The Meaningless Life of Mallory
"Shit." He openly cursed since the quiet photocopying room was empty.
Mallory works at Cameron Creative Company, an advertising firm located at the heart of Philadelphia. Having not completed his education, he had been cursed to serve as one of the company's belittled clerks. Yet, he has a unique character, a fact that remained unknown to his coworkers. People instantly notice his unique look, rather than character. His hair is entangled. He has a beard he affectionately takes care of everyday. It had been looked down upon as dirty and displaced in a firm where everybody shaves everyday, uses hair gels and puts on expensive fragrances. Mallory, on the contrary, likes to look as simple as possible. He always wears a double-pocketed brown jacket, which he keeps unbuttoned to reveal his striped yellowish shirt. No one ever failed to notice the group of pens fixed in his jacket's right pocket and a small white notebook in the other paralleled left pocket. The reason behind this small notebook stays unknown, to them.
In that photocopying room, the photocopying machine's screen showed an error, uttering annoying sounds of anger and distress. It was a paper jam. Mallory was absentminded and he forgot to detach the staple on the papers he was given to photocopy. Such incidents reminded Mallory of how an unfortunate man he is. Nothing goes right for him. Just that morning, he tripped on the stairs and his papers were scattered on the ground. On the same morning, some coffee was accidentally spilled on his pants. Also the subway train faced technical difficulties, so he arrived late to work.
Mallory is a closed book. Nobody knows who he really is. He is a stranger to everyone outside the doors of the firm. What people know about Mallory comes not from personal communication with him, but from objects like his desk, his clothes and his suitcase. What tells even more about him is his apartment. It doesn't have a TV or a computer. Mallory intentionally alienates himself from the world he lives in. He is the king of his own kingdom, which is a messy kingdom. While ordinary messy apartments have bears and pizzas randomly displaced by carelessness, Mallory's apartment has books instead. Piles of books were everywhere: on the couch, in the toilet, next to the bed and under the refrigerator. Mallory prioritizes books over food and drink.
Due to living in isolation with books, Mallory had become articulate and good with words, and most importantly creative. His brain isn't contaminated by mainstream media. He believes he doesn't have an ideology, and completely disbelieves in objectivity. He also analyses and deconstructs various discourses for the sake of it. In spite of his abilities in that domain, he likes to keep it for himself, and he never shows off. Mallory's skills were first discovered by a Creative Executive in the firm called Jim Fox. This man is in charge of the creative process in the company's advertising campaigns. Unlike Mallory, Mr. Fox receives smiles and greetings every time he walks through the busy partitions of the 5th floor all the way to his distinct glass office.
In the firm, Mr. Fox is an esteemed man, but at home, a drunken man. As a result, he was going through a divorce with his partner Mr. Alex Fox. Ironically, no one knew about either the marriage or the divorce. That shouldn't be a surprising thing from a fox that climbed his way to the top by cheat and deceit.
It was another cold day of December. Mr. Fox was assigned to create an advertising campaign for a leading mobile phone company called Leading Mobile Inc. In the midst of the divorce, Mr. Fox was intoxicated with liquor, and his brain couldn't hold the burden of such a project. He decided, once again, to hunt a creative victim to 'inspire' him with ideas. Whenever he stole an idea from someone, he fooled himself that it was only inspired. And that time Mallory was next.
As usual of the misfortunate Mallory, he threw himself unto his misfortunes. He went out of that photocopying room and headed to Mr. Fox's office to hand him the photocopies he requested. Mallory knocked the glass door, and Mr. Fox glared him to enter. Mallory placed the copies on the desk and Mr. Fox did not say anything. Mallory's glimpse at the desk recognized a book, as books were like a magnet to him. The title was Your Way to the Top: a Guide to Success.
