Ben looked around the hospital lunchroom. Ben shuddered. So bare and bleak, walls that were a sterile white yet with many dings in them and with the hopeless looking pictures of the real outside.
“How 1984,” thought Ben.
Ben scanned the room. Most of the seatts were taken and the few that were open had a bunch of people all ready at that table, laughing and gossiping like old friends.
“No room for me there, I suppose,” thought Ben.
He just could not be assimilated that quickly to a group. Ben stood there in the narrow doorway, feeling quite out of place. In his mind he could picture what he looked like. A young man with an already receding hairline of dark brown hair. He could also picture himself with a bit of a paunch on his belly. A paunchy young man with glasses, receding hairline and a tray of regulation food as a friend. He could feel his glasses sliding on his nose. He had to now find a seat as quickly as possible so as to fix his glasses.
Then he spotted it. An open seat. It was next to one of the two inch thick windows that viewed out on to the real world. There was only one problem. There was someone already sitting at that table. It appeared to be some very skinny, middle aged man that appeared to be in his late thirties and early forties. He seemed to be staring off in to the distance. With out even asking Ben quickly slid his tray onto the plastic table and sat down on the metal seat.
“I hope you don’t mind me sitting here. There was nowhere else,” said Ben. The other man said nothing. “Well my name is Ben. What’s yours?”
Still no answer.
“Ok, I’ll just take it that he’s is shy and is not being rude. Which he is because he won’t talk to me and he keeps staring at me, which is very rude,” thought Ben.
Since the other man was exactly being the most conversation person, Ben decided to eat his lunch. And he did. When he was done Ben went back through the narrow door and deposited the tray into a crate that held other already used trays.
Ben had two choices now. He could either go back down to work in his dusty and dimly lit cubicle and not get paid for his extra work. Or he could go back into that lunchroom and sit back down in the chair by the corner window with that rude man. Ben chose the latter option.
As he made his way back to his chair he thought about what he could say to that rude man. He had a couple ideas in mind.
“Hi again, I’m back. So what department do you work in?” or maybe “Hi again, me once more. I was just wondering, what do you find so fucking interesting in that blank wall? It’s just a plain old wall. No life’s mysteries there. You’re not even looking at a picture! So what’s so bloody interesting that you can’t even be polite and take a few moments of your time to say “hello” to someone?”
As Ben sat down he noticed the man hadn’t even moved. Didn’t even looked like he had blinked.
“Hi again,” started Ben, “it’s me Ben again. So um…what in the wall, I mean what department do you work in? No, actually I think I mean, what’s so bloody interesting about that wall? Is there a crack in it or something?”
The man still didn’t reply, but his head seemed to loll around a bit so that the man was now staring directly at him.
“Fine, two can play at this game.”
And Ben began to fight back by staring back.