t a secret business, after all, just paperwork and emails.