The Stenographer - Chapter 3, Chocolate

"Are you alright there, sweet pea?" asked Roy? "Oh, god, I'm so embarrassed, sorry about that," Sunny blushed and looked down at her toes, then back up at Roy. "I'm Roy Thaxton; you probably know that already." "Uh, yes, I know you work with Wayne. I've seen you; I'm Sunny. And you probably know that." Sunny's heart pounded as they shook hands, but Roy, so ultra smooth in manner, conveyed a sense of self-assuredness that washed over her sensibilities and put her at ease. She could not deny that she enjoyed the warm feel of his palm pressed into her own. Roy pulled out a bag of Raisinets and offered to Sunny. She suppressed a laugh She thought it odd that he carried candy around with him; it just didn't seem to match with his cool guy persona, but Sunny was a freak for any type of chocolate so she accepted. Roy shook the bag, spilling the candies into her cupped hand and kept at it until Sunny said, "Whoa, no more!" Roy took the bag and funneled the rest of the chocolate covered raisins into his mouth.

The Stenographer - Chapter 2

Sunny Parker took a job for which she was well suited. She aced all of her shorthand and business classes in high school. She was offered the job on the same day she interviewed at the FBI before the end of her senior year, her skills were that much in demand. Sunny was pleased with herself, garnering a salary much higher than any of her friends'. Sunny had an "off and on" boyfriend, Jay Noble, but like Sunny, he was shy and considered a geek, so suffice to say that Sunny was still a virgin, which for the times and given that she was raised Catholic, was not so strange. In 1969, granny dresses had been the rage, but the styles soon went shorter, and by the end of that year, Sunny owned a couple of short wool skirts that showed off her great legs - not "great" as in large, but "great" as in alluring. At work, she was most often assigned to take dictation from the Vice and Gambling squads, and the agents noticed her because 1)her work was without flaw, 2)she laughed at their jokes, and 3)she was considered "real cute." She liked Special Agent (SA) Wayne Floyd the best. Wayne was from the South, and Sunny thought his accent adorable, but SA Floyd was 25 years old, and to Sunny, he might as well have been 40 - or 50, because she was barely 18. She created his reports special just for him, with centered headings and fancy fonts when she could manage it, and he ate it up. He made a point of telling her steno pool friends (in his sultry southern drawl,) "Why, look at how pretty Sunny made this." But Wayne was a gentlman. It was his street partner, Roy Thaxton, an agent she had yet to work with, who seemed to observe her with a nonchalant curiosity. He bumped into her one morning in the break room, which made her feel nervous, yet intrigued. Her intuition told her that "the bump" had been on purpose. Roy rode the same train to New Jersey as Sunny. One evening, they were standing in the doorway of the crowded speedline car across from each other. The train jerked hard, and to save herself, Sunny instictively extended her hand, which awkwardly landed on Roy's chest. Roy smiled and officially introduced himself.

The Stenographer - Barely Legal

Inspired by a piece of fiction written and read by one of my MFA faculty, I felt obligated to create a separate body of work "on the side" so to speak. So with no further introduction . . . I shall begin. The Stenographer Lunchtime in the city. Most of the girls who work on the fifth floor of the Widener Building, home to the Philadelphia office of the FBI, are out browsing shoes at Wanamaker's department store on Chestnut Street, or stuffing down lunch at McGillin's Pub while blathering on about their boyfriends. But not Sunny Parker. She is dining at the counter of Chock-Full-o'-Nuts luncheonette alone. She orders a cheeseburger, no fries, and a cup of coffee with extra cream. Shy by nature, Sunny does not prefer to dine without a companion, but today, as has been the custom lately, she has mustered up the courage to lunch solo at the cougter. Across from her sits Roy Thaxton, Special Agent.