work weekends, I pick up everyone else’s slack, and not
once do you say thank you. Not once do you tell me that
you appreciate my hard work and loyalty. When I asked
you for a raise you said you would think about it and
never talked about it again to me. What’s that all about,
George? You just walk around here worrying about you
and your job, and you don’t really care about me. So
when you all of a sudden ask me to get on your bus be-
cause you want to save your job, and don’t think we
don’t know that if this launch fails you are gone because
everyone knows that, I’m supposed to get all excited and
go, ‘Whoopeeeeeeeeee I’m on the bus.’ It’s not happen-
ing. It’s hard for me to get on your bus when you surely
haven’t been on mine!” he shouted.
Once again George was hit right between the eyes.
He had been taking a lot of blows lately and this one
coming from the person he liked and trusted the most
was the hardest. But he knew José was right and there
was nothing he could say to make José feel better at this
moment. He was fired up and George understood why.
“You’re right,” George said. “You are right. That’s all I
can say.”
José, who was expecting to get fired, was surprised at
George’s response. He had seen Michael and Tom walk
out of the office earlier and thought everyone was getting
fired, so he was stunned and relieved at the same time
that George was acting so calm. For a few moments
George and José stood there in awkward silence, both
not knowing what to say.
87
George Takes Control of His Bus