From Wicked to CEO

I started out as any normal child. I’d pass the days away playing silly childish games, like duck-duck goose or tag with the neighborhood children. The day I turned 10, I noticed I was different. A weird mark appeared on my hand in the shape of a moon, and my mother hid me away.

That was when it finally came out that she was a witch, and my father had been a werewolf. The witch part really had very little to do with it, but my mother was unsure whether the full moon would affect me the way it does a full blooded werewolf, so she hid me away just to be

safe. But of course she didn't count on the trauma it inflicted on me. Nothing happened to me on the full moon even then and up until now except a crippling claustrophobia that didn't exist any other time. Unfortunately that dictated everything. I lost so many jobs to the phobia

but I wasn’t going to let it stop me this time. Macy’s needed an elevator operator and I needed a job. Eight hours a day in a 50-square-foot box with strangers? I could do it. I developed a plan to keep my claustrophobia in check. It sounded crazy but I knew it would work.

I started on Monday. The uniform gave saved me some laundry money. I made up my mind to relieve the claustrophobia by stepping off the elevator at each floor, pretending to check for or direct shoppers, inspecting the lift’s shaft, whatever it took to get a moment of fresh air.

By Friday I’d familiarized myself with every floor in the building. I waited obediently until an occupant chose the penthouse and followed them out. I ran to the farthest door and flung it open. “Congratulations,” said a woman in a suit with a laser pointer. “You’re our new CEO!”