“Too many times,” his standard response, “I don’t really
keep count.”
Today was my second day at the Pool and here I was ‘chatting’
him up like I’ve known him for years. He was an interesting character, no
doubt, but there was something else about him that egged me to keep on talking
with him, even after yesterday’s ‘accident’. I guess it was his confidence
which lent the required weight to his chatter, more than anything.
“A good day then, huh?” I asked him, knowing his response
already.
“It was neither bad nor particularly good I’d say.” He said
as he dipped in his head for some bubbling exercise.
I guess he says that about everything.
“There’s one thing that I don’t get, why did he even say yes
in the first place?” I asked him, hoping for a definite answer this time round.
“I mean, this guy doesn’t know you, hasn’t seen you in the office before today,
let alone working together, and yet he says yes without ever asking you about
specifics?”
“Let me just say that he didn’t need to. At least he thinks
that, so it doesn’t really matter.” He said pulling his glasses down. He was
getting ready for his first lap. He has this fixation with numbers and today he
said it looks like a 30-ish day to
the guy on the locker counter.
I’m still thinking about what he just told me when he
returns from his lap. “Too much chlorine today, again.” Not surprising, public
pools here are rarely maintained like their private counterparts. “30 is good
here.”
He returns a minute later. “Maybe it is a bit too much after
all.” He says after removing his goggles. “What’s the matter? You seem a bit
upset.”
“Too much of chlorine for my taste as well.” I lied.
Yesterday I saw this man go crazy mad over the poor
lifeguard for a nonissue and here’s him asking me what is causing me to be
upset, after he just told me what transpired in his office today.
He put on his goggles, “Well, swim up or you’ll be holding
your breath for nothing.”
I work in a big company, handling the end product QA, have 5
people reporting to me hourly at work, clients of my company calling every
other day complaining about random nonissues and yet, I’ve never met someone as
obnoxious as this guy free styling across the length of pool in his blue speedo.
“So, what are going to say to him when you meet him tomorrow?”
I asked him when he returned.
“Nothing really. That is if I do meet him at all tomorrow.”
I looked at him again. He’s probably in his late 20’s,
working in some new company which recently opened its offices here in this city,
probably some leased space on the fringes of urban sprawl. Don’t think he yet
understands that he may have ruined the life of his work colleague in a matter
of minutes.
“When do you plan to start out?”
He just shrugged and went for his last lap of the evening.
He returns 5 minutes later, “I guess after the shower.”
