"No. After trying to talk to him, I realized I had no other options, and I quit. I couldn't just sit there, knowing he wanted me gone. I didn't want to wait for that shoe to drop, wondering when it was going to happen."
"Most people would have stayed put, while looking for something else. Pay a few more bills in the meantime," Mr. Isaac said, watching her reaction.
"I am not most people. In order to focus on damage control, I had to acknowledge the damage and discard all unnecessary weight, such as the dismissal waiting to happen pretending to be my job."
Mr. Isaac couldn't help but chuckle. "A good sense of humor is your best ally when times turn tough," he said, and resumed the interview questions. "I need to know how you see yourself as part of a team. No standard answer, please."
Alex took a deep breath. This was going to be one interview to remember.
"Well, it depends. A team is good to have around when you need someone's help, although I'm more comfortable on my own. I like to take full responsibility and full credit for my actions. The one thing I hate the most is office politics."
"Office politics?"
"Yes. For example, I'm minding my own business, while one coworker has nothing better to do and starts saying stuff about me. Before I know it, I end up asked to explain things I had nothing to do with. Or, here's another example, I am not given a promotion, because I am the only one who was too busy with work to be aware that the boss bought a new car, so I never had a chance to congratulate him on his excellent choice."
Alex looked up and smiled. It will be a miracle if I get this job, she said to herself.
"I totally agree, but this is not a perfect world we are living in. So, how do you manage to fit in the average corporate environment?" Mr. Isaac continued, undisturbed.
"I didn't say I can't do it; I just said I hated it," Alex replied.
"Oh. True. Let's move on. Where do you see yourself in five years?" Mr. Isaac gave an encouraging smile, as if to warn her to be honest.
"I really don't know; there are too many things to consider. If I win the lottery, then we might discuss what I really want to do in five years. If my luck continues to work the way it did so far, in five years I will be, most likely, interviewing for yet another job, and giving some recruiter exactly the answers he wants to hear. It's hard to say," she said, then shrugged and waited for another question.
"Do you have any questions for me?" Mr. Isaac offered.
Alex sighed thoughtfully.
"How many steps are in this interviewing process?"
"Just this. Based on this one interview, I will make my decision and let you know."
OK, now I know for sure I screwed up. He won't hire me, Alex thought. She was surprised to realize how saddened she was by this thought. She couldn't help feeling that the man in front of her was quite remarkable, and she would have liked him to appreciate her. She continued, out of curiosity.
"Thank you. I asked on my online form, 'Who are you?" And I'd also like to know what job did I apply for?"
Mr. Isaac leaned forward and smiled.
"I created The Agency 17 years ago, when a friend of mine, a business owner, got into some trouble. He had grown suspicious that someone was stealing his customer files and selling the info to his competition. In order to find out who that was, he hired me, not as an investigator, but as a payroll clerk. No one pays attention to the accounting clerks," he said with a chuckle and paused, letting the story and all its implications sink in.
As it did, surprise showed on her face. She saw the ramifications, the possibilities, and grew excited about the idea. Yes. Obviously, this idea worked. I'd love to do that for a living, yes I would, she thought, thinking fast. Not a moment of boredom, no office politics, actually use my brain, my dream come true. Plus they have to be paying really well. However, her enthusiasm abruptly cooled, why the hell is he telling me this stuff if he's not even going to call me for a second interview? She did not realize how well the man could read her thoughts, just by looking at her transparent features and bright, expressive eyes.
"Starting from that case," he continued, "I realized there was growing potential on the market for this kind of service. We are currently a small team of four people, and we need a fifth person. I'm looking specifically for someone with a little more computer knowledge than we currently have among us, to be able to work as an IT executive and assist with email and data-related fraud concerns."
She almost had tears in her eyes. I can't believe they won't hire me — no other job will ever compare, she thought. Mr. Isaac was now standing up, most likely preparing to show her out. Somehow, she found the courage and asked.
"Mr. Isaac, will you please tell me where I screwed up?"
"Who said you did? Let's go meet the guys. And please, call me Tom."
Her exhilarated scream was loud enough to make the receptionist wonder what the hell was going on back there.
Alex was born in Mt. Angel, Oregon, a charming city just forty miles south of Portland. The City of Bells is deeply German in tradition and heritage, with its population almost entirely of European descent.
Both Alex's parents were engineers, a profession quite compatible with their never-forgotten German origins. The young couple brought Alex into the world on a sunny June afternoon, in a whirl of joy, laughter, and happiness. Alex remembered her early childhood as a serene land of fairytales, with her happy parents holding her hands, while she discovered the miracles of the quaint world surrounding her. She started talking early, and soon she had lengthy conversations with her father. He loved challenging her young mind with all kinds of questions and problems. He bought her toy building sets and mechanical sets, carefully grading the difficulty levels of the tasks, so she would be able to succeed, yet stay challenged and learn new things every day.
Her mother was the one who opened her mind to the wonders of faraway places, and worlds she had seen on her numerous travels. She showed Alex pictures of distant cities and told her stories about strange places and people, filling her mind with images and people from all over the world. By the time Alex turned six, she knew the names of most of the countries in the world and their capitals. For her, they were not just simple names in some atlas, but they were amazing places she had heard awesome stories about. As Alex grew older, she started to read, and her mother suggested books about travel and adventure, starting her off with the inspiring works of Jules Verne, Alexandre Dumas, and Jack London.
Alex easily remembered those heartwarming days, as she kept their memories in a safe place in her heart. What she could neither remember nor explain was where and when it all had gone away. Slowly, creeping among her family, came misery, sorrow, and pain, uninvited guests whose appearance she had never been able to pinpoint in time. It was as if, over time, everything had turned bad.
The first sad memory she had about her childhood kept coming back to her, as an early clue for things to come. It was Christmas morning, and she had rushed from her bed directly to the living room to check under the tree and open her presents, but there were no presents for her to open. Her father sat quietly at the dining room table. Her heart sinking, she turned to him and said, "Daddy, where are my presents?"
He stared into emptiness for a few seconds, and then pulled a fifty-dollar bill out of his pocket, and said, "Here, why don't you go out and buy yourself something nice, all right?" She remembered crying herself to sleep that Christmas day. She remembered crying herself to sleep many days after that.
As things changed for the worse, her parents constantly argued, uttering unspeakable cruelty to each other, their voices filled with hate and contempt. Just a few years later, when Alex was thirteen, they took it to the next level. Her father told her one day that she was the only reason he was not divorcing her mother, blaming Alex for all the abuse he was enduring. From helpless and scared, she now became guilty of everything.