hic vigilans somniat
Working early at the store, music playing overhead while I stand at the counter and tap away at my computer. Preoccupied with personal gripes and past arguments—sifting through parental and paternal confrontations long past and never happened. My mind, in short, on other things. “Hey.” A hoarse whisper, loud, from someone standing in the open space to my left. I… Continue reading attention
Walking to work this morning, something caught my attention: Small bits of red licorice scattered along the sidewalk, trailing over three blocks. I didn’t follow to find out to where they led. I know better. It’s October.
...and as I walk back into my office, I see — or I think I see — a man standing to one side and looking through my filing cabinet. It is me, myself. I am the one standing there, dressed in the same clothes I am wearing today. I blink. He is gone. I am gone. Unnerved, I get back to work.
Walking through the office I hear — or I think I hear — my son’s voice, very distinct and clear, call to me. I look back down the hallway but, of course, no one is there.
...I find that I have overslept and am in a rush to get a stack of deposits to the University’s bank by noon, otherwise all of the faculty and staff paychecks will bounce. The deposit is a stack of checks and slips totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. There are pink and yellow carbon copies, very slippery to keep in… Continue reading payroll
...and I’m surprised to find out that not only are each of us getting our own office in the new building, but we’ll have an attached bedroom as well. A few of my coworkers even have bunkbeds. The gossip around the office is that this is to allow for a more Mad Men like atmosphere. “Aren’t we way too busy… Continue reading the new office
[This is directly transcribed, without changes or edits, from a journal entry dated May 4th, 2000] ...and because I have been thrown out of my house, lost any connection to my wife and children, I am living in an old building adjacent to where I work — downtown, in the old industrial district, where an empty warehouse is easy to find. I… Continue reading the girl in the warehouse
