Creative Writing

This is a snippet from a fiction piece that I’m currently writing. It is still undergoing editing.

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“Anna,” Marianne snaps, pulling me out of the dissociative state I was just in. “I know it’s the end of the week but can you please try to keep your thoughts with me so we can get through this list?” she begs. I’m sitting behind a faded wooden desk left here by the previous tenants of this office building. My black rolling chair is pressed almost directly against the double windows of this cramped office. If you could call it that. The vanilla candle I have lit on the window sill is doing little to stop the smell of mildew from berating my nostrils. Papers, pens and discarded compostable coffee cups liter the desk causing me further anxiety. It’s just one more thing I need to get in order that I’ll never have the time to do. Marianne sits across from me in one of the two wooden chairs stationed in front of my desk. Her ginger hair rests around her face in tight ringlets that I’m positive can’t be replicated by any curling iron. A red leather notebook jammed with scribbled pages and sticky notes rests on her crossed legs. Hazel eyes lock with mine pleading with me to give her my full attention. “I know I’m sorry, I’m with you, let's get through this.” We’re set to review the schedule for the upcoming week and just like every other week since I started campaigning, it's packed to the brim. I was never convinced I’d make it past the democratic primary let alone have a real shot at winning the election for Texas governor. It’s still a bit surreal. “Next week you have a meet and greet on Monday at the public library downtown, volunteering at the Women’s Resource Fair Wednesday night and the Gala event hosted by Elanor on Saturday. If you want to take a look at a few of the cases for Wednesday ahead of time let me know and I’ll print them out for you. Saturday is a huge day for you and this campaign so I’m blocking off additional time Thursday for us to shop for dresses. And before you complain I want you to genuinely think about what your closet situation looks like and then rethink your response.” She has a point, it's not as though I don’t enjoy shopping, I just don’t have the time with everything going on. However, Saturday could act as a turning point for the funding of my campaign so I'll have to make the time to find something to wear. I sigh loudly, “Unfortunately you’re right about the state of my closet. Everything else sounds perfect and I'll definitely take a copy of the cases ahead of time. Can you make sure the logistics for the meet and greet are set in stone? I’ll want to do a walk through of the event space to make sure everything is working correctly when we arrive.” Even though part of my motivation is always to gain support, I genuinely love the volunteer work I do with the Resources for Women foundation. I graduated from Yale law and passed the bar that same year in twenty eleven so I give free legal advice to women at the shelter. “Will do and I'll ensure you’re picked up early enough to do the walk through. That’s all I have for this upcoming week so I’ll get out of your hair,” she replies. She stands and exits through the creaking solid door barring my office from the rest of the second floor in the complex. Marianne is easily my favorite person on my staff, and for that I’m thankful because it’d be pretty insufferable to have her as a campaign manager otherwise. At only thirty-two she's one of the youngest yet most accomplished campaign managers in the United States. She’s won three separate gubernatorial elections and essentially spent her entire childhood learning strategy from her single father, also a campaign manager. Our decision to work together was a mutual one. She strongly believes in my platform and similar to her, if elected, I would be the youngest Texan governor to date at thirty-seven years old. Marianne has an oddly upbeat attitude about her for someone who I’m sure is continually shown the nasty side of people. Over the last couple of months we’ve become something akin to best friends. When she became my campaign manager we spent days going over the entire history of my life. She constantly reassured me it was so she could ‘run a successful campaign’ and ‘not get blindsided’ but I knew she was also just a bit nosy. Whatever her internal strategy, it's worked out great for me so far so I’ll continue to do what she says. The rest of my staff left hours ago and I can’t blame them. It’s ten pm on Friday night and I know the second I get home I’m going to pass out. This week has been all preparation for the fundraising event hosted by Elanor. It’s where my thoughts go every time I’m caught staring off into space while someone speaks directly to me. Elanor owns Eagle energy, the largest petroleum company in the state of Texas. In the last year alone her company grossed almost five billion dollars and the woman is wealthier than Bill Gates. While I’ve taken a strong public stance on a diverse energy portfolio, I haven’t actively bashed the oil industry or implied that as governor I would transgress against oil conglomerates. That being said, I was still flabbergasted when an invitation arrived at my personal residence last Thursday inviting me to the upcoming event. As the leading democratic candidate, I haven’t been nearly as well funded as my opposition. Leading up to the primary, I focused less on big budget tactics and more on meeting different community groups, going door to door, and engaging in debates with the other primorial candidates. At the time I felt those strategies allowed me a better platform to discuss the ideologies behind my candidacy. I knew I was smarter and had a tighter plan than the other four democratic primaries running against me. My platform takes a more moderate approach whereas the other older candidates leaned heavily into leftist propaganda. I’m not the first politician to admit I don’t believe in everything I’m saying, but I know the makeup of the Texan audience and I’d be a fool to come in guns blazing with an aggressively leftist platform. I do admire my fellow candidates for sticking firmly to the progressive agenda but I have to believe that the more moderate take is what ended up winning me the primary. Now post primary, I’m definitely going to need a larger amount of funding to compete with the republican candidate and possibly win this election. Enter my guardian angel, Elise. This event is the opportunity my candidacy desperately needs to project my policies to a room of highly influential people, who may or may not decide to donate to my campaign. I intend to spend the following week leading up to the event researching potential persons attending and figuring out how to best sway them. But that’s a problem I’ll tackle Sunday because right now I need to sleep for thirty-six hours.