More thoughts on the guy in the grey suit

27Oct09

I am killing an hour before the start of day two of the Power Reporting workshop. I read the Short and Curlies again, and when I got to the one about the guy in the grey suit with the massive bunch of flowers, a new, interesting thought came to me. I still like the “quiet moment” theory, but this one is probably closer to the truth.

He was having a cup of coffee (flowers on the table) while he was either scraping together some courage or getting his story straight. The flowers were to secure forgiveness for something. He may have forgotten a date they (wife, girlfriend, mother) had (with each other or with her sister and her sister’s husband) or he might have hung around at the 19th hole for, what, three or four hours too long. He might have groped his secretary and in the morning, he was expecting to be charged with sexual harassment. Something.

What are the clues?

The flowers were many and large, but they were from Pick and Pay. He did not stay long enough to enjoy an unencumbered moment of solitude… perhaps not even ten minutes. I did not get a good look at his face so I cannot say if he had the desperate, florid skin of someone who had just edged through an extended day while nursing a harrowing hangover. (Even if one can hide behind the laptop and pretend that actually, one was just staring into space, there are limits to how much shameless scrutiny one can do.)

But that is my theory for today.

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