Ask and Ye Shall Receive

Copyrighted by Lorna Tedder. Originally published in Crimes to the Third Degree.

Sometimes it’s really not a coincidence. Especially not if you asked for it.

My boss’ boss asked that I research a certain topic and brief him in 2 days. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but I was stuck in back-to-back meetings for 2 days where I’d been called in to give my “out of the box” (their term) thinking on how to salvage a program that would help our soldiers in the field. I wasn’t sure when I was supposed to get this research done, but it turned out to be an area that I’m one of the regional experts on. Worst case, I could throw together the info at home in the evening.

Just one little glitch. The Big Boss wanted me to verify some background info with someone.

First, I had no time to meet with this person.

And second, I wasn’t sure if she was even around, still. I knew that she’d changed jobs at least twice and offices at least twice and meanwhile, I’d changed jobs once and offices three times. I hadn’t seen her in 3 years. I thought she might have taken a job in D.C. last summer. Crap. There was no way I was going to get to talk to her.

So, sitting in the second grueling day of meetings, I silently sent out a request to the Universe that I be able to get the last tidbit of info from her for my report. About 15 minutes later, as the meeting degraded into watching paint dry on the walls and I felt my usefulness was done, I told the sweetheart of a captain I was working with that I was leaving. Instead of taking the elevator or the main exit, I suddenly thought better of it and decided to leave the building by the side door—something I haven’t done in years.

I walked the length of the building, all the way down the long hall toward the side door and stairwell. About five feet from the door, a woman popped around the corner of a cubicle and we almost collided. Guess who!

So 5 minutes later, I had all the info I needed. I walked straight to the Big Boss’ office and delivered my report verbally.

When I went home, I was still smiling. I just love a good “coincidence.”