People kept telling me it was a lousy winter. I remember that the clerk at the motel proclaimed this to me as soon as I stepped in the door. "Lousy winter, " he said. "Wipe off your boots before you come and closer."

It was a lousy winter. Everyone was right. It would snow and then the next day it would snow again. The people doing the weather on television showed us the storms as they marched by, one after the other. They colored them red and the looked like stripes, running up and down the screen but moving east. "The entire Midwest is going to feel this one, " the weatherwoman told us when a bad one hit. "Get out your snow shovels."

I was working for TheLearningSmith that winter. It was a long drive from home up the I-35 to get there, but it good money and I had been out of work so long that my resume was starting to look a bit suspicious. To tell you the truth, I wasn't even actively looking for a while. I was living off my savings and working on a novel. I had a one-bedroom apartment right outside of Circle Pines, and the rent was cheap. I could look out the window from my desk and see the traffic going by on the freeway a short distance away. I still have the work I did in those days. I think things were going well, but I was running out of money.

TheLearningSmith was a strange place. They would assign you to several projects at once and give you little sections of each to complete. That meant that you spent half your day in meetings giving progress reports to the various groups involved in each project. Of course, you saw the same people over and over again since everyone else was also working on several projects at once. Occasionally a meeting would end and maybe half the people in the room would stay because they also had to attend the next one. As I said, it was not the usual way of doing things.

I remember running into Nevis the first day on the job, but we only smiled at each other the way people do at work when they pass by each other. It wasn't until I was in the little break room they have on the first floor on a break that I got to talking to him. This was maybe a month into my tenure.

He poured himself some coffee from the machine and sat down across from me. "So, not staying with us long, I hear, " he said after introducing himself.

"My contract's a bit flexible, " I told him.

"But you're not a full-time hire, " Nevis said.

"I wasn't looking for that kind of thing, " I said.

"Right, right, " Nevis said. "Because I think they like you here. If you do want to stay."

"It's not what I'm looking for, exactly, " I said.

"I don't think that this is exactly what any of us are looking for, " Nevis said, smiling.

"Some people like instructional design, " I said. "I have friends. One of them, when I told him I got this work, he couldn't believe it. He's been out there looking. But he ran into some trouble in his old job, so he's been branded. You know, he can't get a proper reference."

"That happens, " Nevis said. "My brother had the same problem. He lives in St. Paul. But right now he's working maybe three jobs because he had a fight with his boss a while back. I mean a real fight. He was fired from that place and now nobody wants to deal with him."

"You have to watch yourself, " I said.

I got up and poured myself some coffee, and Nevis got up and left. The lights in the room were buzzing, and the snow outside was terrible.

I didn't talk to Nevis again for probably another month, if you can believe it. I got to work early one morning and he was smoking just outside the front doors. It was a clear day, for once, though still colder than it was supposed to be, according to the weather people.

"I've never seen you out here before, " I said to him as I came up.

"I've been trying to quit, " he said. "The winter's been good. It keeps me inside."

"Everyone keeps telling me how lousy it's been, " I said. "The winter, I mean. You're the first person I've heard who's paid it a compliment."

Nevis flicked the used-up cigarette on the ground. "Well, driving has been a pain."

"You live near here?" I asked him.

"I grew up maybe ten minutes away, " he told me. "I told you I had brother in St. Paul?"

"I seem to remember that, " I said.

"He took off when he was fifteen, " Nevis said. "We didn't hear from him for three years. But it turned out that he was doing all right."

"But now he's having trouble, if I recall, " I said.

"He's still making a living, " Nevis said. "That's more than we ever expected of him."

More cars were pulling into the lot. They smiled at they went by. We smiled back.

"Today, I'm afraid, we're going to open up The Service File, " Nevis said to me.

"I don't get it, " I said.

"We gave it that name, " Nevis told me. "The managers don't like us, of course. But it deserves such an ominous moniker."

"It's a new project, then, " I said.

"It's been around for years, " Nevis said. "Doug Service owns this software company in the city. He comes by here every once in a while and yells at all of us because his sales are so bad. He makes a lousy product and he blames us."

"What's his company do?" I asked.

"Data management stuff, " Nevis told me. "Like everyone else. Except that his software is awful. You should see the interface. I guess you will. You'll lose your mind."

"So we have to write more material for him, then, " I said.

"The material is there, " Nevis told me. "We did the best we could. He wants online courses, you know. You click a few screens and then you're an expert. Except that we put more than a few screens into the thing. It takes maybe two days to get through the entire course. That's why he's upset."

"He thinks it should be shorter, " I said.

"You know how it is, " Nevis said. "But I don't think he's coming today. I know that he called late yesterday. Thomas told me the whole thing. He chewed out Rick, you know. Thomas could hear Rick in his office, trying to calm him down. But it's no use with old Doug."

"So what's the plan, then?" I asked.

"Thomas thinks we're going to start from scratch, " Nevis said, resigned. "It's a joke. A complete joke. But it might mean more work for you, if you want to stay on longer."

"This isn't what I'm looking for, " I told him.

"I'm only saying, " Nevis said. "The work is there."

Our co-workers started to stream inside. We exchanged pleasantries as they went by. The sky was starting to cloud over.

"You grew up ten minutes from here, " I said to Nevis.

"I used to see this place when I was a kid, " Nevis said. "I'd go by on my bike and see everyone inside, working away."