(This is a very rough, partial first draft. It's been drifting around in my mind for years in the form of several images. Not really sure where it's going to go.)

She hadn’t expected to get the interview here. For once she had told the whole truth.  She had seen the help wanted information online and was intrigued—it promised mystery and adventure. It also asked a lot—high grades, of course, and a much more scientific and technical grounding than her English lit and philosophy majors gave. But her grades had been superb and she was also applying to grad school for a PhD. So she didn’t have infinitely much riding on it and wanted to see what would happen. She supposed it was maybe for a CIA job or some such. That would be an interesting interview. And, to her astonishment, she was asked in for an interview.

It also surprised her that she was summoned to a sleek highrise in the most extravagant business part of New York City, The men at the desk in the lobby had to check her identify, but there she was, on their paperwork. She didn’t see any other names, either. The lobby person eyed her with interest and wished her luck. She blinked with surprised as she said “Thank you!” He smiled and said, “Interesting place, I gather.” She nodded and headed off to the elevator bank he indicated.

It seemed a long elevator ride and she wished that, as she’d approached the building, she’d looked up to see more of it. She hadn’t and now she was even more surprised when the elevator stopped, the doors opened, and she was faced with a nearly empty corridor. Opposite her was another elevator door—not connected to the lobby. There had been no matching door down there in that position. Next to it was a bronze plaque with the name of the company she was visiting and under the name was a button. She pressed it. Immediately, the doors opened on a dramatically beautiful elevator.  Its walls, ceiling and, astonishingly, the floor were a very dark blue, embedded with stars. She realized with embarrassment she was gaping at it, shut her mouth, and stepped in, fearing a little that she might be stepping into a twilit sky and about to fall,

She didn’t. The doors closed and the elevator began to move. There was no button to press inside, so she simply waited.

This time the ride was even longer than the last and she began to be seriously worried. But eventually it ended and with a soft and beautiful chime, the doors opened.

The office she stepped into carried the same motif of blue surroundings and stars. Clashing with this was office furniture, normal although obviously very expensive. Two desks, some couches, and the desks had high end, but otherwise ordinary computers on them. The phones were odd, though—they were embedded in a sizable base that  had what looked like screens rising up out of them. She couldn’t figure that out, but had no real time to think about it for a sleek woman at one of the desks stood up, speaking her name. She answered , and the woman said. “Good, right on time.” She then said something Linea didn’t catch to the young man who sat at the other desk. Linea glanced at him and blinked—he was the most gorgeous young man she had ever seen in her life, including in movies and on TV.

He nodded to the woman. She stood and motioned to Linea to accompany her. Odd. It was almost as if she was asking the man for permission. Well, maybe he was some sort of gate guard.

Then her attention was pulled elsewhere. The floor surface she walked upon was not smooth flooring. Nor was it carpeting (which it didn’t look like anyway). Rather, it felt as if she were walking though a layer of water.  She looked down in shock, wondering what  it would do to her very expensive job-interview shoes. But she didn’t miss the quick glance her guide shot the guard or whatever he was and the nod they gave each other. And instantly the feeling of walking though water disappeared. She tried not to be too obvious about checking out the status of her shoes—they looked perfectly all right. She couldn’t quite refrain from shaking her head in puzzlement, but it was a very brief shake and, she hoped, inconspicuous.