On the Way to The Bathroom
My first day at work was not actually that strange. It seemed a quiet office, and I probably would have noticed just how quiet if it hadn't been for Benveniste. I think we spent so much time talking that I didn't notice just how zombie-like everyone else seemed. And then there was Sarra, of course. Most of my brain was taken up with imagining how I would ask her out, trying to read her every move and gesture as a possible sign of her falling desperately in love with me, and a creeping sense that she might be interested in Benveniste. Was I already turning against him, I thought. How shallow was I? Here was the only friendly person in the entire building, and just because Sarra liked him, I was turning sour.
Just before lunch, I realized I had to go to the bathroom. In all the excitement of meeting new people, seeing my little bare cubicle, and hearing Benveniste call everyone a zombie (which I tried not to laugh at as I'm still not sure I trust him--is he trying to make me do something dumb so Sarra thinks I'm inept?), I was basically exploding. I raced down the row of cubicles, realized I didn't know where I was going, leaned into a cubicle as bare as mine, and asked. The man at the desk was hunched so close to his screen, I could see its glow on his forehead. He turned to me slowly, and he really did look like a zombie. I tried not to laugh. I was sure it was some kind of joke. End of the hall, he said slowly, as if someone had recorded his voice and stuck it down his throat. He turned back to his screen.