dresser and saw himself as he heard a voice from his own
conscience saying, “You, the bus driver was talking to
you. You’re the one with the failing marriage. You’re the
one who is about to get fired, who now doesn’t even
have a car to drive to work and can’t even put on your
own shoes. You’re the one living a soap opera.”
The realization hit him unexpectedly. He couldn’t dis-
agree with Joy. She was right. His life and career had hit
rock bottom. Even his boss and biggest supporter and
mentor had sat in his office yesterday and told him he
couldn’t vouch for him any more.
“I can’t carry you, anymore,” his boss said.
“I don’t want to be carried,” George replied.
“But that’s what I’ve been doing. Everyone’s asking me,
what happened to George and I’m saying I don’t know but
he’ll get it together. Well, now they are looking at me saying
he better get it together or else you’ll both be gone. I love
you, George, like a son, but I can’t let you bring me down,
too. I’ve worked too hard for this. I have kids in college.”
“I will get it together,” George declared.
“We’ll see,” said his boss. “As my old football coach
used to say, ‘We don’t talk this game, we play it.’ So I
hope to see action soon because if you don’t get it to-
gether, then we both know what has to happen.”
Firedwas a word George never thought he would
hear and now he was hearing it all too frequently in the
same sentence with his name. I need to try to turn this
around today, he thought. How? I have no idea.
16
The Energy Bus