<< Previous Episode | (note on postings) | Next Episode >>
Ted moves in a way that fills me with nameless dread. It's a strange, snakelike movement that seems designed to inspire fear and restlesness. I watch him move across the front lobby like a shadow, looking everywhere. If this was a movie, a piano would be playing now, low notes, quickly, in repetition, angling for suspense. The image in the camera would be panning low, next to the wall, crawling like Ted seems to be crawling across the lobby, the scraping sound his feet make against the floor coming at me in pure THX or SDDS sound, so loud I could almost feel it inside me.
After Eddie left, I stayed in the lobby, waiting to see who else arrived. It's turning out to be an interesting experience.
Ted walks past me somehow managing to avoid my stare. Oh, no. You're not getting away *that* easily, I think.
Ted!
He stops, and turns around.
Hey, hey, how are you doing! He says, fake smile turning on instantly, instinctively, to greet me. And... what?...
...What is he doing?
His arm moves forward, up, and ends up pointing at me.
I smell a scent of lavender. Maybe it's Ted's new perfume?
I'm my own worst enemy, Pink sings inside my head, and I extend my hand to greet his.
We shake hands. It feels weird. I try to remember the last time we shaked hands. I can't. I don't think we shook hands the first time we met, even. I think of other cultures, where friends greet each other with a kiss, a big wet-cheeck kiss, sometimes two or three.
My breathing halts, suddenly. I imagine kissing Ted.
Eeeeeek!
Wait a minute. Maybe I got the context wrong. Maybe they do it only with friends. I breathe easier now.
Big reorg, eh? I say, trying to break the ice.
Ted's face turns red in a split-second, and instead of replying he launches into a description of how this morning he confused his car with someone else's, and tried to open it and was about to call a locksmith when the real owner of the car arrived and Ted had to talk her out of calling the police.
Isn't it funny? Ted says.
Do you see me laughing? I think.
Do you want my opinion? I say.
Will I like it? He says, in what is probably the first moment of naked honesty I have witnessed in him.
Probably not, I say, I tend to base my opinions in reality, you know.
Ted breaks into a nervous laugh.
Reality! He says, That's hilarious!
Is it? I say.
Oh, yeah, he says, Side-splitting comedy.
I see that the flash of honesty didn't last.
Listen, he says, I've got to go. Things to do. People to see.
Yeah, I say, Eddie must be waiting for you.
He breaks into a laugh again as he walks to the elevators, and this time it's even more fake than the last. Reality! he says, his back turned to me, Hilarious!
Oh, well.
Another day at the office?
Not really.
<< Previous Episode | (note on postings) | Next Episode >>
5:49:34 PM 
|
