Slippery Way

When I looked at the clock, it showed me that it was nearly nine o’clock. I was stupid from sleep then, but my view became clear within a moment. The outside of the window showed me a sunny view but white world. The snow on the ground was shining, and a pond had frozen over. “Oh, no! I’m going to be late!” I shouted and jumped out of bed, and rushed into the bathroom. I washed my face, put on a suit, gathered and packed all the things into the baggage, put on a coat quickly and ran out from the room.

It was a very important day for me because I was going to have a job interview for an airline company in Chicago; in addition, this was the company I wished to join the most. I came to the United States from Korea, and I had learnt English and aeronautics for over 6 years. I wanted to join an airline company in the United States because the U.S. airline company led the airline business of the world. I saw most of my friends already had gotten their job, but I kept pushing myself to study hard to realize my dream.

 

While I took an elevator down to the ground floor, I regretted that I made a wrong choice to make a reservation for this hotel. It was comfortable, but it was not near to the central part of the city. I decided to stay in this hotel easily because it looked nice for its price, and it was near to the airport. I thought that the job interview took place in or near to the airport. Though I realized that the job interview took place in the central part of the city before yesterday, I didn’t change the hotel because I thought it was trouble to make another reservation; furthermore, I thought that it wasn’t difficult to get to the company by waking up early. I also regretted that I didn’t wake up early. I was so nervous by thinking of the job interview that I could not fall asleep until the break of dawn last night. I felt a headache caused by a lack of sleep. I cursed myself to be so careless.

 

When I checked out with getting irritated at the front desk, I noticed that there was no bill left in my purse. I paid the room charge by credit card, and I rushed out from the entrance with my credit card grasping. In order to get a taxi, I ran for the roadway, but I fell down on the ground at once. The sidewalk had been completely frozen. As I held my body by touching the ground, I didn’t get injured. But my credit card was completely broken in front of me. It broke into pieces, and it seemed not to be usable. Worse than that, it was the only credit card then; consequently, I lost all means of payment. I realized that I could not take a taxi.

 

I got confused. I stood up quickly and started to run again. Anyway, I thought that I had to get closer to the company though it was an impractical idea to go the company by running. I ran along an alley, and I got to the roadway. I kept running along the roadway to the direction of the central part of the city. I tried to lift my thumb to hitch a ride while I was running, but no one cared about me. It was reasonable if I kept my right mind. I had no signboard to show where I would like to go. It was an urban area. Hitchhiking was illegal in this state. And what is more, a man running with his thumb up must have looked eccentric.

 

When I came to a crossing, I stopped running. While I waited for traffic lights, two cars crashed right in front of me. It looked like the cars skidded and crashed because the road was frozen. Cars were bent terribly, and it seemed that the drivers must have got injured. By seeing such a terrible accident, I recovered my consciousness. I looked at my watch, and I realized that I was hardly able to get to the job interview on time. I decided to give up trying to get to the job interview, and I also decided to help the victims of the car accident. I called an ambulance and the police.

 

Fortunately, some ambulances and patrol cars came there very quickly. After I saw ambulance attendants and police officers dealing with the accident, I sat down on the ground, for I was relieved and exhausted. And then I lay down on the grass. I was out of energy. My face must have been pale because of exhaustion and despair.

 

Suddenly, a new ambulance came and stopped in front of me, and an ambulance attendant jumped out and asked me, “Are you all right?” I was too tired to respond, so I said nothing and gestured for him to go away. Against my expectation, he said,“OK, you will be all right,” and he called other attendants and loaded me on an ambulance in an instant. The ambulance started to run with sounding the siren right away. I got confused again on the ambulance. It took almost no time to get to the hospital. The ambulance ran fast and it never stopped until it got to the hospital.

 

When the back door opened, there was a view of skyscrapers close to me. The hospital was very near from the central part of Chicago. I looked at my watch and confirmed that there were a few minutes left for the job interview. I seemed to be barely on time. I jumped out from the ambulance, said, “Thank you very much!” for the shocked attendances, and started to run again on the sidewalk. “What a lucky day!” I shouted. I felt very happy then. In addition, I was glad of my idea of an excuse to be at the last minute on the job interview. I thought that the interviewer would excuse me if I said that I helped the ambulance attendants and police officers at the accident. I thought that I would give a good impression to say that. I felt light on my feet, and my steps became gradually longer. Suddenly, my sight turned up into the blue sky. I slid and fell down on the ground again.

 

I saw the view of the skyscrapers getting far from the back window of an ambulance. I was too numb to say or to gesture something when I was loaded into the ambulance again. I didn’t want to think about anything, but my consciousness became gradually clear. My leg was aching. It must have been broken. I had neither money nor credit card, so I had no way to pay the cost of treatment and the cost to go back to my home. But most of all, the fact that I fell down from the greatest chance to get a job made me get fed up. The way to get a job is a very hard and slippery one.