One Shot | September Writing Prompts

TWO | Redacted

Thomas spent the entire morning pouring over the documents he received earlier that morning. It took three months to get these documents from the so called "Tiny Labs." One legal hurdle after another forced him and his team to wait for the proper documentation. Now that he had it, he was filled with disappointment and frustration. He pushed himself away from the desk forcefully and pressed his thumb and forefinger against the bridge of his nose and tired eyes. There was no way around it. He needed to go back to the books and find the right records and procedures to gain access to the lab. The entire team would be working overtime, again.

He felt a rush of relief interrupting his thoughts with the quick sequence of knocks on his office door. "Come on in," he called, a smile spreading on his face to see Ali peek through the opening door.

"Hey Thomas," said Ali. She held a plate of leftovers from the night before. "You worked through lunch again. Thought we'd bring you this."

"I'm the one who reminded her!" Thomas glanced to Ali's shoulder, only now seeing Hickory perched on Ali's shoulder. She was swinging her legs like she was on a bar stool.

"Oh. Hi Hickory. Thanks," Thomas took the plate gratefully.

"No biggie. Whatcha lookin' at?" asked Hickory, her pouting lips turning into a sassy grin. She leaned further over and pointed to the hundreds of bound booklets and pages on Thomas's desk.

"Apparently nothing," groaned Thomas between bites. "The lab finally responded to the document request, but redacted basically every piece of valuable information."

"You've got to be kidding me!" moaned Ali as she stepped up to the desk, eyes flicking to the only words available on each page. "This is just a sorry excuse for blackout poetry. They're just trying to buy time at this point."

"What's redacted?" whispered Hickory to Ali. Unfortunately for Hickory, Ali was distracted by the hundreds of pages of blank inked documents.

"They have to know we're just going to use this to prove they're hiding something, right?" continued Ali.

"Legally, the process is slow. But hopefully bringing these documents forward plus the emails will bring about results," replied Thomas. He sounded positive, but a lingering undertone of frustration meant he wasn't as optimistic as he portrayed.

"Hey, what's redacted?" asked Hickory, slightly louder this time.

"I mean, seriously! I hate this..." Ali's growling rage was suddenly interrupted by Hickory reaching up and yanking her earring. "Ouch." Ali winced and instantly focused on Hickory's determined glare.

"Hey! Don't you ignore me Ginormica! What does 'redacted' mean?" Thomas grinned watching Hickory's dynamics easily overpower Ali despite their obvious differences.

"Redacted basically means the document was edited to obscure the results. See these black lines? They gave us the documentation we requested, but left out the details and possibly incriminating evidence. They're being difficult," explained Ali. "And could you not yank so hard on my earrings? You're going to pull one out one of these days."

"I wouldn't need to pull your earrings if you answered my questions the first time and got out of your head. You're making me pull your earrings to get answers. How inconsiderate," scolded Hickory.

"Regardless," interrupted Thomas. "Our rep will see this as an obstruction and know what we need to do. In the meantime, we need to go back and see if we missed anything for our case." Ali nodded and raised her hand instinctively to her left shoulder. Hickory slid from Ali's collar bone and stumbled onto the extended hand.