Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Meetings

He had found Smyke just sitting there, taking 5 from his shift at the pizza joint. He used to own one just like it so he stopped to look in. Smyke was staring at a milky white cube and smoking, paper thin. Werner caught this sort of subdued, innocent, distant yet focused stare in his eyes, focused on something indeterminate. His boss appeared at the door with a reminder before wiping his chin and shooting a quick glance down the street. Werner, being intrigued, used his left eye to analyze the interior decor (mid-90s detached sense of place juxtaposed with a quiescent pastel orange which he thought was inappropriate for the sale of fast food yet may encourage those uncertain of their evening's plans to wait) while his right watched Smyke begin to write something on a napkin. Peculiarly precise, and, after waiting for him to finish (and find something new to stare at), approached him figuratively to see if he transmitted social responses in sight. "No, I'm just on break," Smyke replied, Werner, stoic, responding with a suggestion whose latent content hoped he would read aloud what was written. He hesitated (a good sign although a lack of hesitation matched by a resilient glare would have worked also) and read with a sublime stutter: "it's funny how little gets done when there's nothing to do." Werner then hesitated, not knowing how to respond, his expectations having been surpassed. He then smiled and chuckled politely, mentioned that he was recruiting and needed to find women and men for his business. Smyke mentioned that unfortunately his time was up but took his card in order to keep it in mind.

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