From The Exile Archives

When I get bored
I go through my old files
looking for treasure

To alleviate boredom I decided to go through my jumpdrive and do a little clean up. One of the folders I have is full of all the stuff that I kept from computers at previous jobs. Most of it is junk, but some of it is actually interesting (well, it's not as nearly as junkie).

so I present for your reading pleasure something I wrote back in my early college years. I was experimenting with using voice so I thought I'd write something that sounded like a completely different author wrote it....


Making the Call


She floats into the room, does a quick twirl and flops down onto the bed. She giggles and begins scavenging through the folds in the bedspread for the cordless phone. Lying on her back, she lifts her pelvis up to reach into her back pockets and unloads their contents. Rolling onto her stomach, she examines a small wad of lint-encrusted paper. Entwined with a dollar bill is a piece of notebook paper with “for a nifty time, call…” scrawled on it.

“Tee hee hee…” she giggles to her self, “I’m gonna call.”

She begins dialing but hesitates.

“Wait, if I call he’ll know I called when I first walked in. That will make me seem too eager.”

She puts the phone down and sits up. She surveys her room and begins to straighten the bedcovers.

“What if he’s expecting my call? I can’t just let him sit by his phone for an hour, waiting."

She picks up the phone, spins it in her hand and begins dialing. On the last number, she hangs up.

“What should I talk about? Oh god, I’m blanking on what to say…Class! We’ll just talk about class.”

She looks over to her textbooks in the corner of the room. Picking up the top book, she leafs through the pages then begins shaking her head.

“He’ll think I’m a nerd. Ok, I’ll just call… wait, I’ll seem too anxious. I’ll just wait a while.”

She starts cleaning her room but finds herself anxiously glancing at the clock every few minutes. She begins counting to herself.

“Nine, ten… Ok, at sixty I’ll call,” she decides, tugging at the bedspread. “Eleven...”

She tugs so hard she pulls the spread off the bed and tumbles back against her bookshelf.

“Thirty-two,” she growls.

The phone chirps and she lunges for it, flopping back onto the bed.

“I should wait a few rings, I don’t want him to think I’m anxious.”

She stares at the phone and picks up on the third ring.

“Hi!” she blurts out.

“Hello,” the voice on the other end of the phone answers. “My name is Bill and I’m conducting a survey for Tampax. May I ask you a few questions?”

“What?” she questions disappointedly.

“My name is Bill and…” he begins to repeat.

“I heard you the first time.”

“Oh, sorry. Well, would you like to help conduct a survey?”

“So long as it’s not like the Pepsi challenge,” she jokes.

“Well, not quite.”

“Look, at any other time I would love to discuss things that drip out of me, but I’m rather busy right now. Could you call back later or something?”

“Sure thing, ma’am.”

She hangs up the phone and begins laughing.

“I just told the tampon man to call back later--I’ve lost it!”

She looks down at the wrinkled paper in her hand, picks up the phone and smiles. She begins dialing, hesitating at the final number. Then she stabs the last key with conviction. The phone is answered on the first ring.

“Yell-ow?” says the voice on the other end.

“Hey,” she squeaks, “What’s up?”

“Oh nothing big,” he says.

She can hear voices carrying on in the background.

“Oh? Where are you?” she asks.

“Just heading out with some friends. I was waiting for you to call. I wanted to ask you out tonight, but you didn’t call when you said you would.”

“I didn’t? When did I say I would?”

“I dunno, an hour ago or so. I figured you had made other plans tonight, so I decided to head out.”

“Oh,” she says, stumbling for words. “Yeah, I have plans.”

“Well, that’s cool. Thought you might’ve wanted to come with us. Hey, can you call me tomorrow?”

“Um, sure.”

“Ok, talk to you later.”

“Later…”

She clicks the phone off and looks at the clock. She knows she should have called over an hour ago. Rolling over dejectedly, she consoles herself thinking, “Well at least I didn’t seem too eager--I guess…”






Exile

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