Yesterday I was so bored that I started to read the recipe from the payment of credits in my cell phone. I read about this promotion. If I changed my accounts settings I would get a bonus of 250 megabytes for Internet usage and a hundred free txt messages.
I decided to call the phone central and change my
settings to win these bonuses. A recorded voice answered the phone:
- To recharge
you cell phone credits please press 1. To change you settings of your cell
phone please press 2.
Tuuuuuu
- Thanks for
calling. We are redirecting you to one of our attendants. - A song started.
I was
expecting to deal just with electronic messages. Because talking with companies
by telephone is always a challenge for me. That’s because my English skills
still not that good. Actually I never enjoyed telephones talks, even in
Portuguese, my first language. I intended to take my promotion as quick as possible and nothing
more, cutting all the small talk.
For incredible
that it seems, the waiting song wasn't that bad. Actually I recognized that music.
It was from Julia Deans. A well known New Zealander artist. I knew that song
because the week before Julia was at my school doing a lyrics and composition
workshop and stage performance. Of course, I would not loose this opportunity of
knowing more about New Zealand music and having a personal contact with an
artist from that level.
Back in Brasil,
I had a lot of contact with musicians. What improved a lot of my work in this
area. My uncle is a competent composer and performer. My mother was a singer in
the past, my father plays the guitar and from him I got the bests critics. I
use to know every kind of musicians and perform to them on Christmas eve and
others parties at my uncle's house.
I was hopping
that she could give me her formula to write songs. I didn’t use to have any
technique to write songs in Portuguese. So I was kind of lost to compose in
another language.
She performed
to the participants of the workshop songs from her next album and a few other.
Just voice and guitar, that was the difference between the song in the
phone-line. The waiting song now had a base line, drums, computer effects and
edition. But the essence was the same. And I was glad for her.
In the end, it
was an awesome experience to get together with Julia Deans because I got more
confidence to write in English. She made me realize that it doesn’t exist any
magic formula. The only need is courage enough to try again and again ans
practice this until you get your song done. The same way it was with my first
compositions in Portuguese.
Julia commented
that she was very happy when she heard her song playing in the super market the
first time. And I was there listening her song in the phone company’s waiting
line. I would like to tell her about this. But she would have to accept me on
Facebook first.
Finally a
woman answered the call. She had this accent, seemed that she was french. I
think she noted my accent as well but didn't want to comment, the same way I
didn't say nothing about her. She was being very gentle and offered to figure
it out few other problems that I had with my account. I could say that I was
curious about her... But I was feeling so pathetic to be interested in the girl
from the phone company that I saw myself like those lonely guys who spends hypes
of time hitting on voices paid to be gentle and explore them in change of phone
services. But in the end she said:
- Nice to talk
with you! – That was enough to make me feel a bit more special than the other
thousands calling her earlier on the day. I said the same to her. But I didn't
have courage enough to ask about her
accent or where was she from. I was to embaraced with the fact that I
could be one of those lonely guys.
We could have
met one day. But of course adding her on Facebook first, to check her photo and
prevent any problem. She could be an attendant on India in a call center or could
work in the next town. But where she lives, or if she was really a French girl,
would be a mystery forever. That was my last chance to ask these questions to the
girl from the other side and it passed trough my fingers.
Later on the
day the company sent me a message saying that I called to them earlier and they
would like an evaluation about their services. There was my opportunity. Maybe
the universe was trying to tell me something, conceding me one more chance to
know that girl. Maybe it was our fate, who knows? Than I answered that I would
give the evaluation about the lady who attended me and if they sent me her
personal contact. If they didn’t I would change of phone company. But they just
sent an automatic message saying: "Thanks
for your time! Attentiouslly, your phone company!”. At least it worthed the
try.
Erik Schnabel
