Click. “It’s going to be a beautiful sight over the Atlantic ocean” lady news reporter states.

Click. “They say it’s going to be unprecedented throughout history” talk show hosts says to guest astrophysicist “Yes, it’s going to be a show that the world has never seen the likes of” the scientist says back.

Click. “The biggest meteor shower the world has ever seen will be flying over the Atlantic ocean around 8 tonight. Scientist that have examined the meteors through the Hubble space telescope, comment that it’s supposed to look like thousands of shooting stars. So if you’re on the east coast, be ready for a show of your lifetime.”

Click. Sssshuuu. I lay back in the hotel bed as the TV powers off. “Huffff” I let of a huge sigh, (all I wanted was to be able to lay back and relax for a bit while watching some TV. Yet all I get is news about a meteor show I won’t be able to see myself). Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see it, but I’m on the opposite side of the country. I had come to Missoula, Montana on a business trip a week ago and I booked the trip for 2 weeks so I could at the least get a week of vacation before having to get back doing more work.

I had gotten done with all the meetings I was scheduled to attend yesterday. I just wanted to take a couple days just to laze around and watch TV since I don’t get too much these days. I had just started at a business that my acquaintance is a boss at, I say acquaintance but we were good friends since middle school.

He moved away at around the first year of High school and we lost contact with each other. So I say acquaintance since I only started to get to know him again recently, people change over a few years time. But anyway I got a small job from him after my mother somehow found his contact information and called him about any job openings.

See I took a year off after High school to chill and relax before getting into the so called ‘real world’. I was having some issues finding a suitable job that paid decent money without the need for prior experience and college education. The only thing I could find around where I lived at the time was either fast food or some cheesy odd jobs for small businesses.

Nothing that would help me get on my feet. So he heard my predicament and decided to help me out, since he was boss it was quite easy to get me in, even if the jobs at first were small. But I don’t mind climbing the ladder to success, so I started out doing some temp work but on a fixed salary. They decided to pile odd jobs onto me and keep me as a full-time worker.

It didn’t take me long to rise up to a better position. On my off time, which happened a lot more often than you would think, I would read a bunch of client files. Since I was a temp, they had stuck me in the file room most of the time to organize, and I got bored… a lot. Now I did have permission to read the files, since I had to figure out what was in the file and then place it in the spot befitting to what the content was about.

The thing is though, they weren’t expecting me to read the whole thing. Just enough to get a good enough summary about what it was about. But I’m a fast reader, and I was bored quite often, so to numb that pain a bit. What I did was read and read almost all the files I picked up. NIMA, that’s what the company was called, dealt with a lot of clients, ranging from medical to technology, basically anything that would help progress civilization forward into a better tomorrow. And the files about the research and the advancements of technology and medical treatments were quite detailed. They had to be for legal purposes, to make sure they weren’t doing anything illegally. NIMA was basically like a consultant company and we worked hand in hand with our clients and their lawyers, and they would discuss the plans for the future and what paths would be good to go down.

Through the course of a few months I had read hundreds of files, and no I don’t have an actual photographic memory so I couldn’t just pop it up in my head and read it as if I was looking at the page, but I do have quite the recall memory and I can remember a lot of the information that I had read. And so as I was running around the building doing various things, there were a few times where someone was talking about something I had read in the files and they had misremembered some of the information. And I have this itch to go correct it.

So I would politely interrupt them, they probably thought at first that I was there to take out the trash or something. But I would just run over the information again for them and then leave, depending on the person-they would either yell that can’t be right or they would mutter wait a moment, yes that’s right. They then would proceed to ask me how I knew, but all I did was smile and go about my business. After a couple month of that, word got around of how a temp knew all this information, and so I got called to the big bosses (one was that friend). I figured I was going to get yelled at for reading all that info.

“Nick, do you know why we called you here today?” my friend, Adam, asked.

“I assume it’s about the files that i’ve been reading without the proper permission” I say, even though they didn’t say I couldn’t read all it.

“Ah, so you are intuitive as they say” Adam says with a smirk, where did that come from, “but here’s the thing…” great i’m going to get fired, just as I was getting the hang of it here “everyone here is quite surprised about all this information that you have found out in so little time, and here’s the thing about the permission thing.”

I groan softly, here it comes “We never told you you couldn’t read all it the information you were allowed access to. Frankly speaking, we didn’t think you would read all it to begin with. But since it seems you know all this information, and off of the top of your head at that. We would like to…” great they’re going to fire me with a NDA uh “offer you a promotion.”

“Wait, what?!” I raise my voice in surprise. “Yes, we would like to offer you a promotion.” Adam said with a crooked smile. All I could let out was a “uh”, “we would like to make a you consultants consultant, at least for now, and hopefully in the future fully promote you to a consultant for some big companies. But you are still young in this trade and I want you to learn by watching some of the bigger people here. We already see you have the mind for it, so now we’ll test to see if you have the talent.” Adam continued, “um thanks I guess” I say still a bit stunned.

“Yes yes, anyway come back here tomorrow and I’ll give you more of what you are going to be doing, so get a good night’s sleep” Adam said, and with that I go towards the door. When I’m about out Adam finishes off, “I hope to see you go far.”

And so for the last half a year, I’ve been learning the trade of consulting from a bunch of people. This trip had concluded a seminar and a few meeting with some of our clients. But man, I haven’t been able to get hardly any relaxing in since being in the filings room.

I stare up at the ceiling of my hotel room, at the very least the company sure does provide nice accommodations for it’s employees. “Hmm, What do I do for this next week?” I ask out loud, maybe a ghost will answer. I stare at the ceiling for a few more minutes, then I look at the clock: 11:59, and as if on cue my stomach grumbles when the clock hits noon. “Well, guess i’ll go get a bite to eat and go look around” I say to myself, (the fireworks should start around 4, well not like I’ll be able to see them).

I grab my keys and wallet, not like there’s a use for the keys, it’s just habit to bring them along. I grab my jacket that I had laid on the chair near the desk, it’s around mid-September so it’s been getting chiller lately. I grab my cell phone and unlock, go to the restaurant app to find a good place to go (mmm, Andy’s barbeque that sounds like a nice place), I save it and walk towards the door. I pull the door shut and head to the lobby.

“What’s the best way for transport here?” I walk up to the receptionist desk, “Uber is probably the best if you want to go somewhere, you can use the app or I could call one up for you” the lady are the desk motion towards the phone to her left.

“I can use the app, thanks very much” I turn as she smiles back, “Have a good time sir” she says “I’ll try to” I wave from behind while I head to the door.

I walk through the parking lot to a sidewalk by the main road while pulling out my phone from my front pocket. (Alright, Uber app, I haven’t had much use for this) the company usually has transportation already in order when someone is traveling. I order one up and put in the location, and stand there for a bit, waiting for the vehicle to show up. After a few minutes I watch a black blazer pull up, I go and open the back do closet to me, “you Nick” the driver automatically asks, “yep” I hop in “you have the address?” I ask. “Yes, we’ll be there in 5-20 minutes, depending on traffic” the driver responds, “Alright” I sit back and relax.