Office Window

A Story by E

The story of someone looking out their office window.

Office Window

I stood in the office, staring out the window at the street below. People were everywhere, just going about their daily lives. I’d often stare out this window, looking down at the people below me. Sometimes I’d wonder what they were up to down there, but soon my job would catch up to me and I’d let the thought wander away to be revisited another day during another stare into the streets below.

I walked out of my nondescript office through the long hallway to my meeting, which I was late for. Staring out into the world can make you lose track of time. I opened the door, and sat down at my vacant chair next to my colleagues. I came up with an excuse for why I was late, thinking nothing of it as I opened my barely functional laptop. Two people were making a presentation, so I sat and watched. About a quarter of the way through, one of the presenters began to cough, their breathing becoming heavy. The presenter promptly exited the room. They did not return for another hour, and when they did they said nothing. It confused me why they said nothing, you’d think an explanation would be in order, and I would have liked to hear one.

As the presentation droned on and on, my mind began to wander away. My thoughts drifted off into many a different direction. The woman who sat across from me was supposed to bring a file regarding marketing schemes of some kind in, but her hard drive had failed and the file had been deleted. Poor her, all she wanted to do was get the work done, and she was so nervous when there was nothing to be nervous about. Pretending to note things down on my laptop, I sat there and pondered about whatever came to mind.

So the meeting finally ended, and I got out of my seat, beginning to walk down to my car. I asked my friend Kevin if he’d like to come to my place for a coffee and some Halo, but he declined, telling me he was busy. When I asked him about his plans he just said he had to be somewhere tonight. Dodging the question I asked, rather strange for my friend, who was usually honest with me. So I asked again, to which I got no response as Kevin got in his Prius and drove away. I stood in the lot, puzzled by the recent behaviour of my friend. When I got into my car, my phone buzzed. A text from Kevin, asking if I was free the coming Tuesday. Suddenly, Xbox and coffee was no longer appealing, so I told him I was busy and used my phone to plan a nice dinner for my wife and I.

At about five o’clock I drove into my driveway, got out of the car and noticed something very strange. The driveway was empty; my wife’s car was nowhere to be found. I thought nothing of it, walked inside and made myself a sandwich. Giving myself a break from the toils and tediousness of work, I turned on the Xbox. Halo suddenly didn’t seem so appealing, so I took the disk out and started to play Portal. Six o’clock, seven o’clock, eight o’clock… The time kept ticking, and no word from my beloved. So I ordered a pizza, ate half of it and put the rest in the freezer. At around ten-thirty my wife opened the door, walking in tired as hell. I asked where she had been. She turned to me and said, “Out.”

Now, I understand people do go out and forget to tell people, it happens. But this has been over four hours and she said nothing but “Out?” Seems hard to believe. So I asked her once again where she was. This time my wife responded with, “What does it matter to you?” She was yelling and quite frankly I was beginning to get annoyed. “You should’ve texted me!” I replied, “I was worried is all.” She retorts with “I was fine, stop being so nosy!” Eventually the argument transgressed into shouts of anger, from which I retired into my room, and tried to sleep the conversation away.

The next day I stood staring out my window at the street below. Watching the people go about their lives. “What do you see when you look out there?” He asked?

“I see honest people going about their lives.” I answered. “No you don’t, you see a bunch of liars hiding away the truth and turning nothing into a cause for war and anger, just like yourself.” He spoke, leaving me with nothing else as I stood and stared.