Friday, May 2, 2003

At least the interview went well

I’m on a job interview at a New York agency. Someone leads me to a couch in the middle of the creative department. There are offices and people working all around. I sit and wait, but no one comes to talk to me. Eventually, I walk back out to the lobby. I can’t find anyone to help me, so I get ready to leave. As I walk through the lobby, the creative director walks through. He recognizes me and I automatically know who he is. We start talking and I walk with him out of the building as he leaves for the day. We continue talking as we walk down the street towards his car. We approach a corner to cross the street and there is a huge, long snake crawling through a bush and onto the grass on the corner. I am startled and a bit scared watching this giant snake slither on the grass, its head rising towards us. The creative director says something like, “Don’t worry, he’s harmless, he talks to me all the time.” Then he pets the snake on its outstretched head. We walk on and cross through a park.
In the park, I leave the creative director and go up to two young kids, a boy and a girl. They are black and barely older than toddlers. They climb into an SUV to go on a tour. A woman is there, I talk to her and assume she is their chaperon. I see the driver slumped backwards in the driver seat. He lurches forward to grab the steering wheel as if he suddenly awoke. I realize that he is extremely intoxicated. I say, “You’re not driving these kids anywhere and reach in to take the keys from the ignition. As I do so, he drives off. I try to push him into the passenger seat and struggle to take the wheel. He floors the gas and I am bent under the dash pulling on his leg, trying to get his foot off the pedal. I am yelling at him. The car speeds down streets and up a hill. Finally, I have control of the car, but the brakes don’t work or I am unable to press them. I look out the windshield and see that we are approaching a busy intersection. I steer the car towards the island that divides a turn lane of the street on the right from the lanes that go straight through the intersection. The car coasts onto the island, but then rolls off the other side and comes to a stop. I get out and the driver gets out after me. As I support him to stand, a cop car pulls up and an officer jumps out screaming. He asks who was driving, he thinks that we are both drunk. I explain what happens, but am nervous since the officer has his gun drawn. It turns out that the cops had roadblocks set up and snipers shot out the tires of the vehicle in an effort to stop it. That is why I couldn’t control the car and why the cops thought I was driving intoxicated.

No comments: