A Raven Comes Calling

The Smithsonian

Anna hurriedly put down the box she had just picked up as she felt another sneeze come on. The last thing she wanted was to jostle the contents when she had no idea what they were yet, much less drop them. At least she had been given a cart to use, and it was handily right at the bottom of the ladder.

As soon as it was down, the sneeze refused to be held back longer, and she groaned at the feeling of the pressure behind her eyes. She looked around the dusty room again and reminded herself, "Don't complain. This is the freaking Smithsonian for crying out loud."

She plucked another tissue with a sigh and cleaned up before she tossed it into the half-full wastebasket on the bottom level of her cart. She had been thrilled when she first got the letter stating that the Smithsonian Institute was happy to have someone with her schooling and family history working as an intern. She had no idea what that really meant until she started. Reorganizing storerooms that hadn't been touched in decades was not what she was thinking of when she came here. She had hoped that it would lead her to connections so she could put her anthropology degree to work.

She sighed again as she opened the box to properly catalog the contents and figure out how to store them better. She supposed they all had to start somewhere, and while her mother's name had gotten her the interview, it was also the cause of some of her grief. Not everyone on the board was willing to look past the last few years of the woman's life before she had died.

Anna shoved that thought down and reminded herself not to take it out on the artifacts she was sorting. Even if this was only part-time and unpaid, she couldn't afford to lose the position. Just the name on a resume could work wonders. She was still young and knew where she wanted to go, so getting through the next few years of dusty cataloging and background work was something she was willing to put up with. Besides, some of the stuff was pretty cool.

She hadn't done more than pull out the first few items and written down their descriptions and state before she heard a voice behind her. "While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, as if someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door." The voice was accompanied by a light knock on the doorframe.

Anna turned around and pinned her visitor with a dry look. "Do you genuinely believe that makes you sound smart or witty?"

The man smirked at her. "I don't think about it much. I just wanted to see what our resident Raven was getting up to."

"Piss off, Andrew." Anna didn't say anything else as she turned around.

She nearly growled when the man crowded her into the small room and looked over her shoulder. His sarcasm practically dripped from his voice. "Oh, fascinating. More books and baubles that will never make their way back into the museum."

She ignored him as she gently set the next item down and spoke over her shoulder. "We work in a historical repository. Not everything is about what makes it into the public eye. It's about preserving history." She then looked over her shoulder with a glare. "Not that I think you would understand any of that. Tell me how you got a job here again?"

His smirk widened, but he took a step back. "Because unlike you, I have connections."

It took everything she had for Anna not to turn around and slap that smug look off his face. Instead, she took the last item out of the box and barely managed to set it down gently before she turned to him and shoved the decaying fiberboard box into Andrew's chest. "Here, make yourself useful. There are a couple more in the hall too. You can take them all down to the garbage."

He lifted a brow and almost let the box drop. "Perhaps your mother should have named you Katherine instead of Annabell."

For one second, Andrew thought he might have pushed too far. It hadn't been that long since the late Ms. Stephenson had kicked it. He took a step back as Anna's eyes flashed, and her jaw clenched. He hadn't realized he was holding his breath until she turned back around and spoke over her shoulder to him dismissively.