The Wall of Fire

The napkin tore as he wiped the sweat from his face. It was no use. He had tried and tried, what seemed like thousands of scenarios, not one of which had responded with the four letter word he was looking for.

His mind raced as he feverishly checked and rechecked his calculations. No, they seemed right. This should work. What had he done wrong?

A little voice in the back of his head told him he hadn’t done anything wrong. Was there some deeper cause? Something out of his control?

He missed his wife, he missed his kids.

He combed the text, meticulously checking each word.

Finally, he slumped forward, limp, thoughtless, spent.

He stood up. Mouth dry, he walked from his cubicle. The metallic jingle of keys followed him to the vending machines where he inserted three coins and jabbed the buttons E7. He felt like the water bottle, tumpbling aimlessly down into the dark abyss below.

As the cool water quenched his dry lips his gaze fell on the dark highway outside, headlights wizzing by in the night. He imagined himself as a truckdriver, carefree, carying his cargo to it’s destination. Was he cut out for this? Maybe he didn’t have what it takes. Should he start looking for another job?

He dragged his feet back to his cubicle. Sitting down, he could hardly bring himself to look at the screen. His eyes wandered. Meandering vaugly through the text.

They fell on a semicolon… had that always been there?

…

lesson: 9 times out of 10 the solution is so simple, it’s invisible, hiding in plain site. Take a break, get some space, come back and look at it with a new pair of eyes.