I worked at Loopt for a while after spending a little over a year wandering from place to place in the Bay Area. I had abandoned all my friends from my previous life in San Francisco and thought for a while of just wandering into the woods and vanishing forever. I'd have tried to live however I could, building a makeshift shelter and hoping the mountain lions wouldn't find me. I still think about carrying out such a plan from time to time, though now I feel quite certain that I won't carry it out. Back in the old days, though, I'd actually hike around some of the more remote trails in Marin County and try to find places where nobody would spot me. Of course I'd always return to civilization, not quite ready to take the plunge. But I came close. Maybe you don't believe me, but I did.

Anyway, Loopt was hiring all sorts of contract workers at the time, and I needed the money. I remember my first day there they assigned a whole bunch of us new hires to work alongside various senior employees. They paired me up with a fellow named Abrams who grabbed me by the forearm and led me outside right after they'd introduced us. He was built like a linebacker and had a strong grip, and I was glad once he set me free. "We're not staying in the office today, " he told me. "You don't mind, do you?"

"You're in charge, I'm assuming, " I said.

"Don't talk like that, " Abrams said. "I'm not in charge of anybody. You can go back inside if you want."

"You're the only person I know here, " I said. "Besides whoever interviewed me and gave me my offer. And I can't even remember her name right now."

We got into Abrams car and took the 101 heading north. "You get to know any of the other new hires?" he said.

"I shook hands with some, " I said. "You know the way it goes."

"Your future wife could be among that group, " Abrams said. "It happens, you know."

"Who says I'm looking?" I said.

"I didn't say one way or the other, " Abrams told me. "I'm just saying it happens. So if it does, don't be surprised."

"I always hate the people I work with, " I said. "No offence."

"None taken, " Abrams said. "I hate the people I work with as well."

Abrams turned the radio dial so that it was on some talk station high up the dial. There was a woman caller on who was in the middle of some long story about a city worker of some kind who had showed up at her house. "I tried to get him to leave, " she said. "He wouldn't go away. I told him I was going to call the police. That didn't seem to bother him. He just kept right on walking around my property."

"You ever listen to this show?" Abrams asked me.

"I didn't even know about this station, " I said.

"They're all paranoid, " he said. "They think the government's out to get them. The host reads stories about stuff that happened in far-off places. A woman who disappeared in Newark after an IRS agent visited her home. That sort of thing. They all eat it up."

"This is the same old stuff they've been talking about forever, " I said.

"It's different now, though, " Abrams said. "These people are afraid. There was this one guy who doesn't leave home for anything now. And, you know, he leads a regular life, more or less. He works and has a family and kids and orders what he needs to online. That's the thing now. You don't have to be crazy or destitute to be paranoid now. Everyone can get into it."

We pulled off the highway just past San Mateo and headed down towards the water. There were hotels and office buildings around us and the airport was just a little further up. We pulled into a parking lot off the side of the road. There was a bike trail right in front of us that went right along the edge of the bay.

We got out and Abrams leaned against the warm hood of the car. I did the same. A plane came in low in front of us, right about to land.

"I think they call this Bayside Park, " he said. "Or maybe this isn't part of the park. But there is a park that goes by that name near here. I've never been able to figure it out."

"I've driven past here, I know, but I've never stopped, " I said.

"It's not exactly a place worth stopping for, " he told me. "But I like it."

"I understand why, " I said. "It's away from everything. Or else it feels like it, anyway."

"So why did you come to Loopt?" Abrams asked me.

"They were hiring, " I said.

"It's going to get swallowed up, you know, " he said. "Or else go out of business. It'll happen soon."

"It'll be a long process, whatever happens, " I said. "I'm not thinking about it."

"Where were you before?" he asked me.

"Lots of places, " I said. "I found work where I could get it, if I felt like it. But I've been trying to work as little as possible. That was a phase, though. I think I'm over it."

"I used to work at a company that funded these kinds of start-ups, " he said. "I was there for years and thought I was a real hotshot. I used to travel all over the world. This wasn't that long ago, you understand."

"Sounds like it was fun, " I said.

"It was all right, " he said. "You know, you'd meet these kids sometimes and you'd want to punch them right in the face. Right there in the middle of the meeting room at whatever fancy hotel you were all staying at. You know, they'd thought they'd come up with some amazing new idea and we could tell right away that it wouldn't work. And it wasn't the arrogance that made me upset. You know, I understand. You're a kid in school, you dream about making millions, you land a meeting with a big VC firm. It's exciting. It was the lack of perspective that bothered me. You know, I once told one of them that I could think of twenty-five reasons why his and his friends' idea was going to tank out in the market. I said, 'I'll tell you twenty-five reasons right off the top of my head.' And I did. I did exactly that. And the kid sat there stunned, as if I was telling him the secrets of the universe. But this was basic stuff. This was stuff they should have thought about before they wrote a single line of code."

Abrams reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette as another jet roared by. This one was taking off, heading for who knows where.

"I knew people like that in school, " I told him. "Nobody that made it big. But plenty of them tried."

"I sound like a bitter old man, " Abrams said. "But that's the reason I got out. I didn't want to feel like that anymore. I wasn't even thirty yet, but I felt this anger towards the world like you couldn't believe."

"I can relate to that, " I said. "I used to write a column for this weekly paper. I did some other freelance work as well. I got into writing about what I'd learned in college. It was great for a while. But I got sick of it after a while. It wasn't fun anymore."

"Since when was work supposed to be fun?" Abrams said.

"I don't mean the work, " I said. "I mean, it was partly the work. But I had these friends. You know, people I went to school with, and then they'd all found work in the area. And we'd go out to this or that place on the weekend and get drunk and do it all over again a week later. And someone was writing a novel that they'd never finish. And another was going to open a gallery someday. But none of them were ever going to do these things. It took me a while to figure that out. And when I did, I left. I left and I didn't even tell anybody. I answered their calls on my cell phone once in a while. But they stopped calling eventually. So then I would be in Vallejo or some place like that working some lousy job and I didn't know anybody. I didn't even want to know anybody."

Another jet took off in front of us. The tail was painted in bright orange and there were blue waves along the bottom of the fuselage.

"I know all these airlines, " Abrams told me. "Every single one of them. I've flown most of them. The others I just know."

"You must miss the travel a bit, " I said.

"It could be all right sometimes, " Abrams told me. "But I'm done with travelling. I'm fine with being here now. I stay right here in this spot for the rest of my life if I could."

"So is that why you took me out here?" I said. "So I'll know where to find you if you stop showing up at the office."

Abrams laughed at that. "I couldn't be in there today, " he said. "With all of you new people running around. You know, they want us to smile and ask lots of questions and make you feel welcome. And it's not that you shouldn't feel welcome. We're an all right place, all things considered. It's the going through the motions part that gets to me."

"I understand, " I said. "I'd probably have done the same."

"I don't like feeling old, " Abrams said. "You know. I'm not old. But then the new kids come to school. It's that kind of a feeling."

"We're probably close to the same age, " I said. "You'd be surprised. I've wasted a lot of time."

"We've all wasted a lot of time, " Abrams said. "That won't change now that you're with us."

"I wasn't expecting it to, " I said.

"Then you should do fine, " Abrams told me.