Page 10 of The Thorne at My Side
"That's a lot of ‘goods’. As a professional writer I've got to intervene here."
"Fair, right, yes, okay. Umm, just give me a minute?" I throw my thumb over my shoulder and Sam nods. I turn and head out of the office, down the stairs at the end of the hall, and past myfavorite security guard, before striding out onto the steps for some fresh air.
What I didn't admit upstairs was that we are already having trouble keeping up with the volume of content that hits the internet everyday. Factor in the 24-hour news channels, network news, and local coverage, and it is essentially impossible.
I can feel the stress creeping across my body. My jaw already feels tight so I work it around for a minute and then roll my head a few times. I knew the last three weeks before the election would be demanding but the addition of an AI co-worker is going to only make matters worse.
But I need to get a handle on this if I ever want to run for office myself. I need to learn how to toughen up, how to deal with the pressure of being in the game as the clock winds down.
If my right eye starts twitching that’s when I’ll know it’s bad. That’s always the sign of impending doom.
I take a seat on the steps and lean forward to rub my temples, a tension headache starting and it's only 9:45 am. It’s going to be a long day.
CHAPTER 4
“Consider this goodbye for now.”
AUSTIN
"How did you swing this?" Elizabeth Johnson, my assistant, asks me over the phone as I hold the door open for the two TMC interns I’ve got in tow with me today.
"Senator Williams wanted something scrubbed about his kid at a frat party. I did it for him with the expectation of access to his office for exclusives."
"You're the best in the biz." she says. Elizabeth has been with Thorne Media Corp for forty-three years. She started as a typist in the newspaper division and quickly rose in the ranks to the secretarial corps. She was the first woman at the company to hold the title of Executive Assistant because she appealed to HR for an updated role description when she worked for Dad.
When I joined the company after grad school, Dad had me in a middle management position for the first six months. I enjoyed that position, I learned a lot about how the work actually gets done around here. After those six months, I was basically Dad’s shadow for the next year. I attended all his meetings, sat in his office all day, and would even commute with him.
One early October commute, I slid into his car and Dadlowered his newspaper and said, “Today you’ll start as the head of the Business Development division. I’ll need to see a plan for a new revenue initiative by the end of the week.”
Then he flicked the paper back up in front of his face and we drove to the office in silence. Elizabeth was waiting for me in the lobby to show me to my office.
She got me settled, asked me a litany of questions ranging from my preferred brands of snacks and how I take my coffee, to my clothing sizes and my social media login credentials. Then she stood, told me I’d have lunch delivered at noon and that I had a meeting with my senior manager of business development, Kevin Young, in five.
"What else is there for me?" I ask as I stand with the two interns.
"There's been a podcast interview request. Actually it's a panel. But it came on the heels of the announcement this morning."
"What podcast?"
"For The Record," Elizabeth says. "You've been on it before."
"I remember. What time?"
"They want to start at 6:30 and it's a 90 minute session."
"Okay, book it. Is it in person?"
"Yes. I will have Greg ready with the car at 6:00."
"Thank you, Elizabeth."
She hangs up so I put my air pods into their case and turn to Annabel and Matt, the interns. I was able to schedule this tour during a Young People on the Hill event so we'll blend in. I wanted to give them a chance to see how the sausage gets made since they’ll be assisting editors and writers with intel from the Senate and House of Representatives. It feels a little odd to be here though; usually Thorne employees areonly invited to the capitol building when under subpoena.
After a lifetime spent in D..C, and in the media world, the whole thing has lost its luster. I'm only thirty four but I've witnessed countless people cycle through this city. I've seen many more get chewed up and spat back out to whatever up or down state small town they're from. The turnover rate in Washington is high and it doesn't pay off to connect deeply or go all-in with anyone.
That thought brings TalkShopGirl to mind. She said she comes from a small town but it doesn’t feel like she got off the train in D.C. holding a suitcase and sporting wide open eyes, hoping to make it in the big city. But maybe she’s acclimated in her time here. D.C. can do that to a person.
After I've taken my two interns around to the offices our news magazine is friendly with, we turn a corner and I see a poster on an easel announcing a speech writing workshop as part of the event. I notice that it’s being hosted by Maggie Collins who was on the list of speech writers to watch. I’ll admit I haven’t looked closely into her, or any of the others, since AI Media is going to blow any human writing out of the water.
