A large open-plan office, empty but for four people each staring at their respective monitor, they speak laconically and sporadically and one of them types feverishly. Forty-seven minutes later these notes prove invaluable.
Trev: So when does he start?
Me: I’m not sure.
Trev: I thought you said tomorrow.
Me: Well, I said it could be. It could be tomorrow.
Trev: Well didn’t they say?
Me: They said it might be, you know what they’re like, I don’t know if they even know.
Trev: They don’t even know?
Barry: Where has he come from?
Trev: I don’t think anyone knows, do they?
Me: We’ll ask him when he gets here.
Karen: What does he look like?
Barry: Have you seen him then Nactus?
Me: I’m not sure, I thought it might be him.
Karen: Weren’t you at the interview?
Me: I was at some. I think there was a Terry, there were quite a few.
Barry: But you must remember him, were there many there?
Karen: How many were there?
Me: I don’t remember, ten maybe, there might have been more that I didn‘t see.
Karen: So tomorrow then.
Trev: Maybe possibly tomorrow.
Karen: If you think you saw him, what was he like then?
Me: I’m going to say he had a goatee and a squint, how’s that?
Trev: Did he?
Me: No, I’m just saying I don’t know, he might have.
Karen: I’ve never liked beards, no offence Mike, oh he’s not here. No, my first husband was a beardy, it was an awful thing.
Trev: Is he up to speed, where has he come from?
Me: Can’t remember.
Karen: Oh, hope it wasn’t my old place, I don’t remember a Terry, was he tallish?
Barry: Is that his name then?
Me: She wasn’t absolutely certain, maybe. Kate didn’t have the file in the corridor.
Trev: Ah, so it might be somebody else?
Me: No, it will be him alright, just maybe not Terry.
Barry: Who then?
Karen: Which one is Kate?
Trev: Short, brown hair.
Barry: Not that short.
Karen: Short brown hair about forty? I know who you mean.
Trev: Long hair about thirty, you’ve seen her. Quite short.
Barry: She must have been at your interview, or wasn’t she?
Karen: Oh her, mousy hair, quite long.
Trev: Yes, her.
Barry: How does Kate not know?
Trev: Who knows.
Karen: But she knew he was called Terry?
Me: No, she thought he might be, she couldn’t be sure.
Trev: Well, we’ll find out tomorrow.
Barry: Is it definitely tomorrow?
Me: Not definitely.
Karen: Not definitely you think?
Me: I don‘t think so, no.
Trev: Who knows.
I’d like to say a smiling, efficiently well-built and tightly uniformed nurse then entered from stage left, pushing a trolley wobbling with a water-filled jug and four small translucent plastic beakers each trapping a mosaic of brightly coloured pills. But I’m sorry to say there was no nurse and no trolley, and there probably won’t be one tomorrow night either, probably but not definitely.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I don’t get it, why waist time on this when nothing happened anyway are they all like you where you work. I cant see why you would write it whats the point. Why don’t you stick to normal posts.
A Daniel come to judgment! Yea, a Daniel!
Shylock said it and I typed it, but of course you are as always, totally accurate in your observations Dan, a little harsh possibly but nonetheless perceptive.
Concerning the conundrum of colleague relational similarity.
The point I suppose is that there is a musical phrase in One by U2 and Don’t Let it Bring You Down by Neil Young, (beautifully sung by Annie Lennox and used in American Beauty) that is so similar in both that it strangely detracts from each, when you realise it. It’s probably best to just ignore Craig David’s Walking Away.
Neil was obviously first as it comes from his 1970 After the Gold Rush album and over twenty years later Mr Edge wrote the music for One.
Am7–Dsus–Fmaj7–Em7 chord progression is the problem or the delight.
Anyway the U2 song may bitterly summarise our enigmatic office friendships in it’s oblique message that we are all different but essentially one and through growing further apart are obliged to stick even closer together in unhappiness burdened with each other‘s problems. More funny though that it’s popular wedding music, I’ve heard it at several. Perhaps ‘have you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head’ says it all for the happy couple. Neil’s song is also a bundle of laughs.
I have exaggerated that out of all proportion, I actually really like all the people in the office and was thinking about this analogous similitude probably in an alternative darker contextual setting. I don’t know whether any of this is relevant or if you have ever looked at it in this way Dan; but even if you haven’t, I can tell you one thing for sure, next time I’m here there are going to be no misinterpreted lyrics just some glaringly refulgent woodwork tool reflections that I hope we can all enjoy together, as one.
Post a Comment