Useful Belief

Chapter One A useful past

I was waiting for my coffee. They had said they would call my name when it was ready. I was tempted to check my phone — not for anything in particular, but just because that's what I do. That's what we all do. Just stare at our phones. I might look at Facebook, check email, maybe Twitter. Just flick through stuff. Then they called my name.

‘Simon?'

‘Thank you.' I took the coffee. I had ordered a skinny latte — with two sugars, which obviously kills the ‘skinny'. I'm not even sure why I ordered the latte, as the milk bloats me. I should've ordered a long black with no sugar. I would have felt better if I'd done that. The long black tastes terrible, though.

The truth is I was stressed. Random thoughts were spinning through my head. I had been grumpy and very anxious lately. I guess it had been a busy time, at work and in my life. I had been asked to fly from my home in Melbourne to present at our software conference in Barcelona. While I was happy to do it, that's a long way to go to make a presentation. Seemed like something I could have done from my computer. But it was our global conference, and I was pitching the results of the Australasian team — and, after all, it was Barcelona!

It was then that I heard a familiar voice behind me.

I turned around to see two women deeply immersed in conversation. It took me a moment to take in the scene and to recognise Sarah, whom I had gone to high school with many years ago.

‘Well hello stranger!' she said when ...