Then I must have hit some kind of time warp. Yesterday and again today I
found myself back in the same old office, with the same phone extension,
the same co-workers, wearing a badge with the same old picture (the one
taken when I had a beard), and plowing through stacks of pages, red pencil
in hand, in my inimitable style. I'm eating the same lunches in the same
cafeteria and driving the same 10 miles to and from the office. This is
very weird! Perhaps I will wake up and find it is just a dream, like the
ones where I'm back in the Navy or in college.
What triggered the time warp, actually, was a phone call from my former
boss, who has some manuals to get out before Christmas, and wanted to rent
my body for two or three weeks. Since my cash flow had begun to turn
negative, it seemed like a good idea to sign up with the temp agency WDL
uses (for a few bucks more than I had made as a regular employee, of
course) and report back to the office.
Actually it's kind of nice to be back with my friendly co-workers, who give
the impression they actually missed me, and reconnect with the "real world"
of employment, especially when I know it's only temporary and I can leave
any time I feel like it.
But it does feel surreal, like a flashback in a badly edited movie.
Harry Gordon
P14 #234, Manatee
Mountain View, CA