Office Window

Folder: 
Prose

A friend was promoted such that she got her own office, with a window. I complimented her and recollected.

I’ve my own experiences both with and without external observance. Some way up, i. e., in one instance, on the 5th floor, another on the 25th. The window made the difference. The one time I did not have a window, I talked to myself (not always a bad thing, but less than what else…) sometimes in a funny way I wished I might’ve communicated. Perhaps it’s OK, such that I was practicing…

When I worked in Georgia, one of my jobs was as a draftsman on the ground floor of an 18 storey highrise with full-height windows on two of our foiur wals. I sat on one of them. The entertainment provided by the squirrels and chipmunks was delightful- they would sneak each other’s nuts-and-such from one hole to antother so often and in such a small area that after awhile, I don’t see how they could know what’s where, and even if they did, there was probably one close enough that they’d find it first anyway. The two species were absolutely coexistant, too, in other words, the squirrel would go up to the chipmunk and (it looked to me) communicate, certainly there was no fear or predation on either side.

The way the complex (of buildings) was arranged, there was a fair-sized patch of undisturbed woods between each building, which, in this case, was a perfect hovel for the Old Girl Beagle. I’m sure she had her weekends off, though on work days, she would come out from wherever she lived (from where I drafted, I could see her trail, occasionally, her on it about 7: 30 in the morning and walk to the other side of the building (the front door), and take up her Wrlcome Vigil at the main entrance to the building; with all possible exhubearacne, wagging her tail (and the occasional ‘wuff wuff’), her tongue hanging in a special ‘Hi!’ position until about 9. It’s no exaggeration to say that hundreds of people went by each (working day) morning. Any number of them would toss her snacks, of course, as the steam of working folks entered the doors

I was sitting on the wall by the entrance, and she rustled up behimd me saying ‘mmmuuuuooh, mmuouh’, not undestand her dialect just right, I tought she said: “Hey!, How about something for the Old Girl…?” So, I gave her a little something, and she came closer, repeated her request, and this time I heard her correctly: “Please shove over, I have business to attend to…” – when I did, she shuffled past (she was a plump doggie), jumped down that little ways, and headed to the bushes across the walk. There was no mistaking the crunch, crunch, crunching going on over there. After she left (going the other way around the building, presumably to cover her territory), I had a look; and there, in the high-dollar landscaping, were six (maybe more other places…) doggie dishes with plenty of food, some under a little homemade shelter. I remember several times she going up the trail to her place (at the end of my day…), through the squirrels and chipmunks, presumably saying hi and thinking: “Well, the end to another day…”

View furgeson1's Full Portfolio