The Surreal Life

Late for work on another boring day in the office.
He sits there bored out of his wits.
Surfing the Internet; blankly staring into the void that is the monitor.

He thinks to himself there’s nothing to do here and most probably there won’t be, too. So instead of just doing random things he decided that it’d be better if he does something he likes.
Quickly he opens up a couple of NSFW tumblr pages.
Browsing through, he felt a presence behind him.
Nonchalantly he didn’t bother to turn back or acknowledge the presence until the man cleared his throat.

He was startled as he did not know the person who looked back at him.
Seemed foreign; middle-eastern, in fact.
He had the mark on his forehead that is usually the sign if a devout muslim.
He was in his late 30s he guessed.

Beside him there was a woman. Clad in a burkha she showed no skin except her face and hands. She was beautiful but it was evident that she too was ageing and not too gracefully.

They had the same expression on their faces; disgust.

He was a designer for a reputed designing house. He was caught watching porn in the middle of the day at work. Disgust was probably just one of the many emotions on their faces, in fact comparatively the least negative.

The visitor asked him, visibly sarcastic,  if he was working on a new design. He quickly stammered and tried to explain himself while changing the tabs of his browser.

Unfortunately for him with every tab that was closed, a more depraved image of himself was being projected.

The woman, absolutely horrified at this point, started feeling uncomfortable and started quick firing in arabic. He may have been a fool and possessed no linguistic skill especially in arabic but it was blatant that the woman was asking her husband to leave this place.

The two hurriedly started moving to the exit.

The boss who was preparing a plan of action to welcome and serve his prospective customers had just heard the commotion then. Quickly, he stormed out of his office and was greeted with the sight of his guests scampering off towards the door and every one of his staff looking at this one person.

His boss and he locked eyes for a moment.

Fuck.

My.

Life.

Three words that came into his head at that very moment.

The boss quickly went to his room and at the same pace came back looking like a man on a mission. He had his car keys. He looked at the culprit and said if he wanted work in this firm he had to make amends.

Quickly they rushed down to the parking lot; into the car. The boss is visibly livid even though he doesn’t exactly know the reason.

The boss informs him that the guests were living in a hotel which isn’t too far from the office and it was his duty to apologise and bring them back no matter what. Once he does that, then they will discuss his future.

The middle-eastern couple were apparently the windfall that the company so desperately needed in these trying times and now, as luck would have it they’re going away.

They reached the hotel and they saw the couple hurrying away to their room. They run towards them, but were beaten by a closing elevator door.

They wait. Every moment spent waiting, he was dying inside. His heart was already in mouth.

They reach the couple’s room. He knocks on the door.

The man opens the door. A murderous, cold gaze on his face.

He starts apologising to the man but it seemed the man had no intention of forgiving.

The man looks at the boss, mutters something in arabic and the boss nods. Contempt was the tone but he seemed to agree to return to the office.

The boss hands him the keys and tells him to bring out the car. He walks down the long winding staircase because he needed time to think. He knows things are fucked beyond imagination. He was thinking of damage limitation.

He reaches the ground floor and as he slowly walks towards the exit to the parking lot, a woman bumps into him. He looks up to her face, a familiar face. She was with a group of women all of whose faces were so familiar to him. The woman realises their connection and starts talking to him like a long lost friend. He still is lost in his thoughts.

He could finally attribute some names to those faces but, he was still disturbed. These women were his classmates from grad school. People who he hadn’t met for years. People who had no reason to be there at that moment.

Suddenly, a voice rings out across the main hall of the hotel. It was the boss. He was alone but seemed to be dragging two duffel bags. The boss screams at him; asking for the car.

He turns to exit just to be mobbed by the women. The women started to get unruly. Slowly from the exit more of his grad school classmates come in. People who he hated.

He pushed them away and tried to escape. He runs towards the boss. When he gets closer, he realises there are stains on the boss’ clothes. Stains that look a lot like blood. He looks down to duffel bag he sees it dripping red.

Nothing was making sense anymore. He thought he was losing his mind. He made a quick turn into the washroom, locking himself in the process.

Thinking he’s alone, he tries to make sense of everything that has happened. Takes out a cigarette and furiously puffs on it. Suddenly from the corner of the washroom, he hears sobbing. Tentatively he walks towards the sound; his hands shaking so much that he can barely smoke the remainder of his cigarette. He sees a figure in the shadows, sitting on the floor in a foetal position. The sobs are louder now and the figure looks up to him.

He sees his best friend crying, oddly because he’s supposed to be in Singapore right now. He asks him what he was doing there. The friend just sat there sobbing and said that he was sorry.

Over and over again.

Suddenly a voice rang out through the cold air which immediately stopped the sobbing – a deep, commanding voice asking everyone to shut the fuck up. By that time, he had lost it and in a fit of pure frustration, screamed back at the voice. One of the stalls opened and the unlikely face of a person he never wanted to see again came out. He was feeling claustrophobic now.

The owner of the voice was smoking a joint. He offers it to him to ease his mind. He weighs his options for a brief second, then, thinking that nothing else could possibly go wrong, he accepts the offer.

He feels the walls closing in on him every time he took a drag. A mechanical buzzing was filling his ears. It sounded just like an….

His eyes open and he jumps out his bed. His shirt was soaking wet with cold sweat. The air-conditioner’s cold air right on his face as the compressor switches back on with a mechanical drone. He quickly looks at the time on his watch and sees that he’s woken up an hour early. He draws up his curtains and looks out to the sunrise over the sea. A beautiful sight indeed.

Lights a cigarette and thinks to himself that was a dream worth writing about…