LJ Idol Week 11 topic: The blue hour

They had been inside the meeting room for several hours, in fact, for almost the entire day. Matt, the programmer, was sitting at his desk, pretending everything was just fine, like it was any other day. But it wasn’t any other day and Matt knew what was going on behind the wooden door.

He wished he could just talk to someone, but he couldn’t because the meeting was not official. They did not know what it meant. Matt also wished he was as clueless as the others. This medium sized company was more than a workplace, it was more like a home. He had been the one to help create NeoDriver, a new piece of software to be used in GPS devices. Tom, the leader of the programming team did his best to integrate Matt more and more into bigger projects. Plus, Matt learned how good the coffee was if it was freshly brewed.

A few days ago, Mr. Henman, CFO had called Matt in to help with an allegedly broken laptop. Since the IT department had been diminished to just a few people who were too busy to respond to Henman’s frantic calls, Matt had to jump in for IT. “I’ll see what I can do”, Matt had stated before he put down the phone and made his way through the corridor to Henman’s office. Henman always looked like he was constantly pulling his hair in anger. He stood beside the desk when Matt arrived.

“My e-mail program has stopped working.” He blurted out. Henman was sweating heavily and breathing loudly. Matt checked the laptop and quickly found out that Henman had somehow managed to deactivate the access of his laptop to the internet. He reactivated the access and then pushed the update button on the e-mail program and the inbox filled itself with new mails. Matt was already about to leave and in retrospect he wished he had left by then but Henman asked him to check if a mail he had composed was still stuck in the inbox.

Matt checked the inbox and it was still there. It was to the CEO and another person and by having to check Matt caught a glimpse at the text. He took a deep breath.

Yes, the company was not in a good shape. Yes, they had always been struggling. No, there were never millions generated by the great projects done in this company, which was a pity. But Matt had not imagined the situation to be that hopeless. Basically, it was all about LightYear Inc., another enterprise thing about buying the company and their projects including the staff.

“How unfortunate you have to see it this way. You might have guessed we are having a rough time right now.” Henman wiped his sweaty forehead with a tissue. “Please do not mention it to anyone.”

Matt did not mention it to anyone. But the contents of the e-mail he had seen were stuck in his stomach like a heavy stone. He could have found a job elsewhere, but it would not be the same. He had a great team leader and a lot of freedom. He did not want to become a puppet of corporate superiors. But he also needed a salary.

Remembering the sweat on Henman’s forehead, Matt walked past the meeting room a couple of times. He felt like a tennis ball resting right on the middle of the net with nobody knowing if it was to fall to the left or the right side. Was he going to fall on the side of job applications or on the side of keeping his job under new, unknown conditions? He did not feel at home on any side.

Matt opened the door and went outside. Tom seemed to sense something was wrong and offered him a cigarette. Matt was not a smoker, but this was a situation that required changes to certain habits. He breathed out and blew out smoke into the sky of a day which had moved to evening. The sky was coloured in a deep blue, just right between darkness and light. The only certainty we have, so thought Matt, was the fact that the blue would turn to darkness and then to light. That was guaranteed.

“What’s up?” Tom finally asked. “I am hoping for the light.” Matt said and entered the building again, past the meeting room.

Inside, people were carefully shaking hands.