The last thing Mary remembered was walking in the park with her family. Her and her husband, Don, had just gotten the family a new puppy, and the kids wanted to show the tiny golden lab all their favorite places. She was just turning her head towards Don to tell him how much fun she was having when, in the blink of an eye, everything changed.
Waking up suddenly, Mary Patterson was shocked to find herself standing in the front of a crowded room, evidently leading some sort of business conference. Glancing around for any clue of what she was doing there or what she was supposed to be talking about, Mary spotted a chart being projected behind her.
“Look at those lines,” Mary thought to herself, “they’re all trending upward. That’s got to be a good thing, right?”
As she hesitated, the crowd of business people seemed to be growing restless.
“I’ve got to say something,” Mary thought, “I’m losing the audience, and dammit if that doesn’t mean losing that big promotion too!”
Mary took a second to wonder about what promotion she was thinking of, and why she suddenly cared so much about what this audience thought. But, putting those thoughts to the side, she gathered her wits about her, and dove in to a speech.
As she spoke, she couldn’t believe what was coming out of her mouth. Facts, figures, fourth-quarter projections – all in a calm, clear, confident voice.
“How do I know all this? Where is this coming from?” She thought to herself briefly. But she didn’t have time to dwell on that right now. She was making the presentation of a lifetime.
After the conference ended and everyone was gathering up their notebooks and pens, Mary strode confidently into the crowd, up to the man that she knew for a fact was her boss.
“Mr. Thompson, I’m so glad you could make it. What did you think of the presentation?” Mary asked, already knowing what the answer would be.
“Oh, um, it was pretty good,” Mr. Thompson said, “You know, honestly, I was on my phone the whole time. I caught that chart though. Those upwarding trending lines looked pretty good.”
