Prologue
John Prescott stood looking at the program for the conference. As a high school teacher for 15 years, he had attended his fair share of professional learning over the years but this was his first chance to attend a major academic conference out of town. It had taken plenty of convincing of his principal that giving John the 2 days off was a good move for their school, and it had been a minor miracle when he received funding approval from the school board's professional development supervisor for both flights AND a hotel room. People would be surprised at how often teachers have to scrape these things together on their own, and even more surprised at how much they end up spending out of pocket for their students.
That was one of the reasons why John had not seriously considered attending any major conferences for years. At least until now. It had begun when he had been writing his thesis for his Master's degree and following a strong push from his thesis advisor, gotten it published in a professional journal. A month later he received an email asking if he would be interested in presenting his research at a conference in Ottawa. The Canadian National Educational Improvement Council, or some such mouthful of an organization, thought he could offer insight for other educators.
John's wife travelled frequently with her job, often leaving John on his own for long stretches. When home, she worked considerable amounts of overtime. What time they spent together was often enjoyable but lacked in the sexual energy that they had when they were younger. It was a good, comfortable life, but ultimately it left John frustrated. While he had never seriously considering acting on his frustrations, preferring to handle things himself, as it were, he did tend to reminisce about days gone by, and one girl whom he would always consider to be his great, first true love. Charlotte.
So, when the stars aligned to give him a chance to travel for the conference John jumped at the opportunity if only for a change to the every day. Thinking it would be interesting on a professional level, and enjoyable on a personal level. What John didn't realize was just how life changing this conference was going to be.
Thursday
The flight up had been fine, running a few minutes behind schedule, which was pretty much par for the course these days. Unlike another teacher from his district who had come up the day before to visit some friends, John had waited until the morning of the conference to travel up. He was scheduled to present on Friday, so the school board had agreed he could travel up the day before. His pre-dawn flight got him into the city by 7:30am, and since he didn't have any checked luggage to wait for, he was able to catch a taxi quick enough. By the time the cabbie dropped him off at the hotel, it was still only 8:45am.
"Good morning sir," quipped a friendly voice which drew John's attention to the hotel employee working the concierge desk. "Welcome to the Minto Hotel. Are you here for the teacher's conference?"
Altering his direction toward the desk, John replied, "As a matter of fact I am. I have reservations here for the next two nights."
"Well most rooms are booked for the conference, so it was a good bet you were one of the attendees. Unfortunately, rooms won't be ready until noon, and early check-in starts at 1pm, but if you'd like to leave your bag with me, I can make sure it makes it up to your room for you."
John smiled, "That would be perfect, I had just been planning on stowing it at the back of the conference room and rolling it around with me." The benefits of traveling light, with his briefcase and a small carry-on bag.
"No need of that, I'll just take your name and confirm your reservation number and you'll be all set."
Pulling out a folded piece of paper from his soft-sided messenger style briefcase
he hands over his hotel reservation details to the concierge, "Here you are." John waits patiently as the concierge punches the information on the paper into his computer.
"Thank you, everything looks to be in order. Your room is up on the 15th floor. The conference has most of the meeting rooms on the second floor, and I believe the opening is in the Green room. There should be refreshments, including coffee, set out just outside of the rooms. Welcome to Ottawa Mr. Prescott."
"Thanks for the help," John says, slipping the man a folded bill as a tip, "it's greatly appreciated."
Slinging his briefcase over his shoulder, John finds his way to the wide-open stairs ascending quickly to the second floor. Stepping onto the expansive second floor atrium he immediately is engulfed by what must be over three hundred other teachers and administrators from across the country, all here for the same conference. The atrium itself had an impressive glass ceiling, and the tower of the hotel can be seen through it off to one side. A glass railing circles around the centre, broken only by where the stairs lead from the floor below.
Looking around, John quickly can easily see various meeting rooms leading off from the atrium and easily spots the sign indicating the Green room directly across from the stairs. Posted beside it on the wall is a breakdown of the next few days. Which rooms were being used for which sessions, when and where the scheduled breaks were, and details on a few social events that the organizers had put together for the conference goers. From what he had seen so far, this conference might actually be worthwhile. God knows many of the professional learning opportunities, especially the local ones, he'd been subjected to over the years had been less useful than the paper they had been advertised on.
Making his way over to one of the refreshments stands that had been set up, John pours himself a coffee he moves off to one side to add his customary two cream and two sugars.
"John?!" a voice suddenly exclaims, "That can't be you, can it?"
That voice. The voice that, if he was forced to be honest with himself, John had simultaneously been praying for and dreading for the past 20 years.
Turning around slowly, trying to regain his composure and swallow down the shock slowly rising in the back of his throat, John comes face to face with her. Charlotte Lovelock.
"Charlotte? Oh my god, it IS you," John sputters, "what are you doing here?" The realization of just how foolish this question is doesn't cross his mind until well after the words have left his mouth, after all everyone was here for the conference, dumbass, he thought to himself.
"I'm here for the conference, which I'm guessing you are too." She giggles that infectious giggle that had first caught his attention all of those years ago. Back when they were both teenagers at camp. "Have you had a chance to look over the program? It looks surprisingly well put together."
"Yes, I am, er, it does" John stammers, his brain desperately trying to catch up with the situation. "I didn't realize that you'd become a teacher. I always expected to see you on stage, do you still sing?" he makes an attempt to gain control of the conversation, and his mind.
Charlotte giggles again, her nose doing that sexy wrinkle that it does, "Oh I still love to sing, and I actually run the choir programs at my school, but let's face it I was never going to make it big. I don't crave the limelight enough to sacrifice everything the way I would have needed to."
"And what about you? I thought you were planning to become some sort of hot shot lawyer?" she adds.
John shrugs, secretly thankful for the chance for his mind to get back on track, "Well I was able to audit a few courses at the law school I my final year of my undergrad. I thought they were interesting as hell, but I realized I'd be stuck forever reading legal briefs and opinions as opposed to actually doing some good." Looking around at the myriad other teachers beginning to file past them into the main room he adds, "So like everyone else here, teaching seemed like a great way to make a positive impact on the world in my own small way."
Charlotte smiles, nodding, "It is a very rewarding profession in that way, isn't it? It looks like we are about to get started." She turns and heads for the entryway into the large theatre style room. She pauses for a moment and then glances back at John, "Sit with me?"
"I'd love to."
After listening to the chair of the organizing committee welcome everyone, the first key note speaker took the mic, and after an interesting TED Talk on current trends in education, everyone went for a quick break before heading off to their first breakout sessions in the other, smaller rooms. Charlotte and John were registered for two different sessions, and, after promising to meet up at lunch and exchanging phone numbers, went their separate ways.