Exclusion

George grabbed a seat in the back row and laid his coat across the seat beside him. He had asked his friend, M., to join him. “Keeping my options open,” was all he said in response. George knew what that meant and decided to attend the film screening alone.

George arrived early, as per usual, and picked at a bucket of popcorn growing-cold. Other patrons entered the theater, took their seats, and the room filled up around him. He enjoyed the dull hum of a crowd and listened in on the conversations.

Close to showtime, George watched M. enter the theater with a pair of friends, whom George disliked. Laughing, they took seats across the room. George sunk low in the chair and pulled the coat over him. As the lights dimmed, he found solace in the darkness.

No. 109

Showing Up

“I was up late last night working. Yes, this project is a nightmare, but that wasn’t the whole story. So one of my friends had a dog that died last night, and I went over to her apartment and spent 5 hours with her. I should’ve put up stronger boundaries with this friend—she does this kind of thing all the time. We’ve been friends since college; she doesn’t have family here. I got home after midnight and had to validate all the files until 3 in the morning. Yeah. I know. Then I was up at 7 to touch base with the team again. That's all I’ve been doing today. If I had just told my friend to deal with it herself, I wouldn’t be so tired.”

No. 071

A Sidebar

“Did I ever tell you about when he died? We were working on the first season. His boss at the time was a real hard ass, a terrible boss. He didn’t give a shit what happened in any of his employees’ lives, just worked them to the bone. This was a few months after he tore his meniscus, you remember that? Still on bed rest. Working 18-odd hours a day. Which was because of us, sure, but if his boss had been managing it better… Anyway, you remember what it was like working here then, you can imagine what the artists were going through. One day, he decided he needed a break from work, so he went out for a hike. He called me on the phone, told me he was taking the afternoon. Of course, I told him, do whatever you need, but are you sure about your legs? They aren’t healed! He insisted he needed to be outside, see the trees, feel the sun. He needed to feel alive again, after so many months on bed rest and the long work days. Anyway, you know what happens next. He gets heat stroke, has a heart attack. Dies on the trail. The paramedics get there just in time and revive him. They get down to Cedars Sinai, and he passes again. Then he’s revived again. He calls me, asks me to come down to the hospital. What am I going to do, say no? I was one of his only friends. I go to Cedars Sinai. When I get there, he’s back in a coma. The nurses tell me it’s not looking good, there’s a big clot they don’t think they can get rid of. Blood pressure was 94 over 60. Skin was gray. He wasn’t going to make it. I get there, I tell him what a good job he’s doing, that the show looks great. Then right after me, his ex-girl walks in. Suddenly the charts start spiking, his heart rate goes up. It’s like he knew she was in there. He was waiting for her. He opens his eyes, wakes up from the coma, says hello to her, and then dies, again, for the third time, except this one was for real. I was there when he died. I held his ex-girl, and she told me he’d been stressed out, the job was killing him, turning his hair gray, ruining his blood pressure. I’ll say! It was the stress of the job and that horrible boss that killed him. I know stress; I’ve seen what it can do. And he was a great artist. It’s a shame he couldn’t work on season two.”

No. 026