Angel’s Flight
It was a saving grace, this new job, was going to save my marriage, my house, perhaps even my life. I was in San Francisco near the wharf. It was my first day.
The young lady at check-in said, “We need a credit card to put on file for the room.”
I hesitated. “Um, you mean you’re going to put a credit hold on my card?”
“Yes, sir. The room is paid for, but we need a deposit.”
My wife was livid. “We said we wouldn’t spend any money on the credit cards! You promised!”
“Honey, wait. They’re going to pay for everything. The room is already taken care of. It’s just…”
“You lied!”
***
It didn’t go any better after that. I did make it up to my room. The view was not toward the bay but looked over the parking lot. I threw my things down and jumped on the bed. It was awesome. I was tired. My cell phone rang.
The next morning I decided to walk to the new office. In San Francisco! I had no idea what I was in for. Even with GPS mapping, I was 15 minutes late for my onboarding. I apologized. The receptionist was cold. My HR staffer was wonderful, however. She showed me to my office. There was my new laptop. A box of warm chocolate chip cookies, and an empty room with a desk and larger external monitor and keyboard.
“I’ll come back for you at 11:45 and we’ll go have lunch in the cafeteria,” she said.
Turns out, I was hired by a guy in Austin, who didn’t really confer with the guys in San Francisco that ran the actual creative department. I was going to be a day late, plane trouble yesterday, in meeting my new actual manager. My guy was a VP or something. He was bringing on his team in Austin. I was one of those rockstars he was bringing from Dell.
At 2 pm I was cut loose from the corporate office and given an address for The Studio.
In 20 minutes I was escorted into a conference room to wait for my new manager. “He’s in a meeting.”
I texted my wife. “Things are going well. Looks amazing. I’d love to have you come visit over the weekend.”
“We don’t have the money,” she replied immediately.
Darrell walked in, a handsomely strong man with a firm grip. “We’re going to throw you right into the fire, since your late. We’ve got a client strategy meeting in 10 minutes. You can just be a fly on the wall, and start getting oriented.” And he walked out.
I sat in the empty conference room, a bit worried. Maybe the work would lighten my mood.
And blammo, I was in a meeting about some drug and it’s introduction to the American market. We were a pharma marketing firm! Oh shit. The details dragged on an on about websites, messaging matrix, the market opportunity, and competitive analysis SWOT. No introduction of me. I guess that would happen later. It never happened. Darrell later said he had it planned for my original arrival date, but it was too hard to coordinate after that.
“My plane was delayed, not much I could do about that,” I said.
“Well, you could’ve come a day early?”
“That decision was not mine, of course.”
“Of course. Okay, so how did your first day go? Be back here at 9:30 tomorrow morning and I’ll introduce you to the graphics design team.” And Derrell was gone again. I guess he was really busy. As I sat there, back in the same conference room from earlier, I got the feeling that everyone was too busy. There was no joy in any of the faces. The office was cool, modern, and well-provisioned. But the faces of the people were dire. It was like they were warning me, showing me the horror of pharma lying. Whispering, “Get out. This place will kill your soul.”
***
I started walking back to the hotel but got lost down a deadend culdesac. I flagged down a cab once I found my way back to the main street. The message light was blinking.
“The company filed the credit card for the incidental charges,”said the nice lady on the other end.
I called my wife. “Hey hon, wanted to let you know, they’ve fixed the credit card charge.”
“Great,” she said. “It never should have happened.”
“Hey, can we please stay positive at least for the first week of my new job? I think our money problems are over.”
“It’s not enough!”
“What are you talking about, it’s one hundred thousand dollars!”
“We’ve got bills today, that I can’t pay.”
“Please, baby. Pause. Breathe. It’s going to be okay. We’re safe now. I got the job. We’re getting health insurance paid for by someone else. We’ll catch up on the bills.”
“Yeah. The charge still shows up on the credit card account.”
“What?”
“There’s still a two hundred dollar hold on the account!” She was yelling now.
I made my way to the nearby famous In-and-Out Burger. Meh. Not sure what the big hype is about. It was a lovely fall evening as I strolled down the wharf watching the people and the sunset lighting the bay with a golden glow. I was lonely. I missed my kids and my wife. I wanted to share this amazing moment of hope with someone.
***
I called my wife the next day, a Thursday. “Honey, I’ve got an idea. I’ve spoken with my mom and she will take the kids. Why don’t you come out to San Francisco tomorrow and we’ll have a weekend here by the bay, have a little getaway.”
“We don’t have the money.”
“We can catch up on the bills.”
“It’s too much. To hard. The kids will be upset.”
“No they won’t. A weekend at Nana’s?”
“I can’t come. I don’t want to spend the money.”
“I’ve looked into flights. The total cost will be $600 round-trip. And I can get you a seat on my return flight. No problem.”
“I’m not coming.”
Read more Short-Short Stories from John.
