Who Was That?

They sat in a large room. There were voices on the speaker phone from some other large room far away. The sound of those distant voices echoed off the concrete floor and the wall at the back of the room.

As the meeting began, periodically the phone system would beep. Someone else had joined the teleconference from yet some other room in some other place.

And as more and more beeps signalled more and more participants by phone, gradually I became aware of a sound that did not belong. Behind the talk of the speakers, birds were singing.

The sound of birds? I looked around at other people in the room. Their faces betrayed nothing. I concluded it was a figment of the phone lines.

But there is was again. Yes, there it was. Birds singing in the trees. The sound of blue sky and springtime sun. It was teasing me. But I was sure I had heard it.

I looked around again. Still no reactions on the faces next to me. But then it came: the barking of a dog.

Who was that who dialed into the meeting from home. Who was that who was sitting on their deck enjoying the sun while we sat in the conference rooms? Who was that who had that great idea?

I wonder if next time I could be that person, too.

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