Three Steps, No Lift: Sofia Goes Back to Work

Eleven days into her pink cast, Sofia, 27, decided she was done working from the sofa. There was one problem: the office has three steps at the front door and no lift.

Day 11 · The night before

She packed her bag like it was the first day of school. Laptop, charger, a soft cushion, a spare sock for the toes that stick out of the cast. Her sister texted a photo of the T-shirt. Good things take time. Sofia replied with a crutch emoji and went to bed early.

The plan was simple. Leave forty minutes before everyone else. No tram this time. A taxi to the door, and a slow, careful climb.

08:10 · Three steps

From the taxi window, the three steps looked like a mountain. Up close they were just three steps. She had practised at home on the single step into the kitchen: good leg up, then the crutches, then the pink leg swinging along behind.

Step one. Step two. On step three the door swung open and Ines from accounts appeared with a coffee in each hand.

"I was going to carry you," Ines said. "But you look like you have a system."

"I have a system," Sofia said, slightly out of breath. "It just takes three minutes."

09:00 · The desk problem

A straight leg does not fit under a desk. Sofia had not thought about that. The pink cast stuck out into the walkway like a traffic barrier.

The team solved it in ten minutes. Someone turned the desk sideways. Someone else found a low footstool in the meeting room. Ines brought a folded jacket to rest under the heel.

By the first coffee break, three people had signed the cast. By lunch, someone had drawn a tiny tram on the ankle, with an arrow and the words "mind the step".

12:30 · Lunch logistics

Carrying a tray on crutches is impossible. Sofia learned this in about four seconds. So the team ate together at her desk, which turned into the most social lunch the office had seen in months. People she had only ever nodded at came by to ask about the colour.

"Why pink?" asked the new intern.

"Because I had a choice," she said. "And six weeks is a long time to look at white."

I was scared of the steps. Nobody warned me the hardest part would be the desk.

17:45 · The way home

Going down was slower than going up. Ines walked beside her, not helping, just there. At the bottom, Sofia stood for a moment on the pavement, breathing, and laughed at how proud she felt about three steps.

At home she put the leg up on two cushions and counted the signatures. Seven, and one tram. Not bad for a Monday.

Next episode: Sofia's best friend has a birthday dinner on the second floor of a restaurant with a narrow staircase. Sofia says yes anyway.