The story below is a work of fiction.
I notice the short guy that works in my building. Middle aged. Beige yuppie trenchcoat, untied. The hem probably grazes bottom shelves. Not fat; blocky, not stocky. He always orders “hot coffee” at Starbucks, never mentions a size. Unmarried. What does the guy do outside of work. I feel like I should give him advice but the guy has a constant look of introspection on his face. Like he already knows the situation he’s in but wondering if anyone notices how short he is. The people he works with: the other men in his office are polite but think he’s incapable. The women ignore him except for his jokes. I hope the guy has good jokes. May be the only thing going for him. So, his coworkers: one woman, the only person on the guy’s floor with a conscience, wants to actually help (not date) him, but it feels to her like she’d be telling a child actor he sucks at pretending to cry. Kids can’t do any better. The guy can’t get any taller. Now I feel bad for using a small person to make an analogy about him. Does he have an Internet-only job. You can be anything on the Internet but he looks too sincere to pretend, even in anonymity. He doesn’t look that sad, though. Should he. Maybe he knows his place in the world, already got rid of delusions. He got the shortest (sorry) straw in the genetic stack for men. So many hucksters selling the guy confidence plans that he knows are scams. Guy has probably been through so much. Can weather anything this world throws at him. I’m starting to actually envy the guy now. How am I just noticing the guy prefers his coffee black. Good man. Give ’em hell, tiger.
4 Comments
Wowzers! I think this is among some of your best micro-fiction. It’s making me all too introspective now, over the weird and unnecessary observations that I make about other people. From now on I am calling myself “coatman.”
Thanks. It’s not my normal writing style but I like indulging it.
The narration might be confusing. There’s 3 characters at play: the narrator (me), the observer, and the short guy/Coatman. Coatman and the observer are both male, so the “he” pronouns can get confusing. “The guy” usually means Coatman. I thought about making the observer female to avoid confusion, but I think the risk of confusion works here.
Oh, don’t worry, I didn’t mix the observer/Coatman up while reading! Ha ha. My comment was confusing though. I just said I’d call myself “Coatman” because it’s a funny sounding name.
That’s good that you didn’t get confused, because I would. My first draft I did get confused and had to change a few attributions/nouns so it was more clear.