Cafeteria I
The air was filled with information. Compressed, composed, choreographed, one thing. Only the the crashing, metallic cutlery constantly cut that solid piece of sound and turned it into a bunch of marbles in a youngster’s hand. The smell of heavy-spiced food, greasy, was soaking from underneath into everything that was breathing, exhaled and inhaled from another person’s respiratory apparatus. Breath of deep fried chicken wings, breath of fire. People are fine when they talk about inhaling food. There was a constant stream of people coming and going, while the coming was a mysteriously halting process. One could tell from people’s faces how grueling it was to find the position in which they wanted to spend their lunch in. Once seated, the degree of relaxation indicated by facial expression was allowing a more or less precise prediction about the time they would spend on having their meal. Leaving seemed to be intuitive, bodily easy and releasing. Besides highly intimate items, the employees were balancing their individually composed foods on deep-drawn grey-ish trays through the table rows. In pure wholeness, most of them were firmly holding the tray in both hands in order to grant the same groundedness to the dishes as their rectangular arms were telling. Make them feel safe. And the little bowl filled up with green beans was grateful all the way down to the puddly bottom. A solo-sitting guy, thin, with a sacky face and flimsy grey hair was just about to leave. Sally and him had entered the cafeteria almost at once. Now, he was smiling at Sally and he answered with a warm smile because the sacky guy appeared haggard and he felt pity for him. He had a tuna salad. All of a sudden, he was standing in front of him, with an even brighter, pleasant smile. “It is an honor to be a part of Sammy J.’s. Especially when you get the chance to enter the orchestra. Have you heard of it?” “Not yet, Sir”. “I see … ” The guy murmured. “I played the bassoon for over 20 years and I got to see many places around the world. Maybe you wonder about my body condition. The bassoon is a wasting instrument but beautiful.” He glanced at Sally’s plate with a cheeseburger and fries. Then discretely examining his physique. ”Try to enter the orchestra and you will become even more successful in your job. Guaranteed. I am sorry, I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Fat Frederic. People still call me fat because when I started here I was pretty weighty. I was just about your age, young Mr. The name just sticks to me like an unfortunate spell”. He giggled. “I’m 17, Sir. My name is Selly. I was assigned to the ranking department but I haven’t seen too much, so far. But I will, I guess.” “Selly”, Fat Frederic said, “let me tell you one thing. The orchestra is a real thing in this company. So if you want to make it in this branch I recommend you to join that department, too. It’s a place of excellency and fame! Do you know how to play any instrument?” “Not really, Sir. My parents wanted to make me play the violin but I thought it was for girls so I stopped after two lessons.” Fat Frederic’s friendly expression changed slightly. The corners of his mouth turned even more up and it seemed almost unnatural. The change made it harder for Selly to keep eye contact with him. He was looking at two black cracks underneath two sacky eyelids. For a moment both of them were just looking at each other, while Selly tried to keep a smile but it seemed rather inappropriate, now. “Don’t be too shy, little boy.” With a snuffling sound he pushed himself from the table next to Selly’s tray off his chair where he had briefly rested to take a closer look at a 17 year old boy who was now feeling weird about not having taken violin classes any longer than two times. Fat Frederic was slowly disappearing between people. Selly took a deep breath.