January 07, 2003

Stories beginning with 'who'

who she thinks to herself, the one and only question, the smallest question and the biggest echoing in her head as she stares out the window again. It was a very big deal for her to get the office with the window, the two windows; it is a big prestige thing but all it seems to have done is completely alienate her from everybody else as if she didn't have enough of that as is. She has tried all the configurations of her office, even drawing little charts that map out where her desk will go and where the electric outlets are and other design constraints - she has spent hours on this, weeks - all in an effort to avoid staring out the window so much. She likes to stay in her office during lunch and look down from there, it is the only time when she does it and doesn't feel guilty about doing it. It only takes about five minutes for her to eat her little sandwich because she eats it as fast as she can, not wanting the little terribly sad memory of her alone in the apartment making a week's worth of sandwiches to ruin an otherwise good lunchbreak. She used to get sad towards the end of the week, but now she makes three new ones every Wednesday and then four new ones every Friday so that they aren't so alone. Every once in awhile she wishes she had binoculars or a telescope, but maybe that would ruin the point - she is so high up here and she can't really make out people's faces anyway from here - of watching them move along in their little groups and making up stories about them. You would think that it would make her sad, but it is the opposite, she takes comfort in how very few of them walk in groups. Maybe she wants binoculars to look onto the other buildings and see other watchers eating their sandwiches by the window.

who's there? She is awake now and terrified. She could feel someone staring at her while she slept, she could see a figure next to her bed. The returning silence is almost too much for her to bear and she scrambles for the lamp and sees her laundry basket staring at her from the foot of the bed. She should have gotten a smaller apartment she thinks to herself as she cuts on the TV. The amazing thing is that the burgular was able to to move it into place without waking her.

who did you expect, fucking hulk hogan? And then I suddenly realized that this was who I wanted her to be.

January 7, 2003 09:28 PM