EMPTY ECHOES

There is something tantalizing

about decorated, liminal spaces, a

long hotel hallway, no doors ajar,

no disembodied voices, potted

plants frozen in place, a quiet

camera to watch nothing happen.

Even a careful human intrusion

is a bustle of movement, soft

footsteps and whispers rattle the

silence. The detritus of people in

colorful clothes stir about and disturb

the peace. From somewhere a baby

wails, something thumps a basso echo,

and ten doors down on the left a door

opens and the room gives birth to a

pleasant young woman with large eyes.

She hangs her purse on one shoulder, turns

her hesitant stride to the elevator... She’s a

working girl with a real job, trying to find

something in the city worth all the effort it

takes to shuffle pages of words into the right

piles with nary a thought for the person who

was stuck at a keyboard, whose job is measured

by the number of blank pages he can fill with

twelve-point Liberation Serif. Unread words

to be sorted by that pleasant young brunette

with large eyes behind her metal desk five spaces

to his east. At noon, she opens a small brown

bag to remove an egg salad triangle of white bread

and a noisy package of potato chips. These

liminal people with liminal lives in shiny

cubicles wish there was a window. He thinks,

“maybe I’ll ask her out for a beer” to the bar

downstairs below street level. Later, In the dim 

light, she smiles at the futility of speech in the 

midst of so many voices desperate to be heard, 

to say something, anything worth the time and 

effort to share a martini moment… once in a while, 

someone barks a laugh, and sometimes a silent signal 

makes everyone stop at the same time, so people have 

to look around to see what this liminal quiet is all about, 

as though it might mean something.

Reviews

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I think it might mean something...so often quiet is disrupted by the smallest note of life and everyone stops to listen to the tune.
The beginning of this had me at the Overlook Hotel...which by the way was a Jeopardy answer today.
j.

[Michael Sun Bear]

Vol, I got a little lost. We started out in a hotel hallway but then when the working girl ( not that kind of working girl I take it) who works in an office emerged I wasn’t sure where we were. I worked in offices for decades, never had a coworker who lived in a motel. Clear enough when we got to the cubicles. You know, you described all the places I worked for thirty years right down to the bar downstairs, but I didn’t recognize it. You made it sound so dreary, the work so meaningless, relationships and communication so useless, it felt like Rod Serling rewriting my life. I have an entirely different outlook on the City, working in the City, living in the City. It is a vibrant, funny, meaningful story.

[---]

F**k, what an absolute banger - I feel a bit humbled, reading this one Vol, you've certainly outdone yourself.

Outstanding, I expect I'll likely be back to give it another read hereafter.

Thanks much, for sharing with us.

[Vol]

Ha! Thanks, Ookpik!