Dust

You’ve seen Raiders of the Lost Ark right?

You know the scene at the end where the Ark of the Covenant is crated up and put in some giant warehouse along with hundreds of other boxes? I’ve always wondered what other treasures were growing cobwebs along side the Ten Commandments. Whatever else is in there I’m pretty sure my boss bought one of the items and is hiding it in plane sight.

I imagine my workplace isn’t dissimilar from yours. There are desks, chairs, computers, products, overreaction, micromanagement, etc., But what separates my work from yours is we have The American flag from the World Trade Center.

Yep. It’s here.

It showed up about two years ago. I was walking up the stairs to the owner’s office. He’s a millionaire and thus a bit on the eccentric side. It’s not uncommon to find his office littered with newspaper clippings, photos of him with people of power, and the occasional football trinket. Anyway I was taking some paperwork upstairs when I saw it. An American flag, about five feet wide and three feet tall, torn and beaten, sitting in a glass display case, leaning against the wall like it were a bicycle. At the bottom of the case was a small plaque that read: Word Trade Center. September 11th 2001.

Needless to say this was weird.

As my brain tried to solve this puzzle I stumbled into the boss’s office. He told me quite simply that it was real and that he picked it up somewhere. Then he moved on to idle chat about business. Two years later it’s still sitting in the exact same spot.

It probably isn’t real. Probably just a copy or something he found while flipping through Skymall. No, it probably isn’t real.

But what if it is?

What if one of the most important American artifacts in recent history is sitting in my office? Is that better then sitting in some warehouse? What’s in that back closet at your office? Look behind the old printer and the broken projector and see if there’s a Da Vinci gathering dust.

--Schoonaert