“Thank you for calling Channel 6, your choice in local news coverage. This is Stacy, how may I direct your call?” The voice of our receptionist Stacy can be heard throughout the station’s common area as she answers the phone. I approach her desk to pick up a manilla envelope before making my way to our News Director’s office.
“Good morning, Stace!” I whisper quietly with a quick wave and a smile so as to not disturb her call.
“Morning, Jenna!” Stacy responds quietly after covering her phone’s microphone with her right hand and a quick twinkle with the fingers of her left hand.
“Yes Ma’am, I understand, and…” Stacy says before being interrupted by the disgruntled woman on the phone. Stacy leans over into her desk filing cabinet to search for the envelope I stopped to retrieve.
“I completely agree Ma’am, last night’s expose on chicken egg hatching was a bit one sided, but we try to…” Stacy looks at me and rolls her eyes as she is again interrupted by the questionably unstable woman on the phone. I cover my mouth and chuckle at the absurdity of Stacy’s conversation. Stacy presses her microphone’s mute button on her phone as the woman can still be heard berating her through Stacy’s earpiece.
“Jenna.. Jenna.. Jenna..” Stacy says as she claws through the drawer.
“ Ah ha!” Stacy exclaims as she reveals the envelope.
“Here you go.” She says, extending her arm to hand me the envelope, all the while the woman on the phone can still be heard complaining through the headset.
“Alan wants you to look this story over and type something up on it. Something to do with the price of regular peas versus organic peas. I don’t know.” She says with a shrug.
“Ugh… Stacy, are you kidding me?” I question in a defeated voice.
“How am I ever going to become an anchor with this kind of crap?” I wonder aloud as I seriously begin to question the validity of my career choice.
“I don’t assign ‘em, Hun. I’m just the middle man.” Stacy says with a shrug.
“I know, I know. It’s just frustrating.” I say as I open the folder and look down at it’s contents.
“Don’t worry, Kid. You’ll catch that big break one day. You think Gail was always pulling the high profile stories that she does? Hell no. Plus you’ve got 3 times the talent and 10 times the charm. You’ll be just fine.” Stacy says with a wink and a smile before unmuting her phone again.
“Yes Ma’am, I do understand the difference between a hen and a chicken.” Stacy replies to the woman.
“Thanks, Stace.” I say quietly with an enthusiastic smile. Stacy covers her microphone again before saying:
“You got it, Kiddo.” I turn and begin to walk down the hall toward our programming director Alan Edwards’ office.
“Yes Ma’am, I am listening to you, and you’ve really made some interesting points.” Stacy can be heard saying in the background. I shake my head, roll my eyes and snicker as I continue down the hallway to Alan’s office.
