It was late in the afternoon, hinging on six p.m. and the darkness of that winter night was just beginning to drape around the museum. But in the basement, amid the "Stacks" time stood still. In the windowless repository, it could have been six in the morning for all Evie knew.
The work from the historical preservation society had kept her busy for a large part of the day. Evie leaned back in her chair with a groan and rubbed her eyelids. There was an ache inching up from her lower back, and her hand had begun to cramp. She slipped her pen back into her lab coat and relaxed for moment, her eyes flitting over the few white cardboard boxes she had yet to sort. Across her desk, Evie had spread the other boxes' plunder: stacks and stacks of monochrome photos being readied for preservation. Each photo needed to be identified by place and date taken and then filed into manilla folders. Later they would be scanned and stored on an SD card. Some were in perfect condition, with their dates written in small precise numbers on the back, while most were yellowing with age and water damage, no discernible date or place.
A stack of folders sat neatly to her left, the topmost folder labeled with a piece of red sticky tape. The historical society were planning to open a local museum. A small one room building with an assortment of antiquities collected over the years, including a set of pictures depicting the town's inception in the early 1800s. There were about twenty photographs that Evie had found sifting through the boxes that met this requirement, and now she only needed to deliver the marked folder to her boss so that he could give them to the historical society. They would, in turn, mount the original photos on the wall.
Evie couldn't quite remember the last time she had stood up today. She stood and stretched before grabbing the folder and heading for her boss's office. A little bit of walking right now wouldn't hurt. She took the two flights of stairs slowly, looking out the glass wall to the parking lots below where cars sat pooled in yellow light from the posts. At the end of the hallway she stopped in front of a door emblazoned with 'Mr. Elliot- Director' and rapped on the solid wood. Before he could give an answer, she turned the knob and stepped inside.
And then the world turned upside down.
The work from the historical preservation society had kept her busy for a large part of the day. Evie leaned back in her chair with a groan and rubbed her eyelids. There was an ache inching up from her lower back, and her hand had begun to cramp. She slipped her pen back into her lab coat and relaxed for moment, her eyes flitting over the few white cardboard boxes she had yet to sort. Across her desk, Evie had spread the other boxes' plunder: stacks and stacks of monochrome photos being readied for preservation. Each photo needed to be identified by place and date taken and then filed into manilla folders. Later they would be scanned and stored on an SD card. Some were in perfect condition, with their dates written in small precise numbers on the back, while most were yellowing with age and water damage, no discernible date or place.
A stack of folders sat neatly to her left, the topmost folder labeled with a piece of red sticky tape. The historical society were planning to open a local museum. A small one room building with an assortment of antiquities collected over the years, including a set of pictures depicting the town's inception in the early 1800s. There were about twenty photographs that Evie had found sifting through the boxes that met this requirement, and now she only needed to deliver the marked folder to her boss so that he could give them to the historical society. They would, in turn, mount the original photos on the wall.
Evie couldn't quite remember the last time she had stood up today. She stood and stretched before grabbing the folder and heading for her boss's office. A little bit of walking right now wouldn't hurt. She took the two flights of stairs slowly, looking out the glass wall to the parking lots below where cars sat pooled in yellow light from the posts. At the end of the hallway she stopped in front of a door emblazoned with 'Mr. Elliot- Director' and rapped on the solid wood. Before he could give an answer, she turned the knob and stepped inside.
And then the world turned upside down.