Marcus was awaken by his alarm. Shortly after, Sammy shouted “Marcus I going in a little early today, I’ll see you at work.”
Before Marcus could answer or ask him why he was going in early, he heard the door slam shut. Marcus wondered what is going on with this guy? He is staying after hours and going in early. Then the thought of Navette popped into his mind. He reached over and picked up his cell phone and began to hit the redial button but his finger stopped short of pushing it. Should he call here? Should he wait for her to call him?
“Why is she avoiding me?” Marcus gently whispered. He couldn’t wait any longer, his finger hit the button and the call was placed. But, he got the same reply – “this phone is not in service at this time please leave a message.” He could not understand what was happening. Glancing over to the clock he realized it was time to get ready for work. He put his phone down, jumped up and gave an enormous shout and fell down on the floor and raised and lowered himself until he had accomplished twenty-five pushups.
Marcus was in the shower when the phone rang. He scrambled to get out of the shower and ran out into the room and picked up the phone, hurrying to answer… “Hello.” there was nothing on the other end just silence and then a dial tone. He did not recognize the number, but decided to redial and see who it was. It rang and a guy answered. “Yes, this is Marcus Holmes and you just called me.”
“Sorry, Marcus, but I didn’t call you.”
“You must have,” Marcus insisted. “Your ID was on my phone.”
“Is this the Marcus that Navette is hanging out with? Do you work for Sloan Advertising?”
“Yes”
“Marcus, this is Justin Sloan and Navette has been using this company phone while we are on this ____________. She must have just called you, but she has gone down to the Café to get breakfast. I will tell her you called.”
“Ok, thanks Mr. Sloan.”
This didn’t help Marcus’s anxiety, in fact, it probably made it worse. He dried off, shaved and threw on his clothes and it was off to work. On his way to work Navette occupied most of his thoughts, but the occasional thought of Sammy leaving early and working late crept into his mind. What is it? What is causing this strange behavior?
Sammy was not at his desk when Marcus walked into the room. But, just as Marcus was hanging his coat, he turned around and saw Sammy and Margaret walking down the isle. It looks as if the Warden had a smile on her face. Sammy grabbed his chair and sat down.
“Sammy, did I just see what I thought I saw? The Terminator - smiling.”
“I believe she could have” Sammy replied.
“Where have you been?”
“Margaret and I were just having coffee and a bagel before work.”
‘You and the Terminator?”
“You know that she has not really fired that many people.” Sammy responding in Margaret’s defense.
Things were beginning to make sense. This was the clue Marcus needed to explain the way Sammy was acting lately. But, Marcus decided that possibly this was not the time to discuss it, since Sammy had already begun making his calls. He dropped the subject and began his drudgery for the day. But, as he picked up his first client of the day – he like to call them clients, even thought he would not sell them a thing – he thought about Navette and how she had not called. He took a quick look at his phone, just to see if there were any messages, then he laid it back down. He expected a call by now. The thoughts of Navette not returning his calls made the morning a little difficult for him to bear, but he shook it off and went back to his clients.
Marcus and Sammy, very seldom took there lunch break at the same time. Marcus, liked later, and Sammy liked early. Sammy got lost in time and Marcus would always tell him when it was lunch time.
“Its 11 o’clock Sammy.”
“Oh, I am going at 1:00 today.”
“You’re doing what?”
I decided to join Margaret and she goes at 1:00.”
This was too much for Marcus… “What is this with you and Margaret?”
“She is really pretty nice. Every since she and I went to that seminar together, well, we have enjoyed each other’s company.
“You mean as man and woman?”
“Yes, stupid. I believe she is a woman and I am a man.”
“I would never have guessed you and Margaret. And, I don’t think she is your type.”
“What do you mean? My type?”
“How old is she anyway?”
“That doesn’t matter, and I don’t care. Right now we just enjoy each other’s company and I am going to lunch with her at 1:00 o’clock.
Marcus could hear the disgust in Sammy’s voice, so he stopped the twenty questions and got back to his clients. “Mrs. Burton, this is Marcus with Sloan Advertising and we represent Jonny On The Spot Pooper Scooper and we…” at this moment the phone hang up, not giving Marcus the opportunity to complete his survey. This happens a lot. Part of what makes the job frustrating. Marcus made another call hoping someone would just listen to his questions.
Marcus was able to get one more phone call out before he left for lunch and that was to the cell phone that had called him early today. Again it was answered by Justin Sloan and Marcus paused for a minute, started to hang up, but he knew whoever had the phone could tell he had called, so, he spoke up and asked what he wanted to know.
“This is Marcus again. Is Navette there?”
“No Marcus she is out of the room at the moment and Marcus she will have to call you back on her own time. We are very busy here and she doesn’t have the time.”
Marcus didn’t want to get Navette into any trouble so he replied with this very polite and businesslike response. “You are right Mr. Sloan and I apologize. Goodbye sir.”
Marcus told Sammy that he was off to lunch… “Maybe I’ll get Kelly up in creative design to go to lunch with me. Stranger things are happening.” This was a malicious yet friendly slur referencing the connection of Sammy and Margaret. Marcus said this while rushing out of the room as if he was excited about lunch.
In reality he was beginning to think that maybe Navette didn’t want to ever talk to him again. And the attempts to contact him were only attempts to tell him that she didn’t want to see him anymore. Maybe she and that Justin Sloan had something going on. He had more to offer her, since he was the grandson of Bart Sloan who owned this place and stood to inherit it all when old man Sloan died. He is about ten years older than Navette, but Margaret is about ten years older than Sammy. What is happening here, Marcus thought.
Marcus went to the park, where he always spent his lunch time. He walked over to the usual hot dog cart and Joe wasn’t there. It was the same cart but there was another guy there. He was short and fat and wore one of these chief hats that was painted with large flowers and had a _________________sticking out of the top.
“Marcus,” this voice rang out and came from near where Marcus would normally be setting. There sitting on the wall in Navette’s spot was Joe.
“Joe?” Marcus replied with a since of questionable understanding. After all this is the first time that Marcus cannot remember Joe not being at the hot dog cart. “What are you doing here and not over there?”
“I’m taking a break and that is my temporary replacement, pointing to the short fat guy with the funny hat. After all you are a little early today, are you not?”
“I suppose so. I can’t seem to get Navette off my mind. She went on this assignment without telling me and now she is not returning my calls. Her boss is not interested in letting Navette talk to me. Boy does that makes me wonder. You know Navette. Does that sound like she is trying to dump me?”
“No! I think she is just busy on this assignment. She is just trying awfully hard to be good at her job. Not only to please her boss but she really loves this job and wants to learn and do her best. Things have been hectic for these past two days also.”
“Wow Joe, you seem to have all the answers. You may know Navette better than I do.”
“Well, it’s time for me to get back to work. Don’t worry yourself to death. It will all work out. Joe jumped down from the wall and was heading toward the hot dog cart when he turned around. “Do you want your special today?”
“No, I’m not hungry.”
“Hi there Marcus Holmes” Marcus was flabbergasted when he looked up and there was Kelly from creative design. And, after the remark he had made to Sammy, it was totally unreal that they would see each other in the park.
“Oh hi.” Marcus seems to have trouble getting the words out. It was if there was a hot dog stuck in his throat and he wasn’t even eating one.
“Gonna eat?”
“Em, uh, no, I’m not hungry.”
“Care if I join you after I get a dog of course.”
“No, I guess not.”
Marcus, at first, was dreading this conversation but maybe she and Navette had talked about things and she knew something that he didn’t. It was worth a try, he thought.
“Sorry, I don’t have chair and table to offer but this seems to be all there is.”
“Well, you are a total gentleman Marcus Holmes.”
“By the way there is something that I have been wanting to ask you. You work everyday around Navette and Justin Sloan. Is there anything going on between them or do you know why Navette is not talking to me.”
“Why Marcus Holmes, you are the inquisitive type. Come to think about it I have noticed that they have been eyeballing each other here lately. But, you know that that Mr. Sloan is a married man.”
“What do you mean when you say eyeballing each other?”
“You know, making eye contact with no words. Like they know something that they don’t want you to know. And, not like they’re trying to keep a birthday party a secret. Navette would look at him something like this.” Then Kelly gave a _________ smile, tilted her head slightly an winked.
“She winked?”
“No, that was just for you. Now, let’s talk about something else. What are you doing tonight, Marcus Holmes?”
“Sorry Kelly, but I have to get back to work. Thanks for the info.”
But, Marcus had a few minutes before he was due back. He strolled up the block where Kelly couldn’t seem him, looking back as he went around the corner. He was having a number of thoughts run through his head. Were Navette and Justin Sloan having an affair? If so, this must have been going on before Navette invited him to meet his parents and before he had his little tantrum about the water in the face. This might be the answer to why Navette was not returning his calls. But, why did Navette make the remark about being in love with him?
He needed to talk to someone, but Sammy was spending every minute with Margaret, he even thought about Joe. But, he didn’t even know how to contact him; he didn’t have time to go back to the park. He was running out of options. If he ever had a problem he would talk it over with Navette, but now Navette is part of the problem. He thought to himself, “Oh, I can’t even believe that I am considering this. Yes, there was always Kelly.”
He decided to work it out on his own even though Kelly was some help before. Maybe he would call Navette tonight.
Returning to work was almost embarrassing, even though Sammy didn’t know that Marcus’s little joke came true. “Ok Sammy, it’s time for your lunch with the Terminator.” Marcus turned around, and to his surprise, came face to face with Margaret.
“So it’s true.
“What’s true?
“That some call me the Terminator.”
“Not all the time. Sometimes we call you the Warden.”
“If you were not such a good friend of Sammy’s, I would live up to my name. Now get back to work.”
Marcus assumed his position at his desk, put his headset on and started dialing the next number.
Sammy looked at Margaret and said “Thank you” to Margaret. So lowly it could not be heard but you could see the exaggerated movement of his lips.
“Let’s go to lunch and let your friend here get back to work.”
The afternoon drug by extremely slow. Sammy was a little mad at me for calling Margaret “The Terminator” and “Warden” right to her face. I couldn’t get Navette and Justin Sloan off my mind. And, then there is Kelly, why was she popping up in his thoughts? He decided he needed a drink: a real drink.
He dialed the number... “Kelly, this is Marcus.”
“Well hello Marcus Holmes. What do I owe the honor, talking to you twice in the same day?”
“I was just wondering?
“Yes!”
“I was just wondering if you would want to join me for a drink after work. I need someone to talk to and well, Sammy my best friend has just found him a new girl friend and I don’t know how to call Joe the hot dog man, so that leaves you.”
“Marcus Holmes, I would be glad to lend you my ear.” But, you all get off earlier than I do so I will meet you; say at the soda shop down on the corner at 5:30.
“I was thinking of something a little stronger than a soda.”
“I know”
Marcus clasped his hands to his face and then up in the air, thinking what did he just do?
The 5:00 o’clock bell rang, (the one that was not there), Sammy jumped up: “Marcus, are you ready to go? I need to talk to you.”
“Wow!” He sure had picked this one wrong. “You’re not going out with Margaret tonight?”
“No, she has something she has to do and there is something that I need to ask you? “
“OK, I have thirty minutes before I am meeting someone. How about we go have a beer?”
“You know I don’t drink Marcus. How about the soda shop down on the corner?”
“Hey, that will be great.” Throwing up his hands, as in defeat.
Marcus begins talking as he and Sammy made there way to the soda shop. “You know today has been a very unusual day. I have been rejected by the one person that I thought I could actually say that I loved. I told Margaret that we called her Warden; needless to say, I called her the Terminator directly to her face. I made a remark to you in jest that actually came true. I am going to meet Kelly tonight because I thought you would not be available to listen to my problems. And, now I am meeting with you because you want to talk to me. That is what I call an unusual day.”
“You’re going to meet with Kelly?”
“Yes, Yes, Yes. Let’s not talk about that now. I don’t know why.”
They had reached the soda shop and as they walked in there was Margaret sitting in a booth sipping on a soda. Sammy fixed his eyes on her and Marcus begins to look for Kelly, but he knew he was early and didn’t really expect to see her. Then on the seat back to back with Margaret were Justin Sloan and who I assume was his wife. Sitting on a stool at the counter was Joe. What was going on here? Looking around further his eyes then focused on the girl who just came out of the ladies room. It was Navette. Suddenly everyone jumped up and yelled, “Happy Birthday!”
Of all that had happened in the last two days Marcus had forgotten that today was his birthday.
Everyone could tell that their surprise party had worked from the look on Marcus’s face. He didn’t have to pretend, because this was far from any expectations of the evening.
Navette walked over and gave Marcus a hug and a gentle kiss. “Are you surprised?”
“Totally, and relieved at the same time.”
“Why? You didn’t pee in your pants, did you?” Joe said with his usually boisterous voice.
Navette took Marcus by the arm and lead him to the table in the center of the room. “We have been planning this for weeks and I hope you are not mad.”
“No, I am not mad. I guess I am just shocked that everyone went to so much trouble to surprise me.”
“I mean you, for instance. Not returning my calls in order to mess me up so that I would need someone to talk to. And, there is Justin Sloan, for telling me to leave you alone.” By this time Marcus was beginning to raise his voice to expel some of his thoughts, what was not originally to be anger, but as he began recalling the events of the past two days assuming that everything that had happened was some how related to creating this surprise. He continued on. “Joe, what role did you play in all this? Oh yes, you tried to ease my broken heart. Sammy and Margaret, you two pretended to like each other and go to seminars just to meet and plan this. And, where is Kelly. Why she played her part remarkable well."
This was perhaps too overwhelming for Marcus. He had just humiliated himself and others. The only thing to do was leave. He stormed out the door only to nearly run over Kelly. “Good job, you really pulled it off.”
Friday, February 29, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
Untitled Novel - Chapter One
“I would like for you to meet my parents. I am planning a trip home at Easter and I wondered if you would like to come with me. Maybe we could fly out on Friday and spend the weekend. The weather will be nice and maybe we could take the sail boat out for a day.”
Marcus looked like a school boy being asked to quote the "I have a dream" speech by Martin Luther King. “Navette, I don’t know a thing about sailing. I haven’t been near a sail boat and I wouldn’t know where to begin.”
“Well, that’s the fun part, I can teach you.” Navette said with encouragement, “And it’s fun to teach, especially someone you are in love with.”
Marcus seemed to blush when she mentioned the word love; he had not heard her say it before in such a casual conversational setting. Marcus, with a low and pleasant voice, uttered the reply “In love with?” Marcus was searching for some type of response from Navette. She had told Marcus she loved him before, but this time it was in a different way. She said in love with. That is serious stuff Marcus thought. But, Navette just smiled and tilted her head and gave no verbal response.
Marcus, still a little apprehensive about meeting Navette’s parents, decided to carry the conversation on to Joe the hotdog vendor /relationship counselor. “I’m going to get a dog, want one”? Marcus asks as he jumped down from his perch on the wall and dusted off his back side.
Navette replied with a resounding “No! I’ve got a salad and vita-juice back at work. I don’t put those nasty things in my body and you shouldn’t either.” But, Marcus didn’t pay much attention to what Navette said. He just looked back with a head wobbling smile and continued toward the hotdog stand where Joe, his most trusted advisor, saw him coming and began preparing his favorite dog, a hot dog with a lot of catsup and mustard.
Navette shouted, “I’m going back to work, maybe you can come over about six. I’ll fix dinner and we can talk more about meeting my parents.” Marcus replied with a reluctant, “Ok.”
Joe heard Navette’s comment and murmured something about the relationship turning serious as he handed Marcus the bright red and yellow hotdog. Marcus looked at Joe with a nod of the head and began to tell Joe of Navette’s remark about being in love. Joe could tell that Marcus was dealing with new territory here. “Marcus, why is it you get so shook up about her saying this?” Joe said with an accent that Marcus has never quite been able to pinpoint.
“Are you Jewish?” Marcus question Joe, but Joe replied, “That’ll be $8.00.”
Joe has been here at this same hotdog stand during Marcus’s lunch break for as long as he has worked in New York. Joe looks Jewish, but Marcus figured the Jewish people of New York were wealthy and wouldn’t be selling hotdogs on a street corner.
“I don’t know,” Marcus said. “It is not that she hasn’t told me before that she loved me and I have told her that I love her. There was something about how she said it. I knew she meant it.”“Well, it sounds to me like this relationship is getting serious. When you meet the parents, well, that is just one step away from marriage.” Joe said to Marcus as he was turning to wait on another New Yorker with this insensible urge for the street dog.
Marcus gave Joe an uncertain “No,” as he rolled his eyes upward as to question himself while giving Joe the $8.00 for the overpriced hotdog. “We are not going to talk about marriage my dear friend, marriage is far from reality. See you tomorrow Joe,” Marcus said with a wave walking away from the vendors cart heading back to the 4ft. X 4ft. cubical he called his office.
Marcus worked for the same advertising firm as Navette, except Marcus was on the phone most of the time doing surveys or finding the inside scoop on pet doo scoopers, while Navette was assistant to the head of creative design. It wasn’t a job of his dreams. His vision was becoming a high salaried advertising executive, but, this job was the lowly step in that direction. It just paid enough to get him a small apartment that he shared with Sammy, another upcoming advertising executive who worked in the cubical beside him.
As Marcus sat down in his chair and twisted around to get the next great assignment that had been laid on his desk while he was away, his chair made a loud squeak as he swiveled it around, a sound that alerted Sammy that Marcus was back from his lunch break. “Hey, Marcus,” Sammy shouted in a voice just loud enough for Marcus to hear and not alert their supervisor, who was constantly looking over her glasses to see if they were doing their job. “How’s the hotdogs today? Did you have lunch with Navette?”
“Yes, I did and she wants me to meet her parents.”
Sammy replied with a questionable, “Yeah?” Marcus dropped the conversation and began to make his next call when he let the paperwork go limp in his hand while he pondered on what had happen today.
“Ok our day dreaming hour is over, back to work” was a voice Marcus was all too familiar with. It was the “Great Terminator.” A name the survivors have given the notorious supervisor because she has managed to fire someone practically every day. Marcus knew he had an arduous job and there were many others who did not share his commitment. You would have to be following a dream to put up with her prison warden attitude. The dream both Marcus and Sammy shared was farther up the latter on Madison Avenue and this job seem to be their only way to make a start. Marcus put his thoughts aside for now and did what any good servant would do: call Mrs. Rodriguez to see how her new pooper scooper was doing.
At five you could almost hear the whistle blow; however, there was no whistle just a room full of __________ people that had enough for one day. They had been watching the time for the last hour and planned their escape down to the second.
Marcus and Sammy were leaving when Sammy asked Marcus to join him Easter for a last run on the slopes. “Man that would be great,” Marcus said with a jubilant motion which consisting of some twisting and stomping of his feet. “Wait a minute; Navette wanted me to go with her to meet her parents Easter weekend. I am really frightened about meeting her parents. They are totally out of my league. I don’t know why Navette wants me to meet them. I think I will go skiing with you and put off meeting the parents as long as I can. I’m going over to Navette’s place now. I’ll tell her I had already promised to go with you. See you tomorrow.”
Sammy looked at Marcus with a wrinkled brow as not to be so sure about what he was contemplating, “Goodnight Marcus.”
It was about ten blocks over to Navette’s, but Marcus decided to walk, giving him time to think about what he was about to do. As he walked, he would read the various signs in the store windows, _________________________________________, _________________________________________, _____________________________________________________. The most famous of the jewelry stores Tiffanies’ sign pictured a gallant show skier proposing to his girlfriend atop a mountain peak and for a short time he was visioning Navette and him atop this mountain. He shook his head in questioning belief and continued on his journey.
“It’s me,” Marcus said as he was pushing on the call button beside the door of Navette’s apartment building.
“Come on up.” This was Navette’s voice; a voice that Marcus had always thought was somewhat like his mother’s voice, sweet and gentle. As Marcus was climbing the stairs he had already decided to accept Navette’s offer to meet her parents, but was still dreading it. Three soft knocks and the door opened, “Come on in and grab that backing dish from the cabinet above the oven” Navette said as she begins to stir something that looked like powered milk in a mixing bowl.
“What’s for dinner?” Marcus asked.
“Baked Tilapia with cream sauce. Don’t worry, you will like it and it’s good for you, a lot better than that stupid hotdog you had for lunch.” Navette was always trying to teach Marcus to eat healthy.
“Have you had a chance to think about Easter and going to LA to meet Mom and Dad?” Navette ask while breaking up lettuce for the salad.Marcus walked over to her and put his arms around her, “I’ve done a lot of thinking about it, and I have decided to pass up a skiing trip with Sammy to go with you.”
“Really?” she said. “I didn’t think I could get you to go. I mean, you are always avoiding anything that sounds like a commitment and, well, I’m surprised.”
“I’m surprised myself” Marcus said as he was opening a bottle of wine. “Commitment huh?” Marcus said as he reached for the wine glasses. “Why did you use that word?”
Navette, not sure where Marcus was going with this, used her all frequent sweet voice and gave an honest reply, “I am just excited that you think enough of me to agree to meet my parents.” This seemed to calm the moment and Marcus poured the wine and turned on the stereo and found a choice of music that would suit the evening. Navette finished the salad preparations and then joined him for a glass of wine.
As Marcus removed his shoes and propped his feet on the ottoman he questioned Navette with a curious statement, “You haven’t told me much about your parents.”
“It’s not that I am trying to hide anything from you, I love my parents very much and I think you will too. The subject has just not come up, but now that it has and we are going to see them, I think it’s better if you form your own opinion when you meet and get to spend a little time with them.” Saying this, Navette went to check the fish that were baking in the oven.
Marcus shrugged his shoulders and replied with reluctant and questionable “Ok?”
Navette put dinner on the table and call to Marcus that dinner was ready, after there was no response she stepped into the room to find him asleep. But, this was not acceptable to Navette, so she splashed a little water on his face. Marcus jumped up with disgust, revealing a less than pleasant attitude about the occurrence.
“What in the world are you doing?” Marcus said with an angry look on his face. “Why would you do a thing like that?”
“I was just letting you know that dinner was ready.” Navette said with the loudest voice she could muster.
“By throwing water in my face?”
“Well, you were asleep and I thought a little water to be appropriate.”
Needless to say the evening was a little chilled and the conversation diminished from then on. Nothing else was said about meeting the parents and Marcus called in an early evening and went home.
When Marcus arrived home, Sammy was watching another one of his motivational gurus tell him success is his if you buy one of his latest success programs. “Well I see Mr. Superfantastic is back at it.”
“Yeah, I am really excited. He is going to be at the Javits Center this next week. I want to go here him but I don’t know about asking “The Terminator” for the day off. She is so cold and she could just fire me on the spot.”
Marcus grabbed a seat in the recliner and grabbed a jar of peanuts and knowing how much Sammy enjoyed hearing Mr. Superfantastic decided to give him some encouragement. “Maybe she will send you if you tell her that it will improve your work performance.”
“I doubt it, she is so cold and I don’t believe she can even think on that level. By the way, how did it go with telling Navette about going skiing rather than meeting her parents?”
Marcus looked at Sammy apologetically “On the way over I changed my mind and decided to go with her. I don’t know why. I guess I just felt like I could do that for her. Anyway there were these signs.”
“Signs, you mean like premonitions.”
Marcus looked at Sammy as if that could not be a possibility. “Of course not silly, I mean signs in the windows of the stores. I guess it just made me realize I might have greater feeling for her than I thought. But, I sure didn’t show it tonight.”
Now Sammy was all confused. “What happened tonight?”Marcus, not really wanting to discuss the little episode decided to take the easy way out... “I’ll tell you later. I think I’ll go to bed and read a book until I fall asleep.”
Sammy tossed his latest book purchase… “Here read this; it will help you get your attitude straight.”
Marcus looked at the book and read the title… “______________________________”... then he rolled his eyes and headed toward the bedroom.
The next day Marcus decided to call Navette early to apologize for the way he had acted last night. But, Navette’s voice mail answered, saying she would not be in today and to leave a message. Wondering what was wrong he then called her cell phone but did not get an answer but received the message that the cell phone user was not available to answer this call and to leave a message.
“Hi Navette, I need to know what up. Give me a call.
Marcus, still curious as where Navette was, decided to send a text message. He was sure he would get a quick reply.
Marcus by this time had reached Sloan Advertising, quickly made his way to his “office” before “The Terminator” saw that he was one minute late.
Sammy was already at his desk. He had left home a little early to ask Margaret, alias “The Terminator,” about the seminar.
“Sammy,” Marcus called out again just loud enough for Sammy to hear, “What did she say?”
“You’ll never believe it. The agency had already purchased a bunch of tickets and she said she had already planed to ask me to go.”
Marcus was perplexed, he didn’t know why really but he just assumed that she was just too mean to let Sammy go, much yet, send him at the company’s expense. “Too bad she not going, she sure needs an attitude adjustment.”
“Oh, I didn’t tell you, she is going. I’m supposed to meet her at the Javits center a half hour before the seminar starts.
Marcus was having difficulty adjusting to all these strange happenings but at the present Navette was on his mind. He knew she had to go out of town occasionally to meet with clients but she always would tell him.
Marcus headed toward the park for lunch and tried to call Navette. This time he received the same message and by this he knew she had turned her cell phone off. As he approached the hotdog stand, Joe had again seen him coming and already had prepared his regular dog. “Joe, what do you know about women?”
“I have these feelings and I think I know how to handle them and then something happens to alter my thoughts and then I change my mind and then changed it back.”
Joe, a little confused by Marcus’s remarks decided to offer his wisdom, “I’m not sure it is women that you need to know about, it sounds like we need to talk about you. We may never figure out other people, if we can’t figure out our self.”
“Well Joe, I did make a mess of things last night and now I think she is really mad. I can’t seem to get her on the phone and she always let’s me know when she is going out of town.”
“Oh, she is in Jersey meeting with a client.” Joe then turned quickly to wait on another New Yorker addicted to those famous hot dogs.
“How do you know she is in Jersey with a client?"
“Street vendors know all.” Joe then waved Marcus off with the back of his hand. Marcus knew that this was all he was going to get out of Joe at this time. Joe had known things like this before, things that Marcus has never figured out and Joe has never told how he knew.
Marcus found his usual perch on the wall and finished his hotdog. He used this time to try to figure out the seriousness of his troubles. Had he blown it and messed up his relationship with Navette or was there something else, another reason she did not tell him about this meeting?
Before, Marcus got back to his “office” he called the secretary in the office where Navette worked. He had met Kelly once before at a company Christmas party. She was, well, unusual and Marcus was always a little reluctant to call her. “Hi Kelly, this is Marcus Holmes down in the research center. I wonder if you could tell me how I could get in touch with Navette.”
“Well, hello Marcus where have you been keeping yourself? I thought you had walked off the planet earth. Don’t you know? She and the director are in Jersey making a big presentation to ________________ __________________________. Wonder why she didn’t tell you?”
Now I know why I don’t like to call Kelly, Marcus thought. “I guess she just forgot, anyway, if she comes back to the office today tell her I called.”
“Ok Marcus Holmes, you just call any old time.”
Marcus arrived back at his cubical just in time to make the warden’s check. It occurred to him that he had not been asked to go to the seminar. He didn’t really want to go but he hated to be overlooked. “Margaret, Sammy told me that the company is sending some people to the motivational seminar next week. I was just wondering if there were any more tickets.” At least he thought he could get out of a days work.
“Marcus: if I had thought you would have been interested, I would have saved a ticket for you, but as it is I don’t have any tickets left, sorry.” Margaret hardly stopped walking and Marcus got the impression she didn’t want him to go even if she had tickets.
“Sammy,” Marcus’s voice barely reached over the petition. “Why do you think Margaret knew you wanted to go to the seminar and I didn’t?”
“I don’t know,” Sammy replied hoping Marcus would just drop it there.
Marcus let that answer stand and tackled his calls with greater diligence than usual the rest of the afternoon. This seemed to take his mind off Navette and it must have worked. The afternoon passed quickly. He even worked five minutes passed the bell.
Navette had meant to tell Marcus she would be out of town the next day but things happening as they did it just slipped her mind. Nanette was in the conference room of ____________________________ in downtown ________________. Navette was in a frizzy trying to meet the demands of her boss. This was a very big presentation that they had been working on for several months. You would have thought since they had been working on it so long that everything would be just perfect. But, after the first meeting you find out that the color on this brochure is not exactly correct and the wording needed a slight change because the selection committee noted that the president of the company had a quirk about anything slightly related to ______________________. Who would have guessed it? Anyway, Navette was rapidly working on her computer making the changes then running to Kinko’s to pick up the new copies. The director had given her a company cell phone and she found herself constantly communicating to the office and then to the director. She decided she didn’t need two phones, so she had turned hers off. She was in the bathroom next to the conference room and she decided to use this time to call Marcus. She was dialing the number when all of a sudden this voice rang out from the bathroom door. “Navette are you in there?” It was her boss. Navette blew a puff of wind over her face, closed her cell phone. “Yes.”
“Did you get those copies? I need them right now!”
Navette said to herself as she began to walk out of the bathroom, “Can you believe this guy”… then shouted, “Coming.”
Sammy was still in his cubical as Marcus was leaving. “You ready Sammy?”
“No I’ve got a few more things I want to do before I go.” This was strange to Marcus. He had not known anyone to want to stay passed the bell.
“I’ll catch you at home, Want a pizza?”
“Not tonight, I’ve got to meet someone later. I’ll be in about ten.”
Marcus had still not heard from Navette. He was angry at himself, concerned about her and unknowing as to what would happen when he finally would be able to talk to Navette. After thinking about this for a while, he wasn’t hungry either. He found himself back at his apartment reading the book Sammy had given him the night before.
Sammy came in a little later than he had told Marcus and quietly went to his room. Marcus heard him anyway and shouted. “How did your meeting go?”
Sammy, not really wanting to discuss his evening, replied, “Just great.”
Marcus was curious who this person was, he thought he knew all of Sammy’s friends and yet he did not say who he was meeting with, just meeting with someone. “What did you guys do?” Marcus shouted back.
“We went to Quesno’s and had a sub and just talked.”
“You talked for five hours.”
“Well we went to her place and yea, just talked.”
Marcus could tell Sammy wasn’t quite ready to reveal who this mystery person was, so he stopped the questions. He continued to speculate in his mind and, by the way, he did discover that it was a female. It even ran though his mind that Sammy and Navette could be meeting and planning his demise. He looked again at the clock to determine if it was too late to call Navette. It was almost eleven PM. He knew that was Navette’s usual bedtime. Since he had left a message, he knew if she could, she would call him. He decided just to let the day go by not knowing.
Navette’s day continued as it had been going. The meetings continued with dinner which gave way for more changes she had to make before morning. She fell asleep about two AM with the computer in her lap.
Marcus looked like a school boy being asked to quote the "I have a dream" speech by Martin Luther King. “Navette, I don’t know a thing about sailing. I haven’t been near a sail boat and I wouldn’t know where to begin.”
“Well, that’s the fun part, I can teach you.” Navette said with encouragement, “And it’s fun to teach, especially someone you are in love with.”
Marcus seemed to blush when she mentioned the word love; he had not heard her say it before in such a casual conversational setting. Marcus, with a low and pleasant voice, uttered the reply “In love with?” Marcus was searching for some type of response from Navette. She had told Marcus she loved him before, but this time it was in a different way. She said in love with. That is serious stuff Marcus thought. But, Navette just smiled and tilted her head and gave no verbal response.
Marcus, still a little apprehensive about meeting Navette’s parents, decided to carry the conversation on to Joe the hotdog vendor /relationship counselor. “I’m going to get a dog, want one”? Marcus asks as he jumped down from his perch on the wall and dusted off his back side.
Navette replied with a resounding “No! I’ve got a salad and vita-juice back at work. I don’t put those nasty things in my body and you shouldn’t either.” But, Marcus didn’t pay much attention to what Navette said. He just looked back with a head wobbling smile and continued toward the hotdog stand where Joe, his most trusted advisor, saw him coming and began preparing his favorite dog, a hot dog with a lot of catsup and mustard.
Navette shouted, “I’m going back to work, maybe you can come over about six. I’ll fix dinner and we can talk more about meeting my parents.” Marcus replied with a reluctant, “Ok.”
Joe heard Navette’s comment and murmured something about the relationship turning serious as he handed Marcus the bright red and yellow hotdog. Marcus looked at Joe with a nod of the head and began to tell Joe of Navette’s remark about being in love. Joe could tell that Marcus was dealing with new territory here. “Marcus, why is it you get so shook up about her saying this?” Joe said with an accent that Marcus has never quite been able to pinpoint.
“Are you Jewish?” Marcus question Joe, but Joe replied, “That’ll be $8.00.”
Joe has been here at this same hotdog stand during Marcus’s lunch break for as long as he has worked in New York. Joe looks Jewish, but Marcus figured the Jewish people of New York were wealthy and wouldn’t be selling hotdogs on a street corner.
“I don’t know,” Marcus said. “It is not that she hasn’t told me before that she loved me and I have told her that I love her. There was something about how she said it. I knew she meant it.”“Well, it sounds to me like this relationship is getting serious. When you meet the parents, well, that is just one step away from marriage.” Joe said to Marcus as he was turning to wait on another New Yorker with this insensible urge for the street dog.
Marcus gave Joe an uncertain “No,” as he rolled his eyes upward as to question himself while giving Joe the $8.00 for the overpriced hotdog. “We are not going to talk about marriage my dear friend, marriage is far from reality. See you tomorrow Joe,” Marcus said with a wave walking away from the vendors cart heading back to the 4ft. X 4ft. cubical he called his office.
Marcus worked for the same advertising firm as Navette, except Marcus was on the phone most of the time doing surveys or finding the inside scoop on pet doo scoopers, while Navette was assistant to the head of creative design. It wasn’t a job of his dreams. His vision was becoming a high salaried advertising executive, but, this job was the lowly step in that direction. It just paid enough to get him a small apartment that he shared with Sammy, another upcoming advertising executive who worked in the cubical beside him.
As Marcus sat down in his chair and twisted around to get the next great assignment that had been laid on his desk while he was away, his chair made a loud squeak as he swiveled it around, a sound that alerted Sammy that Marcus was back from his lunch break. “Hey, Marcus,” Sammy shouted in a voice just loud enough for Marcus to hear and not alert their supervisor, who was constantly looking over her glasses to see if they were doing their job. “How’s the hotdogs today? Did you have lunch with Navette?”
“Yes, I did and she wants me to meet her parents.”
Sammy replied with a questionable, “Yeah?” Marcus dropped the conversation and began to make his next call when he let the paperwork go limp in his hand while he pondered on what had happen today.
“Ok our day dreaming hour is over, back to work” was a voice Marcus was all too familiar with. It was the “Great Terminator.” A name the survivors have given the notorious supervisor because she has managed to fire someone practically every day. Marcus knew he had an arduous job and there were many others who did not share his commitment. You would have to be following a dream to put up with her prison warden attitude. The dream both Marcus and Sammy shared was farther up the latter on Madison Avenue and this job seem to be their only way to make a start. Marcus put his thoughts aside for now and did what any good servant would do: call Mrs. Rodriguez to see how her new pooper scooper was doing.
At five you could almost hear the whistle blow; however, there was no whistle just a room full of __________ people that had enough for one day. They had been watching the time for the last hour and planned their escape down to the second.
Marcus and Sammy were leaving when Sammy asked Marcus to join him Easter for a last run on the slopes. “Man that would be great,” Marcus said with a jubilant motion which consisting of some twisting and stomping of his feet. “Wait a minute; Navette wanted me to go with her to meet her parents Easter weekend. I am really frightened about meeting her parents. They are totally out of my league. I don’t know why Navette wants me to meet them. I think I will go skiing with you and put off meeting the parents as long as I can. I’m going over to Navette’s place now. I’ll tell her I had already promised to go with you. See you tomorrow.”
Sammy looked at Marcus with a wrinkled brow as not to be so sure about what he was contemplating, “Goodnight Marcus.”
It was about ten blocks over to Navette’s, but Marcus decided to walk, giving him time to think about what he was about to do. As he walked, he would read the various signs in the store windows, _________________________________________, _________________________________________, _____________________________________________________. The most famous of the jewelry stores Tiffanies’ sign pictured a gallant show skier proposing to his girlfriend atop a mountain peak and for a short time he was visioning Navette and him atop this mountain. He shook his head in questioning belief and continued on his journey.
“It’s me,” Marcus said as he was pushing on the call button beside the door of Navette’s apartment building.
“Come on up.” This was Navette’s voice; a voice that Marcus had always thought was somewhat like his mother’s voice, sweet and gentle. As Marcus was climbing the stairs he had already decided to accept Navette’s offer to meet her parents, but was still dreading it. Three soft knocks and the door opened, “Come on in and grab that backing dish from the cabinet above the oven” Navette said as she begins to stir something that looked like powered milk in a mixing bowl.
“What’s for dinner?” Marcus asked.
“Baked Tilapia with cream sauce. Don’t worry, you will like it and it’s good for you, a lot better than that stupid hotdog you had for lunch.” Navette was always trying to teach Marcus to eat healthy.
“Have you had a chance to think about Easter and going to LA to meet Mom and Dad?” Navette ask while breaking up lettuce for the salad.Marcus walked over to her and put his arms around her, “I’ve done a lot of thinking about it, and I have decided to pass up a skiing trip with Sammy to go with you.”
“Really?” she said. “I didn’t think I could get you to go. I mean, you are always avoiding anything that sounds like a commitment and, well, I’m surprised.”
“I’m surprised myself” Marcus said as he was opening a bottle of wine. “Commitment huh?” Marcus said as he reached for the wine glasses. “Why did you use that word?”
Navette, not sure where Marcus was going with this, used her all frequent sweet voice and gave an honest reply, “I am just excited that you think enough of me to agree to meet my parents.” This seemed to calm the moment and Marcus poured the wine and turned on the stereo and found a choice of music that would suit the evening. Navette finished the salad preparations and then joined him for a glass of wine.
As Marcus removed his shoes and propped his feet on the ottoman he questioned Navette with a curious statement, “You haven’t told me much about your parents.”
“It’s not that I am trying to hide anything from you, I love my parents very much and I think you will too. The subject has just not come up, but now that it has and we are going to see them, I think it’s better if you form your own opinion when you meet and get to spend a little time with them.” Saying this, Navette went to check the fish that were baking in the oven.
Marcus shrugged his shoulders and replied with reluctant and questionable “Ok?”
Navette put dinner on the table and call to Marcus that dinner was ready, after there was no response she stepped into the room to find him asleep. But, this was not acceptable to Navette, so she splashed a little water on his face. Marcus jumped up with disgust, revealing a less than pleasant attitude about the occurrence.
“What in the world are you doing?” Marcus said with an angry look on his face. “Why would you do a thing like that?”
“I was just letting you know that dinner was ready.” Navette said with the loudest voice she could muster.
“By throwing water in my face?”
“Well, you were asleep and I thought a little water to be appropriate.”
Needless to say the evening was a little chilled and the conversation diminished from then on. Nothing else was said about meeting the parents and Marcus called in an early evening and went home.
When Marcus arrived home, Sammy was watching another one of his motivational gurus tell him success is his if you buy one of his latest success programs. “Well I see Mr. Superfantastic is back at it.”
“Yeah, I am really excited. He is going to be at the Javits Center this next week. I want to go here him but I don’t know about asking “The Terminator” for the day off. She is so cold and she could just fire me on the spot.”
Marcus grabbed a seat in the recliner and grabbed a jar of peanuts and knowing how much Sammy enjoyed hearing Mr. Superfantastic decided to give him some encouragement. “Maybe she will send you if you tell her that it will improve your work performance.”
“I doubt it, she is so cold and I don’t believe she can even think on that level. By the way, how did it go with telling Navette about going skiing rather than meeting her parents?”
Marcus looked at Sammy apologetically “On the way over I changed my mind and decided to go with her. I don’t know why. I guess I just felt like I could do that for her. Anyway there were these signs.”
“Signs, you mean like premonitions.”
Marcus looked at Sammy as if that could not be a possibility. “Of course not silly, I mean signs in the windows of the stores. I guess it just made me realize I might have greater feeling for her than I thought. But, I sure didn’t show it tonight.”
Now Sammy was all confused. “What happened tonight?”Marcus, not really wanting to discuss the little episode decided to take the easy way out... “I’ll tell you later. I think I’ll go to bed and read a book until I fall asleep.”
Sammy tossed his latest book purchase… “Here read this; it will help you get your attitude straight.”
Marcus looked at the book and read the title… “______________________________”... then he rolled his eyes and headed toward the bedroom.
The next day Marcus decided to call Navette early to apologize for the way he had acted last night. But, Navette’s voice mail answered, saying she would not be in today and to leave a message. Wondering what was wrong he then called her cell phone but did not get an answer but received the message that the cell phone user was not available to answer this call and to leave a message.
“Hi Navette, I need to know what up. Give me a call.
Marcus, still curious as where Navette was, decided to send a text message. He was sure he would get a quick reply.
Marcus by this time had reached Sloan Advertising, quickly made his way to his “office” before “The Terminator” saw that he was one minute late.
Sammy was already at his desk. He had left home a little early to ask Margaret, alias “The Terminator,” about the seminar.
“Sammy,” Marcus called out again just loud enough for Sammy to hear, “What did she say?”
“You’ll never believe it. The agency had already purchased a bunch of tickets and she said she had already planed to ask me to go.”
Marcus was perplexed, he didn’t know why really but he just assumed that she was just too mean to let Sammy go, much yet, send him at the company’s expense. “Too bad she not going, she sure needs an attitude adjustment.”
“Oh, I didn’t tell you, she is going. I’m supposed to meet her at the Javits center a half hour before the seminar starts.
Marcus was having difficulty adjusting to all these strange happenings but at the present Navette was on his mind. He knew she had to go out of town occasionally to meet with clients but she always would tell him.
Marcus headed toward the park for lunch and tried to call Navette. This time he received the same message and by this he knew she had turned her cell phone off. As he approached the hotdog stand, Joe had again seen him coming and already had prepared his regular dog. “Joe, what do you know about women?”
“I have these feelings and I think I know how to handle them and then something happens to alter my thoughts and then I change my mind and then changed it back.”
Joe, a little confused by Marcus’s remarks decided to offer his wisdom, “I’m not sure it is women that you need to know about, it sounds like we need to talk about you. We may never figure out other people, if we can’t figure out our self.”
“Well Joe, I did make a mess of things last night and now I think she is really mad. I can’t seem to get her on the phone and she always let’s me know when she is going out of town.”
“Oh, she is in Jersey meeting with a client.” Joe then turned quickly to wait on another New Yorker addicted to those famous hot dogs.
“How do you know she is in Jersey with a client?"
“Street vendors know all.” Joe then waved Marcus off with the back of his hand. Marcus knew that this was all he was going to get out of Joe at this time. Joe had known things like this before, things that Marcus has never figured out and Joe has never told how he knew.
Marcus found his usual perch on the wall and finished his hotdog. He used this time to try to figure out the seriousness of his troubles. Had he blown it and messed up his relationship with Navette or was there something else, another reason she did not tell him about this meeting?
Before, Marcus got back to his “office” he called the secretary in the office where Navette worked. He had met Kelly once before at a company Christmas party. She was, well, unusual and Marcus was always a little reluctant to call her. “Hi Kelly, this is Marcus Holmes down in the research center. I wonder if you could tell me how I could get in touch with Navette.”
“Well, hello Marcus where have you been keeping yourself? I thought you had walked off the planet earth. Don’t you know? She and the director are in Jersey making a big presentation to ________________ __________________________. Wonder why she didn’t tell you?”
Now I know why I don’t like to call Kelly, Marcus thought. “I guess she just forgot, anyway, if she comes back to the office today tell her I called.”
“Ok Marcus Holmes, you just call any old time.”
Marcus arrived back at his cubical just in time to make the warden’s check. It occurred to him that he had not been asked to go to the seminar. He didn’t really want to go but he hated to be overlooked. “Margaret, Sammy told me that the company is sending some people to the motivational seminar next week. I was just wondering if there were any more tickets.” At least he thought he could get out of a days work.
“Marcus: if I had thought you would have been interested, I would have saved a ticket for you, but as it is I don’t have any tickets left, sorry.” Margaret hardly stopped walking and Marcus got the impression she didn’t want him to go even if she had tickets.
“Sammy,” Marcus’s voice barely reached over the petition. “Why do you think Margaret knew you wanted to go to the seminar and I didn’t?”
“I don’t know,” Sammy replied hoping Marcus would just drop it there.
Marcus let that answer stand and tackled his calls with greater diligence than usual the rest of the afternoon. This seemed to take his mind off Navette and it must have worked. The afternoon passed quickly. He even worked five minutes passed the bell.
Navette had meant to tell Marcus she would be out of town the next day but things happening as they did it just slipped her mind. Nanette was in the conference room of ____________________________ in downtown ________________. Navette was in a frizzy trying to meet the demands of her boss. This was a very big presentation that they had been working on for several months. You would have thought since they had been working on it so long that everything would be just perfect. But, after the first meeting you find out that the color on this brochure is not exactly correct and the wording needed a slight change because the selection committee noted that the president of the company had a quirk about anything slightly related to ______________________. Who would have guessed it? Anyway, Navette was rapidly working on her computer making the changes then running to Kinko’s to pick up the new copies. The director had given her a company cell phone and she found herself constantly communicating to the office and then to the director. She decided she didn’t need two phones, so she had turned hers off. She was in the bathroom next to the conference room and she decided to use this time to call Marcus. She was dialing the number when all of a sudden this voice rang out from the bathroom door. “Navette are you in there?” It was her boss. Navette blew a puff of wind over her face, closed her cell phone. “Yes.”
“Did you get those copies? I need them right now!”
Navette said to herself as she began to walk out of the bathroom, “Can you believe this guy”… then shouted, “Coming.”
Sammy was still in his cubical as Marcus was leaving. “You ready Sammy?”
“No I’ve got a few more things I want to do before I go.” This was strange to Marcus. He had not known anyone to want to stay passed the bell.
“I’ll catch you at home, Want a pizza?”
“Not tonight, I’ve got to meet someone later. I’ll be in about ten.”
Marcus had still not heard from Navette. He was angry at himself, concerned about her and unknowing as to what would happen when he finally would be able to talk to Navette. After thinking about this for a while, he wasn’t hungry either. He found himself back at his apartment reading the book Sammy had given him the night before.
Sammy came in a little later than he had told Marcus and quietly went to his room. Marcus heard him anyway and shouted. “How did your meeting go?”
Sammy, not really wanting to discuss his evening, replied, “Just great.”
Marcus was curious who this person was, he thought he knew all of Sammy’s friends and yet he did not say who he was meeting with, just meeting with someone. “What did you guys do?” Marcus shouted back.
“We went to Quesno’s and had a sub and just talked.”
“You talked for five hours.”
“Well we went to her place and yea, just talked.”
Marcus could tell Sammy wasn’t quite ready to reveal who this mystery person was, so he stopped the questions. He continued to speculate in his mind and, by the way, he did discover that it was a female. It even ran though his mind that Sammy and Navette could be meeting and planning his demise. He looked again at the clock to determine if it was too late to call Navette. It was almost eleven PM. He knew that was Navette’s usual bedtime. Since he had left a message, he knew if she could, she would call him. He decided just to let the day go by not knowing.
Navette’s day continued as it had been going. The meetings continued with dinner which gave way for more changes she had to make before morning. She fell asleep about two AM with the computer in her lap.
copyright February 21, 2008 by Robert W. Ellis
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