Wednesday, April 30, 2003
By Paul Ford
Making a terrible noise.
I'd had this long meeting. Now I was on my way to a second meeting, running 10 minutes later than the 30 minutes later I'd warned them I'd
be, and, arriving at the right building, waiting long moments for the slow elevator, I got on, punched the 12, and, given
a minute alone as I ascended, I thought, I don't know what to do about [certain key choices and relationships in my life]. I just don't have any clue. Then I leaned my head against the back wall, and moaned (MP3, 248K).
The elevator stopped suddenly, on the second floor, and my moan petered out. A blonde man got into the car. The door closed.
He eyed me. I was a full foot taller than him.
“This elevator is going up?”
“To the 12th floor.”
“Shit.” He took a breath, shuffled his feet. At about the fifth floor, he asked, “That you screaming?”
“Yeah.” That didn't seem to be enough. “I had a frustrating meeting.”
“Just making sure.”
“One of those days.”
“I understand.”
“At least I wasn't naked.”
“I appreciate that.”
. . . . .
This piece is sponsored by Christian Crumlish, who in addition to sending me cold, hard scratch, has done me the service of telling me about the
occasional typo. I think you should visit Christian's A Supposedly Staggering Infinite Work of Heartbreaking Illumination I'll Never Read.
PEEK
Ftrain.com is the website of Paul Ford and his pseudonyms. It is showing its age. I'm rewriting the code but it's taking some
time.
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EMAIL
About the author: I've been running this website from 1997. For a living I write stories and essays, program computers, edit
things, and help people launch online publications. (LinkedIn). I wrote a novel. I was an editor at Harper's Magazine for five years; then I was a Contributing Editor; now I am a free agent. I was also on NPR's All Things Considered for a while. I still write for The Morning News, and some other places.
If you have any questions for me, I am very accessible by email. You can email me at ford@ftrain.com and ask me things and I will try to answer. Especially if you want to clarify something or write something critical. I am
glad to clarify things so that you can disagree more effectively.
POKE
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Contact
© 1974-2011 Paul Ford
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@20, by Paul Ford.
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