Chapter 11: Chance of a Lifetime

"Ms. McFarlane, I'm Hal Berglund. Conrad asked me to see you."

"Yes, Hal. He told me all about you and I can see why. You have a great face for television and the rest of you is pretty good too," she chuckled.

I know I blushed but said nothing, waiting for her to take the lead.

"By the way, everyone calls me Dorothy or Dot so please let's not stand on formalities. I'm to try and assess if you can make it on-camera. Conrad said you didn't have any former experience but that's not necessarily a bad thing."

"I'm still wondering why he chose me."

"He did say you were very familiar with the workings of political parties," she said. "Who did you work for?"

"Ben Cross. I started as an intern with a civic politician then moved up to provincial, and then federal."

"That's a lot of valuable experience for someone as young as you. What made you leave the party?"

"Ethics," I said, choosing not add any more.

She nodded. "Idealism can get shot to hell in this business as well, Hal. We get to see the seamy side of life. All too often we can't tell the public what some of these snakes do for a living. Anyway, that's not the point of your being here. Why don't you come with me and I'll get a microphone and a camera and we can get started."

I spent the next two days, two hours in the morning and two in the afternoon working with both Dorothy and the camera. Unlike the old days, field reporting was essentially stand-up with only a cameraman and the reporter. No director, no teleprompter, just notes if they were needed. Look at the camera and say your piece as if you were writing it for the evening news. The camera was on a tripod and wasn't being tended. Dorothy had a monitor to see how I looked and sounded and it was being recorded as well so that she could point out things to me.

It wasn't easy and I wasn't a natural but gradually I began to get more confident and I was able to tell my story more effectively. On Thursday morning, Dorothy threw me a curveball.

"Okay, Hal. I think you've got the hang of it. Don't be afraid to refer to your notes. Better to be accurate than cute. You are camera-friendly and your voice is fine so just relax. Today, I'm going to be the studio announcer and I'm going to interact with you about a story. Sometimes these are set up in advance so that you know the kind of question to expect but sometimes they are right out of the blue when it's a breaking story."

To begin with I was putting my hand to my earpiece to listen carefully to the question.

"Don't do that unless there's a lot of background noise. You stopped looking at the camera and were looking at the floor when you were listening. Always look at the camera unless you are referring to someone or something in the camera's view."

Again, I wasn't a natural but, with practice, I did get better.

Sylvia begged off coming back to the apartment with me on Friday saying she had some family business to attend to. She didn't come to the pub that afternoon and I wondered how she got home. Perhaps a family member picked her up. She had been distant during the week as I worked with Dorothy. I was pretty sure she was upset that I got this opportunity when it was once again the very job she wanted. She must have known that she wasn't ready for it yet but I suppose logic didn't enter into it and emotions did.

When I picked her up on Monday morning she was very quiet, offering nothing about her weekend. I decided silence was the better move on my part so we spoke very little on the way to the office. I was expecting that I would get my first field assignment this week and I was anxious about it. I wanted to share that with Sylvia but my antenna told me not to and, in this case, my antenna was getting the right message.

We were on a lunch break when she approached me in private.

"Hal ... I ... don't think we should see each other any more," she said, avoiding my eyes as she haltingly began.

"Why?" It was an instinctive question, one I was sure I already knew the answer to.

"Well ... your hours are going to change. You won't be coming to work as early any more."

"You're assuming I'm going to be a success at this new job."

"Yes. You don't seem to know how to fail. With Dorothy's coaching, I'm sure you'll do very well."

"What's the other reason," I probed.

Again, she didn't want to look me in the eye.

"Is it because I got this job before you had a chance?"

She nodded, staring at her hands.

"I'm sorry about that, Sylvia. You taught me what I needed to know and I took your opportunity away from you."

She nodded again, still looking down.

"Can we be friends still? We will be working together."

Finally, she looked up at me and said, "Yes. Not like we were but we can be friends."

"Okay. I feel badly that it turned out this way ... but ... well, good luck with the new job. It wouldn't surprise me to find you in front of a camera in the future. I'm sure you can do just as good or better a job than I can."

"Thanks, Hal. I hope you're right. That's why I took this job. That's what I'm aiming for."

"Well, don't forget to tell Conrad. He's not a mind reader."

For the first time, she smiled. "I won't."

And that was that. My girlfriend had moved on and I was on my own once again.

I won't pretend I got comfortable in front of the camera, but as time wore on, I at least felt I knew what I was doing and didn't embarrass myself or the station. I had to join the union after three months. That was mandatory but it was a small thing to me. I was part of an elite group of reporters who became recognizable to the public. It was something I wasn't quite prepared for.

My full name was being used on the clips I produced and I began to hear "Hunky Haldor" being bandied about by some of the girls at the station. It reminded me of my time in high school when some of the girls heard Bev or Ginny refer to me as "Haldor the Hunk." I was a bit put off by it but there was nothing I could do about it. As Dorothy had told me in the beginning, I was in the public domain now and subject to continuous scrutiny. People associated the news with the person who presented it. She told me a good looking guy like me was going to get even more attention.

I was getting a full dose of ribbing from Renata, Bruno, and Steve as well. They were happy for me, unlike Sylvia. But they weren't threatened by my quick rise to notoriety. They felt badly that she and I had broken up but Renata said she could understand it. Besides, she said, I would probably have to fight off the groupies that would be after me. I laughed at that, not realizing she would be partly right, although I hardly had rock star status.

As time went on and summer was in full sweaty-hot form, I was getting better assignments as more senior reporters went on vacation. I wasn't yet invited to fill in at the parliament building but I was getting a lot more civic and provincial political work. Again, my experience with the inner workings of the party system gave me an opportunity to probe a little deeper with questions.

Conrad had gotten a lot of flack about putting someone as young as me out ahead a several more seasoned and older reporters. However, he deflected all that criticism when the ratings came out in June showing we had gained three points in our news broadcast, taking a point from each of our competitors. Over the next five years, we continued to improve in the ratings and we were rewarded for that. It wasn't just me, of course, but we were being a good deal more aggressive with our stories, thanks to Conrad, and that made our news more watchable.

It was late August, 2007, and I'd been sent to the Ministry of Agriculture building to interview a mid-level director about new support program for developing technology in wine making. It was pretty straightforward stuff and didn't demand a lot of in-depth digging. I had five years under my belt now and each year brought some new challenges. But I was enjoying the job, even with the occasional unwanted attention it brought.

I was walking down the hallway with my cameraman after our interview and heard someone call my name. I stopped and turned around and saw someone I never expected to see. Striding briskly down the hall toward me was a very beautiful redhead, wearing a big smile and coming directly to me.

"Ginny? It's you?" was all I could get out. I was stunned.

"Hi Hal, how are you?" she said as she embraced me and kissed my cheek.

"I'm good. I can't believe it's you. It's been so long since I've seen you. You look just as beautiful as ever."

My cameraman excused himself and headed back for the station and his next assignment.

"Thank you, Hal. But I'm ten years older, have two children and weigh twenty pounds more," she laughed.

"Well, it doesn't show ... at least ... not to me. I can't get over it. What are you doing in Ottawa?"

"I live here now. I'm attached to the Ministry, responsible for animal inspection services."

"What happened to your veterinary practice?"

"Never got started. I was asked to interview for the Ministry when I finished my post-graduate studies and I've been working for it ever since. I just moved to Ottawa in June. I'm on the mad cow disease task force, if you can call it that. We're on the lookout for any more signs of it showing up in Canada. After the problems in Alberta and the boycotts, the beef industry is paranoid and so is our department."

"Fantastic. You've really done well for yourself. And two children?"

"Yes, Cynthia is five, and Hanna is three."

"What does your husband do?"

"I'm not married ... any more. We divorced two years ago."

"Oh ... I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pried."

"Don't worry, I've already forgotten him. He was a big mistake and the only thing of value he left me was my two girls."