Chapter 50
Francine gave everyone their task assignments, and the meeting broke up. Everyone except me, that is. I wasn’t assigned to anything, and all I could do was sit there and wait to speak with Nelson. I waited while he had a long conversation with Francine behind closed doors. Everyone in the place more or less pretended I wasn’t there. Bruce Putnam at least seemed to be slightly embarrassed by it all, but he wouldn’t look me in the eyes when he walked by. After close to forty-five minutes, Francine came out of the office and Nelson waved me in. When I finally got in to see him, I was a little bit belligerent.
“Why didn’t I get assigned to anything?” I asked. He looked at me with this expression of amazement on his face, as if the answer to that question should be obvious even to
