Oh shoot! Another long queue by the train station ticket counter. Nick cliques his tongue in annoyance at the long winding line of weary commuters making their way home or where ever. Nick wipes his brow with the fancy pretty handkerchief that his grandma sent him for his birthday. Grandma Pat. She was a shrewd one that. With her melodramatic way of explaining life’s problems away. Shrewd with a pinch of insanity and a chance of dementia. Somewhere a baby breaks into a loud siren like sounding wail which brings him back to reality and he makes it back just in time to catch the annoyed look he’s getting from the ticket clerk who’s waiting to serve him.
Nicholas reckons that he is somewhat of a job interview veteran. In fact , he has a sneaky suspicion that the reason why the recruiters always greet him by name is because they all know him . He has applied to so many adverts that every recruiter around town knows his contact details by heart. He also reckons he is an accomplished job search celebrity.
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Another stack of CVs is dropped with a rather loud thud onto her desk right in front of her. This is getting rather ridiculous now. With thousands of people in this country looking for jobs , one would think it would be fairly painless to get someone with the right qualities for the job . The last guy she had thought was a good option turned out to be a liar and a cheat. He had written down his girlfriend’s number as his reference. It didn’t help him that he had been caught sleeping with his girlfriend’s sister just about the time his reference was about to get checked. Vanessa, the would be ex girlfriend spilled her gut together with the proverbial beans to the potential employer. Oh dear Lord! Well i suppose this was God coming through for her after she had made a point of asking for His help. So, with a weary heart, a tinge of faith and a sprinkle of hope, Terry buckles down and attacks the pile of CVs with renewed vigour.
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Another Monday. Another interview. Oh well, better get on with it then. Over the past few days Nick had decided that it was time to take his faith for a test drive and trust God with all his issues. And God had better be ready because Nick believed he had more issues than the longest running local tabloid. And so, our Nick got busy with his preparations.
Meanwhile…
Another Monday. Two interviews . Terry had finally put her faith to the test and asked and trusted God to lead her through the CV stack. The result had been 1, well 2. One CV she had felt absolutely led and well the second one she had used her reasoning , good school, good address etc. They were both good candidates hence she was meeting both of them today.
Well hello Monday, time to Giddyup!
Terry got comfortable as she took a seat in one of the visitors’ chairs in the reception. She felt this was the only way she could truly see how the candidates were when the boss was not watching. This was also another way of determining the value they put on punctuality. Time was one of her to priorities. That and respect. How people managed their time. If they kept time at all. At 9:45 the one candidate arrived , checked in at reception and she recognised the name as that of the candidate she had chosen for herself. She felt proud. She had chosen well. He looked distinguished. And so he took the seat right next to hers and promptly asked if she was here for the same interview to which she replied yes. At 9:55 the second one arrived looking slightly flustered and checked in with the receptionist. He greeted everyone and found a seat. Terry listened with amusement as Mr Distinguished proceeded to interrogate 9:55 in a rather condescending tone.
By 10am , Terry had her mind made up. She had her man. As earlier instructed, the receptionist called out Miss Terry Mol and said out directions to the boss’s office. As Terry walked past, she thought she heard a lascivious remark from Mr Distinguished , she wasn’t sure until she looked back and to her dismay he winked at her. She was still reeling from that incident when she met Pat the tea lady in the passage. Terry wanted to get on with the interviews but couldn’t help noticing that Pat was not her usual cheery self. Terry cared for Pat so much that she couldn’t bring herself to walk past without finding out what the problem was. Pat explained how she had been tackled and then almost robbed round the corner from the office . And how a distinguished looking young man had scolded her for grabbing at his pants as she had tried to get his attention. But also praised God for the life of the young man who had run after the thief , tackled and retrieved her purse. The young man had come back and helped her up before running off to his interview. Terry saw to Pat, gave her the day off and proceeded to her office.
For Nick , this had been quite the busy morning. When she had seen the plight of that old lady, he couldn’t very well walk away from that. He had imagined it had been his grandma and that had settled it. He was determined to make things right for the woman and so he had run after the ‘perp’ . Perp is what they call the bad guys on CSI. On his way back from retrieving the lady’s purse, he had seen the guy brushing off the dust from his trousers where the old lady had grabbed hold of him. What a jerk! He had been taken aback when he saw that the guy was coming for the same interview. To top it off , that jerk was making the move on that pretty lady who went in first. Oh well, today he wasn’t worrying about nothing.” God must worry ,it’s His turn this week.” And has he lifted his head up from the magazine he had been pretending to read, he saw the old lady from earlier. She looked much better than the last time he had seen her. He wondered what she was doing here. At the same time old Pat noticed the young man from earlier and realised that he was here for the job that Terry had told her about. It took her a split second to notice Mr Shameless who was obviously also here for the job. It took all of her restraint not to spin around on her heels to go to Terry. No, she couldn’t bear to be the one to cheat anyone out of a job. Maybe Mr Shameless was having one of those days. God knows we all have them. Instead , she walked over to the helpful young man and offered the only thing she knew she could . Well it had been the only thing she could think of. To some it was nothing and to others , herself included , it was everything. She held his hands and instructed him to close hs eyes but to keep his heart open and proceeded to pray for him. She blessed him and those who had a hand in the kind of man he was and implored God to grant him all that was his portion.
So far so good . Terry had decided to ignore his earlier remarks. She wished she had recorded the expression on his face when he had realised that she was the boss. It had taken him all of a minute to recover from the shock. Everything had been going so well until she asked him about time management. He took his time seriously. And he went on to explain like how that very morning he had been determined to get to the interview early and how an old hag had been groping his leg with her dirty paws. Terry wrapped up the interview and was about to give him the ‘ we’ll call you after a week’ speech but decided to rather offer him the truth. She told him she wasn’t going to call him back because he was disrespectful towards others. His failure to lend a help coupled with the way he had spoken to her earlier had left her with a bad taste in her mouth.
Just as old Pat was wrapping up her prayer, the other young man came past with a pained look on his face. Pat said goodbye and wished Nick well. Nick watched her go and when she reached the main door she turned around and said to him, ” See you tomorrow .” This puzzled Nick , but not for long because he was now convinced that his granny was not the only crazy old lady. His name was finally called. As he walked down the passage he was disappointed that he had missed Miss Mol on her way out. It was all Pat’s fault he reckoned.
To say Terry was hopeless would exactly be true but to say she was hopeful wouldn’t exactly be true. When Nick walked into the office and looked at the boss,he couldn’t help smiling. Miss Mol was the boss! In that very moment Miss Mol realised that this was the guy Pat had spoken about. And he had such an endearing smile too. He had run after a dangerous criminal , helped an old lady he did not know and had still made it in time for his interview. The rest of the interview went well and it felt like he was the one her company had been needing and for him all the other interviews fell away. He realised that all the doors that had been shut in his face had left him available to enter into this open door. God had indeed come through for the both of them.
Nick of Time
27 Sunday Jul 2014
Posted Uncategorized
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