All Chapters of World of Tomorrow: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10
140 Chapters
1: Abysmal Monday
Hurrying to the subway entrance through the lightly falling snow, Evelyn paced beside Lily on the busy New York sidewalk. Listening as her friend hummed a song from the radio show they’d heard together during dinner the night before, she joined in with the bouncy countermelody at the song's chorus, smiling in amusement. “It’s catchy, that tune.”Slipping ahead of Lily through a narrow space in the rushing crowd, they descended the hard cement stairs into the subway, single file. Fishing in her purse, an expensive black leather drawstring with round bracelet handles that her aunt had purchased as a gift for her upon her graduation from the Fifth Avenue Secretarial School, Evelyn quickly found a dime, and dropping it into the turnstile, moved with the shuffling masses onto the platform.Along the tracks amid teeth clenching squeals, a cold rush of wintry air and the echoing thunder of the cars, the subway train drew alongside the platform. Stopping completely, with an almost hermetic his
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2: Falling
In that frozen second between when Mr. James’ weight had pulled her body over the window ledge and when her desperate fingers, cramped and grown numb from all the pressure on them, failed her, slipped and drew over the polished wood of the sill with scraping nails, it seemed Evelyn was aware suddenly, conscious of everything.Hung suspended in that deathless second, she felt the icy cold wind billowing the full skirt of her dress and her gut wrenched, ashamed of her inadvertently lewd display to the helpless onlookers in other buildings and the foolish gawkers down below. Her long dark hair, cast into weightlessness and flung wildly in every direction, twisted into looping tangles and into her face unbecomingly. Every clang and honk and tiny ping from the jammed vehicles on the ground rang long and distinct and clear in her ears.Now high enough to peek around the other buildings, filtered sunlight glittered silvery in the Trust’s windows on the tower of floors above hers and dappled t
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3: Nepotism
Andrew James stood ramrod straight before the Trust’s president, Mr. Melton, his hands tucked behind his back. “You asked to speak to me, sir.”Looking up from his document review, Mr. Melton smiled, his spectacled, gray eyes genuinely pleased to see Andrew, and gestured to a chair. He laced his thin bony fingers, leaning forward onto the ornate mahogany desk in his lavish office. “Andrew, what are you doing here?”Confused, Andrew’s brows drew together slightly. “You asked to see me, sir,” he reiterated. “Is there something amiss?”“Why are you not home with your family?”Unable to hold the president’s gaze, Andrew glanced away, releasing a quiet sigh as he focused out the wide windows, across the rooftops of other nearby buildings. “You’ve met my mother. There’s nothing
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4: Intrusion
“Evie!” Lily pounded on her apartment door. “Are you ready? If we don’t catch a cab soon, we’ll be late.”Inhaling deeply and calling up patience for her beloved friend, Evelyn opened her apartment door.“Oh, so you are dressed.” Pushing past her, Lily circled, tugging at the borrowed black dress and pinching at the side seams under Evelyn’s arms. “It’s a bit big—you’re so thin, really—but it’s scarcely noticeable. Must we carry on with the sling?”“The doctor was most vehement I wear it and rest my shoulder for ten days.”Lily rolled her eyes skyward, counting on her fingers. “Well, it’s been—essentially seven days already. If it’s not still hurting, today would be a good trial run, don’t you think? You won’t be wearing it to work on Monday, that’s for certain. Can’t have anyone thinking you might be disabled or attempting to garner sympathy in some way.”Lifting her brows, Evelyn nodded in agreement. “That’s true. Fine. Let me take it off.”“Oh, don’t bother folding it,” Lily groaned
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5: Interment
Standing numbly beside his mother, the stoic Andrew took little comfort from her through Russell’s public service, heard little of the words spoken on his brother’s behalf. His blank eyes wandered from one face to another in the sea of invited mourners and he felt miserably alone. Familiar strangers, not one of them the kind of friend his brother had been in life. He loathed their ingratiating superficiality, resented their pandering crudeness, expensively cloaked as civilized high society when actually they were barely above savages, kissing each other's cheeks in public and viciously shredding each other in private. “I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord. Those who believe in me shall live, even though they die…” How am I to do what they ask, brother? Andrew voiced his agonized thoughts to the voiceless nothingness, the dismal gray day another stifling pressure seeping into his already burdened core, dragging him down like a swamped boat. It swallowed up any miniscule s
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6: Weekending
“Good evening, Mr. Kittrels.” Evelyn set her laundry basket beside the agitator machine and smiled. “Thank you for restocking the furnace.”Upon their return to the city after Mr. James' funeral, Lily had promptly taken her leave, claiming she needed to run errands and leaving Evelyn to brood alone. Though she'd tried other distractions-- a library book on the collapse of the Roman Empire, the radio, even a nap-- Evelyn simply couldn't stop her mind, turning over and over the strange interaction with Andrew James in the conservatory of his family estate. The old man turned his soot-smudged face towards her. He dumped his shovelful of coal into the old Octopus, and leaning on the shovel, removed his hat quickly. “Good day to you, miss. Are you warm enough upstairs then?”Turning the spigot, Evelyn started the bucket of her wash water. “What&rsqu
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7: Yet Another Monday
Evelyn followed Lily across the trust’s lobby towards the lifts. Her head throbbed dully and her heart pounded, products of the deep-seated, unshakeable dread she’d been harboring since Russell James’ death a week before. She waved with a weak smile as the doors to Lily’s lift closed, sighing heavily at the soft chime of her arriving one. Just make it to your desk, Evelyn urged herself mentally. After that, you can figure out the next step. She repeated the mantra over and over as the doors opened releasing passengers, closed, and the lift lurched upwards again. When they reached the ninth floor, she hesitated, almost missing her stop.As usual, the office was empty. Evelyn was nearly always the first one here. A heavy rock fell into the pit of her stomach, as memories of the previous week flashed into her head. Breathing in small pants, she moved slowly to her desk, tucked her belongings into her drawer, then stood, lost.She stared at the low stack of papers on the desk—work she’d c
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8: Unanswered Questions
Andrew couldn’t help the slight smile that pulled the corners of his lips as he exited the elevator the following morning. Though he'd told her nine o'clock and was early himself, Evelyn was already at her desk, her dark head tipped down as she focused on her work. It gave him an inexplicably hefty dose of pleasure to see it.Which made absolutely no sense at all. From top to bottom, the Trust was full of busily working people, nearly every day of the week. And he knew it wasn't simply relief not to find the horrible Mrs. Stiles and her dim-witted secretarial selection waiting imperiously instead as he had yesterday— the vile woman wouldn't dare attempt to remove Evelyn without his express approval a second time. He'd ensure it.What pleased him so about Evelyn was that she was grateful. Not that anyone else here wasn't grateful for their employment in this economy, but in her case, she was grateful specifically to him. Foolish as it seemed, Andrew rather liked that he'd both been her
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9: Meddling
Working for the vice president Mr. James was much different than working for the financer Mr. James had been. Though Andrew James’ schedule was often full from the moment he walked in the door until the end of business hours, the meetings were seldom in his office or required anything afterwards from Evelyn.She handled phone calls, and with some simple direction, assumed responsibility for Mr. James' schedule, then retrieved records for his review prior to his meetings. Aside from boxing and moving account records, the most strenuous part of her day consisted of sorting his incoming mail and getting him fresh coffee in the few minutes between meetings before he was off again. On her own desk, her typewriter was growing dusty, and she couldn't recall the last time she'd had need of her notepad.To make herself more useful, Evelyn began studying Andrew James carefully. Attempting to anticipate his needs, she grew attuned to the rhythms of his life and body quickly. Within a couple weeks
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10: Infringements
As the elevator door opened on the ninth floor, Andrew found himself face to face with Evelyn. She smiled, bumping into him like this, a cute, shy smile that lit her face, and if possible, made her even more spectacularly pretty. Beside her, a bored young man in building livery held a dolly with a stack of boxes leaned against him.“More records heading upstairs?” Andrew stepped out of the elevator, holding the door as the dolly was wheeled in and so he could talk to Evelyn as they passed each other in a simple dance.“Yes sir. The last of them," she beamed, hurrying around him. "Then it's only the content of the desks. I should be back shortly.”“Very good. I do have another meeting this afternoon—."Evelyn smiled, nodding. "Yes sir. I know. Do you need me to attend with you?""No. Not at all. Only if I miss your return, do have a good evening.”“I’ll certainly be back before you leave," she assured him with a little wave as the elevator doors closed.He was glad she was excited.Surp
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