Nothing

There are times when something you already know is confirmed to you, yet, you act in such a surprised and emotional way, as if the known reality was unthinkable and you were just thinking about that negative aspect of it all so that it would all be so much more special when it all turned out right...

I called McDonnell Douglas, it was a painful process phoning long distance back then and it took about fifteen minutes just to get through. The nice American lady at the reception asked politely about my enquiry and transferred the call to the employment department and the second nice American lady asked for my name so that she could pull up my file on the computer.

"There is no record of your application, who did you deal with at the time?"

I mumbled...

"I will transfer you to the originating department"

The phone rang and Willie Boehringer picked it up, I explained what had just happened and asked why our applications were not in the system, and, as they say, it all went quiet over there.

It had been over six months since Ray and myself had sat in that room, six months of some hope of employment in the USA and in one phone call, those six months evaporated into nothing.