If I Could Only Turn Back Time

If I Could Turn Back Time

Like in that Cher song from the late 1980s, I find myself thinking and even saying out loud, almost singing “If I could turn back time.” That would seem to be the only way I can change the sad situation I am in now. But, of course, it is impossible. I have lost my well-paying job, and all for what I said that the boss took seriously, but also mistakenly.

Some of the people that I work with –actually now I have to think and say ‘that I used to work with’- went to high school with me. During break times we enjoy talking about people that we went to school with at Hilton High, particularly the ones that we can make fun of and laugh about yet another time.

We were talking about one such high school creature one day. To be fair, I was the one who was making remarks concerning ‘Frederick’. He was such a downright dipstick, combining arrogance and ignorance like they belonged together like gin and tonic. None of us liked him. I was on a streak of stories, about him, ending with what I had recently learned about him from someone who worked for the same company as he did.  

“Do you know that Frederick still thinks that he is smarter than everybody else, but as we all know he doesn’t have the intelligence of a monkey on meth. He wouldn’t have the good job he currently holds if he weren’t the boss’ son. Am I right boys or am I right? What do you think?”

The boys were just beginning to laugh when the boss walked in and glared at me. Like the object of my humour, his name was Fred (what a coincidence!), and he had an intense dislike for anyone calling him Frederick, as that was what his father called him when the old man was angry. He looked straight at me and demanded in his loudest, meanest voice said: “Come into my office Jason, and shut the door behind you”. I knew that I was in trouble, I just did not know how deep at that point. I thought that I would just get reprimanded somewhat for wasting time, and maybe told to work a little after the usual quitting time.

Fred slammed the door behind the two of us. He then spoke loudly enough that I was sure that my colleagues in the next room could hear every single word that he said.

“Jason Moore, I will not stand to be disrespected like that by an employee, especially one who broadcasts his lack of respect in front of a group of fellow employees. As of this moment, you are fired. You know that I have the authority to do so, because as you know, and stated in disrespect a minute ago, our boss is my father. You know that he will stand by my decision.”

I replied quickly, “But boss, I wasn’t talking about you, but a guy from high school that we all knew and made fun of.”

 “That’s pretty flimsy Jason. You don’t expect me to believe such a desperate lie. Don’t say anything more.” He then pushed me out of his office with both hands shoving me forward.

           My colleagues looked somewhat stunned at me. I tried to get them to back me up, that I was only talking about a person we all knew in high school, not the boss. But it was like there were clamps on their mouths. No one said a word, and most turned away so that they would not be looking at me, and see my pleading face, nor look like they were sympathetic. They made me invisible in order to protect their own jobs. They had all at some point experienced the anger that boss Fred could generate, and didn’t want it directed at them. I could see in a few faces that they were somewhat sympathetic, but did not want to incriminate themselves, to be burned by the fire that had scalded me.

One Week and Two Weeks Later

One week later I was still stunned by what happened the week before. I really did not know what to do. I wanted to talk to the boss and insist that I hadn’t been talking about him, but another Fred whose father got him a job. As I thought that idea over, I knew I would find it hard to believe if someone told me such a story, ‘It is not you I portrayed as an idiot. It was another idiot with the same name.’

           If I could have turned back time, and kept my big mouth shut, I wouldn’t be in this mess. I kept picturing it in my mind, no story about high school Frederick being told and misunderstood by the boss, my still having a job. If I could only turn back time.

Another week passes, and I am still looking for work, but I have been turned down again and again. One key factor I reckon is that I have no letter of recommendation, no boss to say good things about me. If I could turn back time.

The Two Freds Meet

           There is a meeting of executives of companies that are located on main street. Both Freds are there. The Fred that barely graduated from Hilton High is making a presentation. He makes mention of his high school career to show how he has moved up in the world through personal achievement, with no mention of his father’s role in the executive position now had. 

           The Fred that had been Jason’s boss was stunned by how bad the other Fred’s presentation was, how incredibly ignorant and arrogant he was at the same time. He was also struck by the fact that he went to Hilton High, like Jason and his former colleagues.

           At the end of the presentation, the participants were given a break for coffee and overpriced nibbles. Jason’s former boss walked over to ask a question of the other Fred.

“Did you know a Jason Moore when you were in high school?”

           “That bastard! He and his friends used to make fun of me all the time, calling me ‘Frederick the Freak’. Why do you want to know?”

           Jason’s former boss turned back time when he said, “He works for me, and he made mention of you, that’s all.”

           There was no spoken reply to that, just a shaking of the head.

           After the meeting was over, Jason’s former boss called his former employee on his cellphone. One ring, and a desperate Jason answered, hoping it was a job offer. Fred told him that he had not yet been replaced, and that he could have his old job back. He had met the Frederick that Jason had been mocking, and said that what Jason had said was true. That Frederic did have the intelligence of a monkey on meth, and an arrogance to go along with it. Jason laughed and said he would show up for work the next day.

           When the call was over Jason smiled and said out loud to himself “You can do it. Sometimes you can turn back time. But it helps to think before you speak, so you don’t have to depend on the nearly impossible to rescue you.”