The Free (Unedited)

An Office Job

Lindsay's POV

I stood in front of a small office building next to Leader in the middle of a mall area, but for apartments. There was a nursing home, some separated houses, houses together, and a few apartment buildings 4 stories tall. Plus, a small row of office buildings. One of them was dark.

We walked into the office on the far left corner. Inside there was a small waiting room with a woman about 30 sitting at the desk. She smiled at me, gesturing for a small door in the back. I walked inside, Leader following me.

A young woman, 28 at most, stood up from her desk as we walked inside. She had big rimmed glasses framing a small round face. She wore casual business clothes, and sat in a modest office in a modest chair behind a modest desk with neatly stacked papers in front of her.

"Hi, I'm Analee," she said. "Have a seat."

Leader and sat down, then Analee. She adjusted her glasses and started this small interview as the light was fading from the sky.

"So, I heard a lot about you from Leader, so we will start with him in here, but I will need to talk to you alone."

"Ok," I shifted a little.

"You have only been here for 3 weeks, which makes you one of our newer members. You haven't gone out to do anything for us, and Leader thinks you're more suited to an office job," Analee stated, staring directly at me.

"An... office job?"

"Yes, an office job. Leader has told me of the good work that you've been doing around your house for the past few weeks, and thinks you would be good with sorting and filing paperwork."

"I don't really know about that," I said nervously.

"We do," Leader said. "It's perfect for you.

"And you don't have to work all the time," Analee interjected. "You can work a few full days or half days, as long as you're in your office for about 30 hours a week."

"Ok, I guess," I told them. On that one note, Leader stood up and walked out of the room.

"So, I wanted to finish this interview with learning a little about you and what you like."

"I don't really know what I do and don't like," I said, relaxing now that Leader was out of the room.

"I know you have interests," Analee said, leaning towards me, inviting me to share.

"Well, I like to take care of others, you know cook and clean." A flash of memory came over me then, of me and Laura baking cake when we were younger. I pushed it away.

Analee wrote it down on a piece of paper. "And what do you like to do?"

"Reading I guess. I don't have a lot of time to think about myself."

Analee crossed something she was writing out and looked at me.

"What do you want to do most, more than anything else in this world?" she asked quietly.

"I want to see my sister," I said. Tears welled up in my eyes, but I fought them off.

Analee looked at me with what looked like pity. "I promise it is better to never speak to her again."

"Why?" I was still fighting tears, trying to blank my mind.

"It's safer for her," she said.

"Safer?"

"Yes."

That put an end to that part of the conversation. Analee left no room to argue, moving on to the next part of what I now saw as an interrogation, not an interview.

"What are your hobbies?"

"I don't have any," I said cooly.

Analee stared hard at me for a moment. I looked away, sobered.

"Think of something you want to do for this group, how you want to help these people. I know you have ideas so just give them to me. Why is that so hard?"

"I've never had to." My head was bowed; I was defeated.

Analee stared at me with pity a second time, not looking down on me but looking at me, seeing maybe an equal.

"I know you want to do something," she said softly, "now is your chance."

I sat there for a minute, thinking about what she said.

"I think I want to garden," I finally said.

"Garden what?"

"Everything."

This was a whole new experience for me, letting myself dictate what I wanted to do. That experience led to something being lifted off my shoulders, like a lead cape. I smiled a new smile for the first time, truly joyful for the first time in a long long while.

Analee wrote that down. "We can help you with that," she said, a smile crossing her lips. "We are a huge community here, our organization spanning many different parts of this city. We have a patch of land behind this estate we can use for your gardens, and we can help you get this dream of yours rolling."

"Wow," I breathed. Something was happening in my life, maybe a new start, or something like that. I smiled again.

"You are free," Analee said. "We are free."

***

Leader's POV

I sat across from Ana, a gifted lady and the backbone of this gang we run. She came to find us when she was 14, a young girl from the slums of the sex trafficking market. Here, she has a name for herself. Everyone when they retire from the true gang get their name changed to whatever they want legally, with a new legal birth certificate to go out into the workforce. All women and men get serilized, it is frowned upon to have a child, and those who do get pregnant go to our own abortion clinic, which takes organization women and any other woman that stumbles by.

"Notes," I said.

"Here. They are very telling about who she is for sure."

"She looked... happier," I said in my customary voice.

Ana smiled, used to my terse tone. " She can finally think about herself."

"This was a success," I said, standing and stretching. "The meeting will be one too."

"Very," Ana said, her lips curled in a playful grin, but her face fell a split second after the smile came up.

"You are going to hurt her," she said.

"No I won't," I said, walking to the door.

"You won't be able to keep her in the dark forever. From you. From this."

"You don't know that." I opened the door.

"Yes, I do," I heard Ana whisper before shutting the door.