I was holding this so-called Honestick in my hand at Jeff’s apartement.
“Would you please not risk that gadget, Na?”
“What do you mean?”
“You are sitting by my window, Na.”
I forgot that I was. I just liked doing that whenever I was in Jeff’s apartement—sitting by his window, leaning my back on the wall and holding my knee and smoking and sometimes playing guitar. I decided to put the Honestick on a desk within ny reach without changing my sitting position.
“I am nervous.”
“Doesn’t take a genius to know.”
“Doesn’t take Honestick as well?”
“Unless you want to look more nervous.”
I was quiet. Jeff was, too. He was busy reading this thick book that I would rather sleep on.
“I think I will give it a try.”
“Obviously.”
“What do you mean?”
“I meant obvious, right?” He stopped staring at his book and looked at me. “You see, Na, we come up with great products that everyone needs. We sell.”
“You mean, we WILL sell.”
“I know. I know. All those gadgets have not been publicly sold, I know. And yes, we WILL sell.”
“And so I am your guinea pig.”
“Well,...you want it.”
“I NEED it.” And then I added:
“Well, better go now. See you tomorrow for the complete repot, Mr. Godbloom.”
“I hate you.”
“Yeah, but you need me.” I stood up, said goodbye, went out, headed home, cleaned up and got some rest. Tomorrow would be my big day.
I was in my room. It was the room that I love as well as I hate the most. The room is where I function best. I have the authority to judge people’s characters. I determine their next life. I play God. This very room was also the room I failed people. I had the moments of imagining what they did after they left me. I could actually see that some of them had despair in their eyes even long before they finished the initial interview. And that day, I would feel everything again.
“Mr. McPherson, how are you?”
“Max. I’m just fine. How about you?”
“I’m great.”
“Only one interviewer?”
“Today, yes. I believe it’s ok for you?”
“Well,... either way it’s fine for me.”
“Good. Let’s start. Today we are going to have an initial interview for the post that you apply for Jones Brothers. Can you start by telling me a little bit about yourself?”
He answered my one question in 15 minutes full of a concise history about himself. He was a man of language, I guess. But it was not enough for me.
“Your answers are very amazing, Sir.”
“Thanks.”
“Anyway, which one of your successes do you feel proud of the most?”
“Well,... achieving almost 80% of trainers’ development objective would be the one.”
He continued with another history on his killer program.
“How did you come up with the idea, anyway?” Before asking that question, I gave myself a short time to reach inside my pocket to turn on the switch of HONESTICK.
“It was my idea.” A double speed answer.
“Can you elaborate it, please?”
“What do you mean?”
Why did he raise his glasses? What for?
“Where did you get the idea of the program?”
“Well,...” a bit too long pause. “I observe data. I am man of data. I just believe in it. Data are always good.
He did repetition of the same idea for several times.
“The numbers told me to do something about it.” After answering the question, he went silent.
“I believe that you don’t mind giving more elaboration.”
“Or are you having a DNA problem?” I added that inside my heart.
“Well,... I interpreted the areas to be improved on some trainers. I took actions.”
“O…K…” My tone was full of dissatisfaction.
“Did you face some problems in doing so?”
“Mmm...not really. Nothing in particular.”
Hiding something, Mr. McPherson?
“Would you be a bit more open about it?”
“You want me to go technical?”
“Let’s see.”
“But it’s going to be very technical. Is education your expertise?”
“It will be if necessary.”
“It’s truly truly technical. Well,…I,…anyway, is the air conditioner off? It’s hot in here.”
“The air con is fine. Try me, Mr. McPherson. I got a good background on education.”
“O, really? You studied education?”
“I am not the one being interviewed, Sir.” My tone was sharp. And my decision had to be, too. But my boss wanted facts. Luckily I did my homework.
“Sir,…I have been checking your previous companies. It seems that you conducted projects in where you worked that are similar with the projects in your previous companies. I see patterns.” I kept silent afterwards and he did, too.
After some times he said:
“I do not see anything wrong with that?”
“I do.” I gave a pause to highlight the issue. “The fact that Jones Brothers is the most leading educational company with killer projects is your interest, I believe?”
“Improve..” He gulped a while before continuing “Improvement. We need that.”
“And for how long do you plan to stay?”
“After I got it all. I mean,…”
It seemed that he slipped the first sentence. He went on blabbing on how improvement is important for people in education…as it were not for anyone else?
The day after that I went to my boss’ office with a “NO” for McPherson. He asked why. I would love to tell him about Honestick. But I gave him the recording I prepared for the interview instead. He wanted proof,...proof he got! (with Honestick and a tape recorder—old and new)
-Je-
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