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said hello to her as he passed by her desk and walked into his office, closing the door behind him. He walked to his desk, laying his briefcase on top and then sat down in his high back leather chair. Then he glanced around his office.
    He was promoted to this job a year ago. He had first come to FEMA almost seven years ago and had worked his way up in the organization. With the new job came the office. It is a spacious twenty-foot square office. Dark oak paneling covered the walls. Three matching four-drawer cabinets were against the wall to the right of his desk. Ahead of him, was a 46-inch flat panel television. He kept it tuned to CNN, who always managed to be the first on the scene to any disaster. For now, the TV was off. Nothing major was going on.
    Fitzpatrick looked down at his desk. It was six feet long and dark oak. The only thing on top was his computer. Everything else he kept locked inside, away from inquiring eyes. Mainly from his boss.
    To his right is a wall of ceiling-to-floor windows, which look out over the Washington skyline. He could see the Capitol building and a variety of other Federal office buildings from here, but not the White House. Still, it was an impressive sight.
    When he first got the job, he loved it. He still does, but he had begun to hate it here. Not the job, just one person in particular. Three months ago, in early May, Glen Harper became the Administrator of FEMA. From then on, Fitzpatrick’s life here went downhill. No matter what he did, either Harper took credit for it or he chastised him for doing things behind his back. To make matters worse, it had been a busy summer.
    It is now late August and the weather occurrences are beginning to wind down. That is if another hurricane doesn’t kick up in the Atlantic. They were still reeling from Hurricane Marco that had hit Texas a month ago. He had spent two weeks down there. It had been hard work, but he was satisfied they had served the people and the state and now lives were getting back to normal.
    After the debacle of Katrina a few years ago, the situation of the trailers was the problem. When he first got the job, he made this his prime focus. A safe home was the most important way of making people feel things would get better; that all was not lost. They no longer used the simple temporary trailers they had used before. Now, they were using commercial grade, long-term mobile homes. It had become obvious that many people did not have the financial means to rebuild. The only solution was the permanent trailers.
    It had taken him a while to work out the logistics, so when Hurricane Marco hit Texas a month ago, this was the trailers first trial. Because many of the local residents were poor, he came up with the idea to place the trailers on the lots where the destroyed homes used to be. The city and county councils approved of the idea, and State and local officials in Texas approved of the trailers too. Now, there were no more trailer parks, unless it was necessary. No more formaldehyde problems. Of course, the lots had to be prepared. They had to be able to tie down the trailer, and have water and utility connections hooked up. But, they had worked out all the problems.
    Fortunately, hundreds of volunteers had come in to lend a hand. Once the hurricane was over, they came in droves to help with the clean up and settling people back in their homes or the mobile homes. Reports told him over half of the displaced people were now living in the mobile homes. He was sure the mobile homes were better than the houses some of the people had lived in before; based on the debris he had seen.
    Fitzpatrick sighed and leaned back in his chair. Yes, it was a good idea. He was glad people appreciated his idea of the trailers.
    The downside was that Harper had been claiming it was his idea for the past three weeks. When Harper came into FEMA, Fitzpatrick had conferred with him on what he was working on. Even showed him the plans he had developed.