Just When it was Getting Good

I was offered a ride back to the office by a middle-management type in a car that was not only not her, but one she came into rather suddenly. My combination of admiration for the car and advice on it's poor performance in right-around-the-corner winter conditions must have been seen as some remarkable act of kindness, because she was about to make me a beneficiary of her attempts to conceal a fair amount pf upper-management financial wrongdoing.

I had never heard of OfficeResidence, and now I had one. It was in a new building built right on a rocky part of the bay. The previous occupant had left the company, in part, in acknowledgement that she was, responsibility wise, over her head. As I looked around, I had no idea how my efforts for the company, as they were, would justify such a grandiose budgetary line item as the lease on this space.

Upon entry from the typical corporate corridor, there was a small reception area, doors that led to meeting space, and stairs that led to a studio and a top-line production suite. Behind reception and the meeting rooms was the residnece; very open and modern with tall ceilings and a clear lean toward large-scale entertaining. The whole thing spilled out to a wide, landscaped cement terrace that gradually sloped down to a 30-foot drop to the water.

I guess they were going to say that they were operating a design and production facility on the West Coast, which I'm sure sounded good to someone. I just didn't know how I was going to make it look like it was running. The production suite could handle a any live HD telecast, but it would take 25 people to do so. The space could host drinks and finger food for 100, but who would they be? Should I play along with all this and see what I can accomplish or get out now knowing that someday this will all come to a bad, sudden end. As it always does.

I was walking through the place, giving yes/no answers to a couple people who were to become my support staff, playing with the lights and the automatic drapes, when I saw previous occupant standing, plian as day, right there in the middle of the room. I was plenty surprised, since she had left the company months before. I couldn't express any outward sign of surprise when it became evident that only I could see or hear her.