This paper sets out to show how the markerwhen works in a specific example. The marker is here studied within one single utterance. It turns out that the meaning taken on by when is completely different form the one it is liable to have in all its accepted uses. In our case there is no further question of connections of a temporal nature we could express with after, as, before, while or even whenever. What is surprising then is that it is the tenses on the verbs in each clause making up our utterance that endow when with its specific value. A value which may well be built from the moment of utterance.