stories of the street - four

The cinema had never been a great success. It had been too small to compete with others nearby but it had struggled on through the latter part of the silent movies and into the talkies. The facade had been changed when a new owner tried to revitalise the theatre’s fortunes and a new organ had been installed which was hardly ever used and fell into disrepair. It was the organ that had been that owner’s downfall and a film enthusiast with limited resources and enormous energy had run it for several years after until the real decline in cinema going finally combined with the effects of his poor health to cause the place to close.

It had since been a carpet warehouse, a roller disco, and had almost become a restaurant. For a while it was empty and almost became a McDonalds. Then a clever local business woman stirred up protest at the idea of the golden arches taking over the place and had the site handed to her for a below market price and a number of grants so that she could turn it into a range of select offices and TV production facilities.

The “up and coming” news and current affairs production company enjoys the status of being the main tenant of the building. Recently, a small design consultancy has appeared on the scene. They have rented a suite of offices at the top of the building enjoying a splendid view of the canal and sprawling city beyond which had been the exclusive view of roofing contractors and burglars until the cinema’s development three years earlier.

Today, only one person is occupying the offices of this design company. She is the office administrator and book-keeper and her name is Mary Hegley. She is brighter and more talented than either of the partners who own the company but her self-esteem is too low to admit this. Of the three other members of the company (two junior designers and the director of new business/account handling ) only the youngest woman designer has any inkling of Mary’s talents. Next year, when her son starts 6th form college and she is more sure of her finances she will do a foundation arts course in the local college. They have already accepted her and seem keen to help her onto the course.

For the moment, she assists in supporting the inflated egos of those around her and keeps the business running. Today is one of their “away days” when they spend all day brainstorming, strategy building, team building, eating, drinking and fantasising in a country house hotel about fifty miles south of the offices.

Mary fields calls, deals with emails and faxes and takes time to sort out the mess left by people who think that being creative means being undisciplined and unfocussed. She corrects her thoughts with a smile. They are not all that bad. In fact they have done some good work and the jobs they get pay well but she does not think they are destined for much more than they have achieved already. The youngest and most junior member of the team will leave them (she will be poached by one of two firms that Mary is already watching with interest) and will be working on bigger and better things within six months. The rest can keep on going, working hard to keep her employed until she feels able to leave them for her own dreams.

Mary knows well that dreams sometimes take a long time in coming.