The Last Magazine by Michael Hastings

Author:Michael Hastings
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-05-21T16:00:00+00:00

PART V

Homecoming

21.

Morning, Monday,

January 12, 2004

Unbundling, I sit down in my cubicle.

It’s either the coldest January in New York on record, or I’m getting old. I’ve lived most of my life in the Northeast, and Manhattan is the farthest south I’d ever called home. But this is my fourth year in the city, and my tolerance for zero degrees Fahrenheit has disappeared. A coldness without the warm feelings of FAO Schwarz and Radio City Music Hall and Macy’s window-shopping. A dead month, January is, another New Year’s without a terrorist attack on Times Square, and I, perhaps stupidly, blame the weather for how everyone acts.

Seasonal affective disorder. It’s a real phenomenon. The medical explanation, not enough sunlight. Depression and listlessness are the two well-known side effects, but there’s another one: paranoia. Self-preservation instincts, from the sidewalk to the corner office. If the sun isn’t hitting me, it’s got to be hitting someone else, much to my disadvantage. The bitterness of Fifth Avenue winds, from apartment door to subway, melted slush and running noses—the lack of eye contact noticeable. It’s like just looking someone in the eye lets a few degrees of heat escape from my eye sockets.

It’s the worst month for office intrigue.

My computer whines and sputters on. Other bundled figures limp by, fifteen minutes or so behind the usual schedule. Everyone is feeling the cold.

My Outlook program comes to life, closing a series of warnings and updates and pop-ups. The server searches something, whatever a server searches, and downloads the crate of electronic mail that has entered my address and domain overnight.

An email from Judy Givens, subject: On behalf of Henry the EIC.

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