he sits, facing the corner of the four person cubicle... eyes pointed down towards the screen of the laptop in front of him. He pushes up his glasses that have slid down the bridge of his nose, and gives a slight cough - probably from the cool dry air coming from the vent above his seat.
The computer screen emits a soft glow which adds little little light to the brightly lit room. The hum from the florescent lights and the air vents give a white noise that muffles the conversations of the other workers.
It has been three and a half hours and he has not spoken a word, the two other occupants of his cube are nose down into their own work. The headset gets pulled from the backpack and he plugs it into his MP3 player, procedding to "jam", however subdued, to the eclectic group of artists saved on the memory stick.
He yawns. Number ten for the day, not bad considering it's only 11:27, he thinks to himself... Man, who the hell counts the number of times they yawn? So he streches his arms out and turns to face the two sitting by him.
"Whatcha guys working on?" he asks, swiveling his chair back and forth, tapping his feet on the chair's base.
"Nothing exciting" the girl says, "either of you guys want to trade"
"I will" he says "my task it much more boring than yours"
"Uh, I was hoping to trade with him" she says, pointing to the other boy in the cube - who is also lost in his headphones.
The other boy looks up, "Dude, can you get on the internet? It's been blocking me all morning"
"Yeah - its the only thing that has been keeping me sane..."
Their conversations continue for several more minutes, until they drift back into their work...
Over the course of the day, the converations are quiet and infrequent - and he notices that his legs are bouncing due to lack of use...
"I gotta get outta here..." he says slowly as he starts walking towards the exit. He walks down to the snack store that is just as overpriced as the vending machines in the kitchen. It is almost four o'clock in the afternoon.
All afternoon - no - all day, he's been sitting, quiet - no outlets for energy...
and at the store he picks up a can of Arizona Energy...
He makes his way back to his desk and sits. He opens the can an commences to "down" the contents...
"Time to go home..." he thinks, forty minutes in an uneventful car ride later, he arrives home....
"AYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY"
and then begins the banging on the piano - amongst other things...
*** *** ***
Co-workers say:
"What? Ryan is not loud and crazy?"
"I'd never expect that from him..."
"You were a what in college?"
"Oh, you like to dance?"
*** *** ***
no one really knows who he is...
*** *** ***
When people tell you not to bottle shit up... that means everything...
love, energy, anger, happiness, sadness -
if it's positive - it'll either get wasted at the wrong moment or you'll miss opportunities...
if it's negative - it will blow up past the point of comfort... way past the point... or it will crush you...
go with the flow...
and if you must leave the stream - do it quickly and then rejoin it - because if you stay outside too long... you can get cold or sick, or both...
and if I'm comfortable with you and you're around after I get out of work...
invest in ear plugs...
or find a way to make me use up all that pent up energy...
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!
I must go...
