I became aware of something that had stopped
nothing obvious I could put my finger on
just the vague sense that a vibration had ceased
some stimulus I had grown used to was cut
Phil came into the break room
“What’s wrong?” he said, seeing my face
“I don’t know” I answered “Something seems different.”
“I agree,” he said “you’re all out of sorts.”
“That’s such an old thing to say.” I said
“No it’s not. It’s a very now thing to say.” he shot back
“It’s something my grandmother would say.”
“Well, it’s something I say too.”
“Sorry, I am all out of sorts.” I said
“There you go, you fit right in!” he said, laughing
“Why, do you feel out of sorts too?” I asked
“I know I am, and so is everyone else here.” he said
“I don’t know if that makes me feel better.”
“Well, it’s in your contract so it doesn’t really matter. It was bound to happen sooner or later.” he said, cheerfully. “Come on, let’s go to the meeting.”
“What’s the meeting about?” I asked
“It was going to be about you and how oblivious you seemed, but now you’ve caught on.” he responded
“Oh!” was all I could think to say.
“Now we’ll have to find someone on the upswing and bring them down a few notches.” he groaned
“We can just let them think that everything is fine, we shouldn’t encourage people to feel out of sorts.” I said
“We need them to get used to the feeling. It’s part of understanding what we do here.” he said
“What are we doing though?” I said
I had never really figured it out, but I always said I understood when they asked
“We’re convincing people we’re making the world a better place.” he said, thoughtfully
“Are we actually?” I said
“We’re actually telling them that, yes.” he said
“They don’t ask for receipts.”
ohheyian 