The boy walking on the moon - I would not leave two interns with my MacBook Air

—We have been working like crazy in this project for one year —said the slave (I mean Ludovic) the next day—, it's huge, a campaign for a new company, a new brand, offices around the world ... The commercial that we are preparing is an animated short film. We worked with several agencies specialized in animation from the Silicon Valley, with freelancers in the United States, Japan and Europe. Actors and celebrities collaborated in the campaign, also politicians and businessmen, singers. We shot in Dubai, in Las Vegas, in Moscow and in Rio de Janeiro. Each local McKein agency is responsible for a part of the project and Fran?ois coordinates the whole from Paris. It's like building a Boeing Dreamliner. Crazy. The budget is colossal, no one knows exactly how much. There is an investment fund behind all this. You can not imagine how nervous is Fran?ois. And not only him, Martin and all the agency as well.

    —Great —I said.

    —Yes, the campaign is running great. We must still miss five percent at most to complete it. The final version must be ready for next week, when the final Mundial (Worldwide) presentation will take place. Oh, by the way, in advertising agencies if you don’t use a word in Spanish or in another language occasionally people will not respect you. Remember, say some words in Spanish here and there to show that you are cool. I do not know how many VIP guests will attend the presentation ... everyone is hysterical.

    —No wonder. And who is the customer?, What is the commercial about?

    Ludovic told me the details of the Cleopatra project. How lucky I was to participate in this adventure from inside!

    Ludovic was right, the pace of the agency was loud and fast. Martin, as good German, checked to the smallest detail. Nothing escaped his expert eye. In a few days he will show the world what he was capable of, he and his team. Him first, of course.

    A large reception and gala had been scheduled for the afternoon of the presentation. More than eight hundred invitations had been sent out and a multitudinous attendance was expected. It would be a great event.

    Five days before the presentation Fran?ois multiplied his attention and carefully checked each component of the campaign.

    Fran?ois was scotched to his MacBook Air. I remember arriving in the morning and finding him already working and leaving in the evening, sometimes at night, and seeing him concentrated with his eyes close to the screen.

    One day I left at 1am and returned the next day at 10am and found him still in his office, unshaved and tired.

    We were late, behind the plan. Two days before the presentation there was still much to be done.

    —We will not have time —I whispered to Ludovic when Fran?ois was not watching.

    —We have to.

    —Ludovic, it is physically impossible, even if we all work non-stop like crazy without sleeping.

    —We will make it, you will see.

    Fran?ois was unrecognizable and irritable. He slept little, drank a lot of coffee. The critical moment was near and he was slipping control.

    A day before the presentation the agency seemed like a boiling pot ready to explode. I was impressed by the organizational skills and overview of Martin and Fran?ois. I was learning a lot, no doubt, although sacrificing my sleep and my nerves.

    Fran?ois had to eat, his MacBook Air nearby.

    Fran?ois had to run through the halls, his MacBook Air nearby.

    Fran?ois had to go to the bathroom, his MacBook Air nearby.

    7pm. We had almost succeeded. Ludovic had already sent the last files to Fran?ois, who was putting them together with unsurpassed skills. I was looking over his shoulder.

    He seemed satisfied, nervous but satisfied.

    Then the phone rang, Fran?ois nodded “oui, oui”.

    —I'll talk to Claude Sobranet and Martin to coordinate who says what at tomorrow’s presentation —he said running out from the office, this time without his MacBook Air.

    There was not much left to do. We made it, as Ludovic predicted. Mission accomplished. We could relax a bit and breathe until the next day.

    And then happened what should not have happened.

    I went to get a coffee at the coffee machine. As always, it came boiling. I returned to the office holding the plastic cup as I could, by the borders and with three fingers not to burn myself.

    —Shit! —yelled Ludovic frightening me. Coffee almost spilled out.

    —Shit, you afraid me, Ludovic! —I said pissed off.

    —I've forgotten one file —he said, —the kid walking on the moon. Shit, shit, shit!

    —And Fran?ois didn’t say anything? —I asked.

    —No. Maybe he didn’t notice.

    —Well, when he will come back you will tell him —I suggested.

    —Okay —he answered, I hope that we will have time to add it to the commercial because if not it will be a blank in the middle of it. And this sequence costed a fortune.

    —Okay.

    —Or better, I add it directly into Fran?ois’s MacBook Air to save time.

    —You know that Fran?ois hates that someone touches his MacBook Air. If I were you I would call him before just in case.

    —Yeah, you're right.

    We called Fran?ois. Nothing, he didn’t answer.

    —I do it —said Ludovic determined.

    Everything happened so fast. Ludovic passed near me, pushed me with his elbow and the cup flew away, spilling boiling coffee over Fran?ois’ MacBook Air. Instinctively I rushed towards the laptop as I could with the bad luck that Ludovic just had the same thought at the same time. Our heads hit, making the same sound as two empty coconuts. To avoid falling down I tried to hold something, I grabbed the cable from the printer, which hit the MacBook Air and it fell to the ground.

    An unusual noise came out from the laptop and suddenly it switched off. Panic on board.

    I picked up the MacBook Air from the floor, put it on the table exactly as it was. We cleaned it up. It was boiling hot and smelled of coffee.

    We turned it on.

    We turned it on!

    I say that we turned it on!

    We turned it on?

    Ah, nope.

    No, we did not turn it on. It didn’t turn on.

    I repeat, Fran?ois’s MacBook Air was not turning on.

    Ludovic looked at me with one of those silly expressions, misplaced, that means so many things at the same time.

    I also looked at him thinking that he really deserved those lashes days ago, but now real ones and well given.

    —Does Fran?ois have a back-up of the project? —I asked.

    —Do not. He keeps... kept —he corrected—, everything in his computer, he doesn’t trust ... didn’t trust ... Dropbox ...

    Ludovic hadn’t finished his sentence when Fran?ois entered, radiant, into the office.

    —Everything ready! —he said with a big smile.

Pages 21-24 of my book “Feeling like a grape in Paris”

Xavier Gonzalez del Valle

President

AQUARIUS ABROAD