I work out of a large empty office building with an empty factory / warehouse attached. It used to belong to a company that manufactured water filters, and they rented the second floor out as office space, including a 100 seat call center, and separate space for several small businesses with bathrooms, kitchens, storage rooms, IT rooms, etc. The entire building, acres and acres, only has 3 small windows, and one entrance into a common lobby.
All of the businesses in this building have gone away, failed or moved. All the people are gone. The owner of the building keeps a nice personal office on the ground floor, an office-away-from-the-office where he can hang out with his buddies and discuss business in private with cigars and no interruptions. He keeps a part time bookkeeper here as well, and sometimes has a girl at the front desk sorting postcards for his restaurant and doing things like that.
My business was in this building too, and at one time had many employees but that is all gone. From my one little office on the second floor I keep several projects alive that my business had started, things that still have clients and bring in some money, enough to keep the projects alive anyway. And the owner of the building lets me stay here and he pays me a little bit as I work on several new business ideas that he and I have together. I've known him for almost 20 years. He's really just helping me stay on my feet while I search for opportunities.
But mainly it's just me, all alone, here in this big giant office building with a factory and warehouse attached in the middle of a large parking lot next to other industrial buildings in a big industrial park.
My car has a broken back window so I pull my car into the warehouse when it rains.
This morning it was getting cloudy, so when I pulled up, I parked in the middle of the lot and walked to the entrance. 10 minutes later (because that's how long it takes to walk from one end of the building to the other, on the inside) I unlatched and hauled open one of the large roll up freight doors, using a rusty chain. The old door made an awful loud screeching sound as I slowly dragged it higher and higher until there was room for my car to pull in under it. I walked to my car and drove it carefuly into the warehouse. I stepped outside again and figured it would be faster to walk across the parking lot than to navigate the catecomb-like dark passage ways of the inner building back to the other side, which was the side my office was on.
Near the entrance, on the other side of a small alley, there is the corner of another building with a break area. The people on break always seem to be sitting on top of a picnic table, motionless, watching the parking lot. As I was getting closer to the door I noticed a few people sitting there, watching me as I strolled toward them. I was fumbling with my keys so I would have the front door key ready by the time I reached it. When I got close enough to the people, one of them gestured to get my attention with a little wave. I waved back. I was standing at the entrance, about to unlock it and step inside.
"What do you guys do there?" he called out.
I furled by brow, looked at the ground, nibbled my upper lip for a minute, and then I said "nothing".
