A Life Wasted

New Job

When I arrived back in the Tidewater Virginia area everything was set up for me. It was a surprise and a welcome one. Sherry or John Gilman worked it all out, but it was Sherry who picked me up at the bus station and drove me to my new home. Being around Sherry was a little awkward since she broke up with me a month after I went to jail. In the same letter that she broke this news to me she told me she was engaged to a Presbyterian preacher who had a church down the road from the Lutheran church. I wasn't upset that she broke up with me, that happens to most guys in jail, and I never believed Sherry and I were permanent. But her quick engagement to the preacher bothered me a great deal. I would soon meet Vick, who was a great guy so I wasn't upset for long, but that first meeting with Sherry was uncomfortable.

Five single guys from CBN had rented a six bedroom home in a nice neighborhood and had an available room. It was a nice house, larger and more expensive home than my parent's home which was a few miles away. The house was well furnished, as was my bedroom. My share of the rent and utilities was more than I had paid for my own dilapidated rented house, but within my budget. I met the few of my new roommates that were home when I arrived and they made me feel welcome, though I could tell they were unsure of the ex-con they had allowed into their world. Overall the guys were all private and busy with work and life so we didn't interact a great deal, but when we did it was always friendly. They were typical of single CBN guys at the time. They believed in CBN's ministry so they gave it everything they had. Everything else they devoted to dating.

I was slated to start work at CBN the next day and since I didn't have a car a ride to work with one of my roommates had been prearranged. At CBN I started back towards engineering when Mary, CBN's legendary receptionist stopped me and informed me I worked upstairs now. I asked her where, but Mary simply smiled and pointed her finger up the stairs, a clear order to get moving. Of course she knew where I would be working. Mary knew everything that went on at CBN.

"Upstairs" was a small area with two private executive offices, one was John Gilman's and the other John's second in command, Mike Little. Upstairs also had a handful of cramped offices shared by junior executive staff. It was also home to the broadcast facilities for CBN's FM Christian radio station, and CBN's national counseling center. I had been "Upstairs" many times to visit the radio facility and the counseling center. Since I couldn't possibly be working in the executive offices I figured it would be either the radio station or the counseling center. Either would be great with me. I loved the radio group and had often spent time up there, and the counseling center was my favorite part of CBN's ministry. Much of my free time had been spent in their 24 hour counseling center answering phone calls from all over the country. It used a volunteer staff with many CBN employee's working the phones in their off time. But to my knowledge they had only one employee, Dick Arno, a pastor who was the center's director.

At the top of the steps I turned towards the radio station and counseling center only to be stopped by Nancy, an attractive petite blond I didn't know. She escorted me to a closet sized office with two small desk and two chairs. "That's your desk", she said, then turned to leave. I stopped her and asked what I would be doing. She smiled and said that Mike Little would talk to me shortly. Mike Little I knew. John Gilman, who I knew better, was the head of CBN's programming department, programming meaning television shows, and Mike Little was his second. I had nothing against Mike Little, but I didn't care for him. Mike was a rather bland account type guy surrounded by upbeat charismatic types, so his blandness stood out. The other person I knew with a desk on the second floor office area was Sherry. Her desk was in an open bullpen outside my closet/office. In this new job I would have to interact with her.

I sat at my desk which had a phone and nothing else. The other desk was vacant at the moment but it was clearly the desk of a busy guy. It belonged to an older guy whose name I don't recall now, but he was the head of CBN's Christian radio network. He traveled a lot and did big things in the early days of Christian radio. A good guy.