Chapter 4

Stephanie meets with her boss to discuss her future

Chapter 4

The upper floors of Howell Castle were silent. Only the hum of the halogen lights and clicks of someone walking down the immaculately polished white tile floor broke the silence. The clicks belonged to the high heels worn by Stephanie Waits, one of the senior marketing executives. She was on her way to the office of Archie Mills, the man who held her life in his hand. That wasn’t a metaphor either. Archie wasn’t the kind of person you cross or even walk too close to without a sincere apology and some serious begging.

No one ever told her any specifics, all they said was “executives never resign”. When she was promoted, she assumed that meant that the job was so cushy that people stayed until they retired. Later she thought about her predecessor, Burt Kind, nobody really talked about him or even acknowledged that he worked at Howell for almost thirty years. As far as she could tell, he worked here one day and the job was open the next. When she could pry some info out of her peers, none of them claimed to see so much as a letter of resignation.

There was never a time when she wasn’t nervous going into Mills’ office, but today she had nothing but good news for her intimidating Hawaiian clad boss. Since she started a year ago all of her time and been devoted to one project, The Howell Park Fiftieth Anniversary. A giant month long affair held in the park made to celebrate the company’s history and achievements dating all the way back to when Mitchell Howell released the first Wally Wolf short. It was going to be huge, the biggest thing Howell had ever put together all culminating in the release of the first new Wally movie in over twenty-five years. What made it special was that Archie himself--who hasn’t written anything since the last Wally movie all that time ago--would write it.

It was a big deal, and it was up to Stephanie to make it all work.

She paused outside Archie’s massive polished mahogany door to take a breath and reached for the handle. 

Stephanie was always taken aback when she walked into Archie’s office. It was massive and stark white. Bright white walls, white marble floors, and sitting behind a glass desk was the man himself. He was looking out the floor to ceiling half-moon window at the park. Aside from the view outside the only colors in the room were on his shirt, as if they had been sucked out of the room and absorbed by his button-down Hawaiian shirt. 

He didn’t seem to hear her come in. Stephanie polity cleared her throat.

“Erm, excuse me, Mister Mills, sir?” she said holding her iPad in a way that might be considered defensive.

“It’s so beautiful out there,” he said airily, “isn’t it amazing that we get to come here every day working to give these people memories that will last a lifetime.”

“It’s pretty wonderful, sir” Stephanie admitted.

He wheeled around to face her, the chair dared not squeak.

“Howdy!” he said brightly and clapped his hands together. “What’s the good word Steph, whatcha got for me?”

“Well, sir, I just received word that the permits have been approved and we’ve just signed contracts with Imagine Dragon, Rihanna, and Ed Sheeran. They’ll all be appearing during the Fiftieth Celebration.” Stephanie made a few taps on her screen. “I’ve also just sent you some preliminary storyboards for the movie.”

Archie snapped over to his computer to check the email. “That   is   amazing, Steph,” he said pausing for effect on every word, “you are truly amazing, but please, call me Archie. ‘Sir’ makes me feel like such a boss.” He stuck his tongue out to show his distaste for the word. “I like to think of this place more as one big, happy family. You wouldn’t call your dad sir, no more than I’d call my daughter Miss Waits; isn’t that right Steph?”

Stephanie didn’t like being called “Steph” and she always felt the family metaphor to be more than a little creepy.

“Absolutely Archie!” she replied, with as much cheer as she could muster. “Even more good news, we are well on track to getting everything set up in time for the conference in a few months.”

Archie leaned back in his chair and gave her a bright playful smile, got up from his chair and walked over to her, his flip-flops slapping the floor with each step.

He gave a big warm hug and said, “I knew I made the right decision hiring you.” He released her from the hug but still held onto her shoulders a little too tightly. “I am so proud of you.”

“Er…thank you si-Archie,” she said, more than a little uncomfortable. “If you don’t mind me asking, why are you doing this celebration?”

Archie walked back and leaned on the edge of his desk. “You’re the youngest executive I’ve ever hired, heck; you’re the youngest in Howell’s history. Do you know why that is?”

“I-I don’t know,” admitted Stephanie with a shrug, “my impeccable attendance?”

Stephanie jumped as Archie let out a genuine hearty laugh out of nowhere. People said that when Bill Gates got angry his shouting could be heard from the floor below, the same could be said about Archie when he laughed.

The laugh subsided into a jovial chuckle, “No, but your sense of humor definitely played a part. It was because I saw a bit of good ol’ Mitch in you, and myself.” he added with what Stephanie could have sworn was a twinkle in his eye.

“Well, thank you, Archie,” Stephanie said overwhelmed.

“I put you in charge of the Fiftieth Anniversary as your first assignment�"a tough job, I know�"on purpose. It was a test, and I’m so happy to say that you passed with flying colors. I was going to wait until the celebration was over with, but heck, I can’t wait!” Archie reached behind him and pressed a button on a smooth silver remote. Then a massive white canvas came down and blocked out the window to the park, drowning out all the light plunging the office into near darkness. “Are you ready to be welcomed into the Inner Circle?”

Stephanie was surprised, to say the least, she wasn’t aware that she wasn’t in the inner circle, she was on the Board of Executives; how much deeper could the rabbit hole go? Stephanie went along with it after all Inner Circle sounded like a raise worthy promotion if she ever heard one.

“Sure.”

“Fantastic!” said Archie with a smile, “So, as you may know, way back when, I was an animator�"one of the first Mitch hired�"at Howell Studios. One day when we were working one of the earlier Milton Muskrat cartoons, I think, he looked at me and said, and I’ll never forget it, he said: ‘Archie my friend, the world is a magical place, filled with possibilities. If I could hold onto this moment forever, I would. The world is perfect just the way it is and should never change. So let’s make sure it never does.’”

Archie thought back on the moment longingly.

 “So that’s what we did. Up until his tragic death, the two of us worked together to keep the world the same the only way we could, through our work.”

Stephanie was confused. Archie has always been an idealist, but this sounded more fantastical than anything. “I’m sorry, but I’m not quite following.”

Archie let out a little chuckle, “We here at Howell pride ourselves on maintaining the status quo and preserving the ideals that Mitch stood for. It’s our duty to maintain the world Mitch fell in love with all those years ago, and I’m afraid to say that so far we have been losing the battle. The world is evolving at an accelerated rate and things that were unheard of back in our day are now commonplace, and honestly, I find it repulsive. Mitchell built this park and everything that came out of it on his set of ideals and I’ve done my best in his absence to maintain that, although, like I said, time is against us. This celebration is meant to remind people of what Mitch stood for and how the world should be, but it’s only the first step to the change I have in mind. People are wonderful, unique creatures, but they are also breathtakingly dull. It doesn’t take much to convince a crowd, all you have to do is play to their dumbest member and the influence will spread like a gentle breeze. People love our movies so all we have to do is put the two together. That’s what the new Wally movie is, the first step in what will be an age of regression. I can’t do it alone, that’s why I need you and your dare I say, magical abilities.”

Stephanie was still at a loss for words. Sure companies could be a bit old fashioned, especially Howell, but they didn’t actively try to change people’s worldview. They were just cartoons for Christ’s sake. There was no way it would work, people are stronger than that, right?

Stephanie thought about her words carefully, “How do you expect that to work? I mean, wouldn’t people catch on?”

“I thought you might ask that,” said Archie with a smile, “smart as always. It’ll work because it has before, look who’s in the White House, do you think that was by accident? Howell had a big hand in that; we just needed the right mouthpiece.” Archie paused for effect, “look at the country now, we’re as divided as ever, it’s the perfect set up for a real one-two punch. We’re on the precipice of something big here kiddo, you in?”   

This wasn’t the job she signed up for. Since Stephanie was a little girl she loved Wally, Willa, and all the Howell properties. Had she been drinking the Kool-Aid this whole time? No, that was insane she knew what she believed in, and it didn’t line up with Archie. Archie wasn’t the kind of person you said no to and she remembered that executives never resign.

“Yeah,” she said with a forced smile, “I’m in Archie.”

“Vundabar!” exclaimed Archie, “Now on to the real nitty-gritty.” He went back to sit at his desk, “You remember a few weeks ago when the park got broken into?”

“Yes.”

“Well, we suspected it was pulled off by an ex-employee by the name of Devon Rozen, he worked down in security. He found out what we were up to and stole some classified info from our servers.”

“And you want me to…get it back from him.” Stephanie wagered.

“Exactly! Well, not from him in particular, he was found and dealt with; we suspect he was working with someone. I would like you to find them.”

The words sent a chill down her spine. In the span of a few minutes, she went from mild-mannered party planner, ostensibly, to a hitman on a mission.  

“I..I’ll do what I can.”

“That’s my girl!” said Archie with his trademark smile. “Just let me know if you need anything; the weight of the company is at your disposal.”

Stephanie did her best to make a quick polite exit, but as she reached the door, Archie called out.

“I expect great things from you Steph, don’t disappoint me.”