In the office
- You seem intelligent.
- Sometimes I am. It comes in fits. Like madness. Or anger. Only when provoked, and only when necessary. If it stays too long, the world is sharp, its light too bright… it’s unbearable. So, I make a habit of not letting it stay.
- That’s… interesting.
- Is it?
- Well, I… didn’t know you could pick up smarts and put them back down again.
- It’s frightfully easy. Honestly, it’s the only thing that makes the whole of it bearable.
- The whole of it?
- Living.
- Ah, I see.
- You don’t.
- But I’m trying to.
- Well, trying takes far too much effort. Lay it down and live the life of a happy drunken dullard, and then maybe you’ll see the worth in it.
- The worth in…?
- Living! By God, man, keep up.
- But I thought we were laying it down.
- Not now. It’s inconvenient to do it now. What, right in the middle of a conversation? Have some sense, man.
- Well, I’m confused.
- As we all are, friend. As we all are.