DICHOTOMY™

• MUNDANE •

"Ms. Bridgette! Would you be a dear and check the program code structure before you proceed for your lunch? Thank you!" A young senior chirped before she rushed out to the cafeteria.

Alex huffed in despondence. This was the only time she could manage to take a break and gorge down the delicious lunch Dani had been packing her routinely.

She was more than grateful. They were healthy, delicious and wholesome. Nothing could beat it.

And in the so-called "food-hub", which was no short of a big five-star restaurant and some Paris-elitist bakeries and cafe, even a bottle of some good orange juice would cost 20$. Only water was free.

Everything was all fancy and imported, she just never tried out since day one. She had to save money.

The people here were also so conscious of the smallest of things. They avoided homemade food like plague. Apparently, they were too "oily" or "mainstream".

Also, Alex liked to have her meal comfortably like a human, without any glances on her that questioned her eating habits on the basis of their oh-so-sophisticated "table manners", which looked more robotic than human.

So, she had no choice but to enjoy her meal in a secluded corner of the West wing's 44th floor, one floor below her. She had designated the corner has her secret-spot.

′Hah! As if you weren't commoners once.′ she had mentally scoffed on the day of realization.

Though there were both people from elitist and ordinary backgrounds here;

once the water and wine diluted, who can tell the difference?

She rolled her eyes and settled down on the computer desk across hers and started working on the code. A wave of relief washed down her body as she saw that there was not much to check. Just a few indentation errors and run-time corrections. And with that, her fingers got on to work.

During her past one month as an intern here, she had found the place quite amicable; contrary to what she had the first impression of the place. She had expected something stricter and more uptight.

But here, as long as you did your work on point, no one bothers you. Although, they could be overbearing and stump their work on a junior intern like her. But she had no choice other than to listen to them and remain in their good pages, if she wanted to remain at peace and unnoticed at her job.

In the initial week, she had noticed their judging and scrutinizing, and often disgusted and disgusting gazes upon her. She had involuntarily eavesdropped on some of them talking ill about her, about her body and work. About how "ugly" or "fat" she was.

She felt horrible, but she just brushed it off and never responded or bashed out at them. This was nothing new to her. She was used to it. At least they didn't bully her like in the past.

Gradually, it all died down and silenced. And no one and nothing had bothered her anymore.

And it was good for her. Because initially, people here had tried to talk her out of her little bubble. But those were usually about her personal life which she preferred to avoid, or some cliché or nonsensical office trends or social trends which she didn't know about or could care less about.

She looked like a special attraction panda from a zoo that people looked as a spectacle - considering the fact that she was the first ever intern the firm ever hired.

They saw how the girl avoided any communication more than a nod or any conversation longer than a word, lucky if it was even a full sentence. She would always avoid personal questions, except her name, age, and probably the fact that she was from the prestigious Frostford.

Some were also weirded out by the fact that the girl was so young to be a fourth-year student. She was just twenty-one, and kids her age would be completing their second year. So, she was running two-years ahead. That too with a scholarship and having a chance at early graduation at someplace most prestigious like Frostford.

But, most of them did not quite have the very noticeable first. The miasma around her would be eerie quiet.

Holed up at her desk, she would remain quiet and completely devoted to her work the entire time and would rarely take breaks, except lunchbreaks.

So, they deemed her an unapproachable one and isolated away from her.

She didn't care that she had once again failed to socialize. If she would try small-talk and involvement, it will become a huge, exhausting mess.

So now, she would just sit at the corner of the big, glamorous workspace belonging to the Data Research and Structuring team of 12 people, on a small white podium with her laptop. All alone.

No one except Mrs. Heckles would try to make a conversation with her; she too would only speak to her when it was something related to her work.

But she acknowledged her hard work as a senior. She was a stern, uptight lady in her mid-40′s. And she was the serious one at all times.

But she saw how creative, sharp and keen the younger one was; however quiet she was, Alex was always the soft spoken and polite one. Other than the rest of the 25 or above year olds who took this job just for the sake of it.

Therefore, she would try her best as her mentor to educate her on different principles of the subject and provide her far more and great learning opportunities.

And for that, Alex was very much thankful to her. She had noticed how to everyone, Mrs. Heckles came off as an "obnoxious workaholic".

But Alex admired the iron grit of that lady. The work in this Law giant was tiring and strenuous even for an intern like her. You know it was tough when as soon as you reached home, you would not even make it to your couch without going out like light, with all your muscles aching and eyes threatening to shut and sleep.

Yet she was here as a top-tier criminologist here, among the ones who actually had the privilege to be granted their own office on the 51st floor of the administrative positions. She could only imagine her work being infinitesimally multiplied and placed on Mrs. Julia's shoulders. Yet she did not tether.

And although her work was not as complex as she had anticipated eagerly, but still it was quiet intriguing to be engaged in something as intriguing as this; something you have been fantasizing as a child, was satisfying and mind-blowing enough.

And the difference between the practical stuff and the theoretical stuff was like heaven and earth. She had read a lot in books and articles. But to get your own hands on that, every new thing which she learned thrilled her.

It tingled a spark in her nerves over how much something out-of-the-box and beyond human thinking and imaginative capabilities could be deduced and created using technology.

It thrilled her how something one or she could not ever dream and imagine in her wildest dreams and imagination could exist and create and be created.

It thrilled her more how such practices along with bewildering psychological stunts were being introduced and endorsed in something as complicated and intricate as the Justice and Law sector, specifically in something as sensational and adventurous as predicting and analyzing and preventing heinous crimes.

It was arduous, but worth it. This feeling was like a sharp kick to her senses. For the first time in several years did she experience a feeling so overwhelmingly foreign, something other than horrible, unexplainable feelings inside her.

Although the stagnant seas of her heart were still so still, nothing wavered them yet again. Only a thunderstorm could, which she did not want.

So, she wanted to enjoy what she could, while she could.