The Street Still Calls Her Name

Induction Day

She had dreamed of this day.

No. She had dreamed of this life.

It was a warm day, the sun had risen with a bite and by 6am it sharply shot through the white shutters covering her office windows. Ada sat at her office desk staring at the sun as it slowly stopped kissing the horizon below.

The room felt uncomfortably muggy.

A light layer of sweat had gathered at the nape of her neck, touching it she wondered if this was a result of the weather at all. Ada had barely slept the previous night knowing today was the day she was officially indicted as CEO of Clarkson Enterprise. Truthfully, she had been the executive voice of the corporation’s operations and strategies for the past month. But today it was official.

Today it would be in writing. Today she would have proof.

As she continued to look at the horizon, a clear and uninterrupted view from 43 floors above the bustling streets of New York City, she was reminded of a time it wasn’t so clear.

*FLASHBACK*

Ada woke to a thundering clatter of pots and pans and and tidal of screams. She timidly looked out from the bundle of her mothers worn dresses she would use as bedding. Harsh grunts tore from a woman’s throat before they were overpowered by a fierce male shout.

“Take. It. Now.”

Ada slowly adjusted her eyes to the darkness of the night and saw the two figures struggling against the apartment’s small kitchen bench. She saw a flurry of long, dark hair slap against the stove top as a large figure pushed the woman’s head harshly into the rusted metal grates. She knew by the hair it was a woman - she knew by the situation that woman was her mother.

At almost seven years of age, Ada knew this sight and these sounds all too well.

Her mother whimpered in response as the brooding male figure ripped the dress from her back with one hand and restrained her flailing arms with the other.

Ada painfully shut her eyes, closing out was she knew what was coming. She’d seen it before.

The apartment Ada and her mother lived in was only one room. There was no room for her to hide in and no door to muffle the helpless moans and cries of her mother. She shifted closer to the wall the makeshift bed lay against, turning her head to face it.

They were so close. The sounds were too close. She felt like she couldn’t breathe.

She opened her eyes and looked up at the window above her. It was broken, permanently stuck half-way open as the runner and seals had rusted away long ago. Ada saw her chance. She slowly reached up grasping the seal and pulled herself out into the cold winter. She found herself on the corroded iron staircase that crawled up the outside of the old apartment building. Gripping the rough steel railing she was thankful the violence inside was somewhat hushed by the building's brick exterior.

But her mother’s whines were still too near so she looked above her to the roof of the building. She ran, not phased by the staircase as it swayed with her every climb. The stairs ended just below the roof-edge but she still felt too close. Reaching up, she heaved herself up over the dirt and grime left stagnate in the gutter and atop roof. Her bare-feet dangled over the side of the and she listened.

She couldn't hear them - the sounds. They didn't reach her here.

Looking around, she noticed the night sky had changed from midnight black to the light blue hues of early morning. Beneath her dangling feet she could make out the shape of the street below her. Littered with rubbish, smog and many small coloured specks. Ada understood those specks were people sleeping.

She knew most of those people. She had slept beside them.

Ada felt like she had won the lottery when her mother told her they were to live in this apartment. The small, grimy, one-room apartment which sat on the second-floor of a decaying complex; may as well have been a Hilton penthouse for all she knew. She was glad to have a space to call her own - high above the street that had caused Ada and her mother so much suffering.

But the street had reached their tiny home. It had followed them.

As she continued to stare down at the street below, she glanced at the apartment she’d fled. She felt safe. She felt it couldn’t reach her. It was the most peaceful she had ever been. She felt so far away from it all. She looked up at the lightening sky and wished she could climb atop the clouds. The street would never reach her there.

She could see by the light filtering between the complexes around her that the sun was beginning to rise. She tried to find the horizon but it was interrupted but the silhouettes of the slum-like city around her. She longed to watch the sunrise.

But she wasn’t high enough.

A small tear gathered at the corner of her eye and she told herself that one day she would be high enough to watch the sun rise - high enough to sit with the clouds and not amongst the rubbish of the street below.

*END OF FLASHBACK*

She felt a wet droplet touch the top of her hand and she realised she was crying. She swatted the the tears away roughly. She hated crying, she hated being upset. She'd seen enough of that.

The horizon reminded her of too much.

She stood up abruptly and stalked over to the windows slamming the lever so the shutters cut the horizon from her view. She let out a breath she didn’t realise she was holding and returned to her desk.

She needed to focus on her work.

There was a soft knock at her door and Ada quickly glanced at her wrist watch. A small smile made its way onto her face at the thought of who was knocking.

“Come in, Rodger.”

The elderly man stepped inside with a wide smile that showed teeth that looked like they belonged to a man half his age.

“Good morning Miss Bowman, such a beautiful day today is it not?", he asked, his smile seemingly widening.

Her eyes lowered.

“We are treating today like any other Rodger, this won’t disrupt our production. We are at crucial points in our negotiations with both Netherway and Acuytin. We need those corporations on our side.” Ada switched on her computer ready to check for updates on the status of such negotiations.

Rodger’s smile faltered and he shuffled over to her desk.

“Don’t be like this Ada.“, he softly whispered.

Rodger had been the first person to notice her when she started at Clarkson. She was just another wannabe in a sea of interns to the others, but he had noticed something they hadn’t. Rodger was the Executive Assistant at Clarkson when Ada arrived but she quickly learned from the rumour-mill that he was the former COO, second only to that of CEO Larry Clarkson. He took a keen interest in Ada’s concepts and material early on and she soon found herself under his wing.

“I’m not being like anything Rodger, you of all people know how quickly things can change here. My name could be off of that door before the month is through.”

Ada had never asked why Rodger was demoted from COO to Executive Assistant but she knew it had something to do with his relationship with Larry Clarkson. He visibly stiffened when he realised this was what Ada was referring to.

“This is your day Ada. I know exactly how quickly things change but that is all the more reason to embrace it. You’ve achieved something most people could never.“, he offered her a proud smile.

Her eyes flickered from Rodger to the man who stood talking to a group of investors down the hall of her office.

“Some people would disagree” she whispered bitterly.

Rodger followed her gaze to the son of the man who had been the cause of his own demotion. He carried the same mannerisms as his father. He was cold and ruthless but above all his desire to sit in the chair Ada now occupied was dangerous.

His father had promised him that chair as if it was always going to be his. And it was going to be.

That was until Ada arrived. And now he wanted it back.