Chapter 1
Two months ago, they summoned Mike to come come back to the office at the office - at least four days a week. The mandate meant everyday showering, clothing himself, and worst of all, dealing with people. The engineers, a rowdy bunch, shared the room with him. They had their world of sneers, laughs, munching, and banter. Mike wasn’t their target; he was just invisible to them.
He’d spend his days cocooned in his oversized headphones, eyes fixed on his screen. Occasionally, the accounting matrons would disturb his solitude with minor requests, but he didn’t mind them. They were pleasant, quiet, and only bothered him about printer issues or font sizes. He also liked to talk with them - always on a serious topics - like objectifying of women and ageism. They listened carefully, now a slightest hint on a sneer in the eye, and responded in an alike serious and thoughtful manner. Only when someone were passing-by, he would quickly go silent and step away, as if he were doing or discussing something improper.
Why would some people are so confident to shout through all the office about the latest development of their cold war with their mother-in-law? And everyone is laughing and cheering, and he has to hush his truly deep conversations out of some kind of reflective embracement?
Then, there was the new marketing girl, a tall, blond forefinger that Mike couldn’t stand. She had a knack for concocting complex, unworkable demands that disrupted his peace. Her computer problems were as rare as they were bizarre. Every time she entered the office, Mike felt a strange mix of excitement and dread, hoping she was there for someone else.
Today, she stood at the center of the room, towering over the engineers, her laughter echoing. “If you guys start eating bugs here, I will pack my bag and go back to Russia,” she declared laughing and distorting the words.
They all joined in, reveling in their shared idiocy. Mike despised it—the dominance of foolishness. He couldn’t fathom engaging in mindless banter about trending topics or cracking jokes about eating bugs with a girl.
Mike kept his eyes glued to his screen, his ears shielded by his headphones, yet he couldn’t escape their antics. He observed them as he did any other intruder in his space, always hyper-aware of himself.
Suddenly, she turned to him, and Mike’s heart skipped a beat. For a brief moment, he basked in the unexpected attention.
“Hi Mike, you know when I save my CSV file, I get it separated by semicolons instead of commas, and I changed it, but it seems it didn’t stick…” she pronounced that one of her weird problems.
“I’ll look into it when I finish something,” he replied grimply, then turned back to his monitor, willing her to vanish.
She disappeared into the background, and Mike slipped back into his familiar oblivion. Nobody spared him a glance as they carried on with their boisterous chatter, as if he were a ghost.
After waiting for fifteen minutes, Mike finally stood up and trudged upstairs to tackle her problem.
