A Walk to Remember

Relax. Get in your comfy chair, grab a drink, and let me tell you a story.

A 22 year-old man had a job interview. It was at 9:30 am at the Direct Factory Outlet (colloquially referred to as the DFO) near the airport. The address of this factory outlet was 1 Airport Drive. Researching on the internet the night before his interview, he discovered that a bus departed from an interchange near his house that would take him directly to the DFO. This seemed too easy.

Instead of taking the bus, the young man took a train to the interview and hoped to find the DFO by asking around or by seeing it looming before him as soon as he stepped off the train. He didn't have a plan, really. He just knew that it was at the airport so it should be a cinch to find. However, in the deep recesses of his brain, he must have known there was going to be difficulties, so he took the train very early to arrive at the airport at 8:30, one hour before the scheduled time of the interview. The train to the airport was $13. With his bus pass, the bus ride would have been free. This upsetted him mildly, but probably not as much as it should have.

He decided not to get off the train at the International airport stop. He had arrived in this new country at the International airport and did not remember seeing a large mall. The fact that he did not remember any of his surroundings from the airport that day did not make him question his reasoning. He stayed on the train until it stopped at the Domestic airport.

He did not see the DFO anywhere. In fact, all he saw was the Domestic airport. How logical, he thought. He went to a desk to ask an employee the location of the DFO. She informed him that it was "just past the International airport."

"So how long would it take me to walk there?" he asked.

"Oh, you couldn't walk there. It's quite a distance," she informed him.

He then walked to the transportation desk to inquire if a bus would take him to the DFO. The woman working there informed him that only a taxi could take him there, as no buses went to the city from the airport. He was briefly alarmed that she referred to the DFO's location as "in the city", but again, probably not as alarmed as he should have been.

It was at this time that he decided he had already paid too much money taking the train to get to the airport and he was not going to waste any more money taking a taxi. No, he decided. He was going to walk. He had about 55 minutes to spare and he was well aware of how much distance one could travel in 55 minutes. Even with his shin splints, bad back, sore hips, and other general ailments that a normal 22 year old should not have, he knew he could walk at a fairly rapid pace. And off he went.

It took him a half hour just to walk back to the International airport. The simple truth is that airports take up a lot of land. This may not shock some of you, and it didn't shock this man either; he simply did not really stop to think about it. And so he trudged onward, mentally calculating the area in square kilometres that this particular airport probably occupied. He did not think long enough to come up with a final figure, for it finally dawned on him why this walk seemed slightly frightening. The fact is that he was walking on the shoulder of a two-laned highway. No man or woman was meant to walk to the DFO from the airport. Yet he plowed onward.

It began to rain while he walked. It was also 25 degrees celsius. His shirt clung to him under the influence of perspiration and rain. Cars zoomed by him at a dizzying pace but he stayed to the far left end of the shoulder, giving himself plenty of separation from the road (cars drive on the left side in this strange land). His feet ached from the shoes he was wearing. They were his roommate's shoes and they were one size too small. You see, he was in a strange new land, and he had not packed his fancy shoes. Thus, he needed to borrow.

One hour passed and he still saw no sight of the DFO. He began to think how hilarious this situation had become. He did not dare count the numerous errors he had made so far on his journey, for that would only serve to depress him. He just concluded that he was not going to make this interview and also surmised that he probably was never going to find a job in this foreign land. But he kept trudging on. Now his thoughts were shifting from "Where is the DFO?" to "How do I get back to the city and away from this highway to significantly reduce my chances of being an innocent bystander in a highway accident?"

Then the shoulder abruptly stopped. There was construction and consequently nowhere left for him to walk on the side of the road. He briefly contemplated hitchhiking, as the citizens of this foreign land were very friendly and he thought it would be worth a shot. He thought the better of it. Instead, he turned around and searched for the nearest side street away from the highway.

Now his thoughts were focused squarely on how to get back to the city. He knew he was too late for his interview. Although he had no means of telling the time (he did not wear a watch and did not own a cell phone), he knew he had been walking for at least an hour. He walked down the side street and then -magically- there it was. The DFO stood before him. He deliberated whether it was even worth going, as no employer ever gives the job to someone who shows up late for the interview.

However, he had no idea how to get home from where he was and he had come all this way so he decided it was in his best interests to at least show up. He walked into the gigantic outlet and spent ten minutes trying to find the store at which he had the interview.

He walked into the store and addressed the manager. He looked at a clock on the wall. It was 9:50 am. He had been walking for one hour and twenty minutes. He was also twenty minutes late. He apologized profusely for his tardiness and said that he would still love to have the interview, if the manager had time.

Then a funny thing happened. The manager understood completely. She spoke with him for a half hour and then gave him the job. She gave the job to a man who showed up twenty minutes late drenched in sweat and rain! The man was ecstatic, especially because he had been looking for a job for quite some time. After the interview, the man caught a bus back home from the DFO and it took him only 20 minutes. But I would be remiss if I did not tell you that the bus picked him up, then drove around a block and stopped at the exact same stop at which it had just picked him up. For a moment he felt he may have been trapped in a dream. If he had an acid habit, there is no doubt there would have been a freakout on that bus.

And that may sound like a funny little story, my friends, but it actually happened to a real person. And do you know who it happened to?

That's right. Former President Bill Clinton.

No, it happened to me today. It was a fun little adventure all around, and I am happy that it turned out the way that it did. The only downside is that I was hoping this conversation would happen.

Manager: So, will you have any trouble getting here for shifts?"
Me: "Oh no, I actually live very close to the airport."
Manager: "Oh really? Whereabouts do you live?"
Me: "Have you seen the movie Terminal?"

Alas, this conversation never took place. But, as the old adage goes, an arbitrary Tom Hanks film reference a day is the key to happiness. With this in mind, I will keep trying to find a way to get a little Tom Hanks in my life.

Thanks for reading about a day in the life of this 22 year-old man in a strange land. I hope you are all happy and prosperous.

By the way, my roommate has pictures up on her website, audreygirard.com. I don't think she would mind if you went there and had a look around. There are some pictures of me, as well as some nice scenery shots.

Take care,

D.J. 'the employed one' Demers

(I'm working on a better nickname)