It's 2:17 PM. At 2:17 PM, he's supposed to be waiting in this waiting room. He's waiting. The schedule in his hand says that he's supposed to wait in this room for fifteen minutes, from 2:15 PM to 2:30 PM precisely. Then it's his turn. He'll have 30 minutes inside, then it's back to work. That's what the schedule says.
He looks around the room, wondering about the others waiting with him: the tall thin fellow in the tweed suit, the large man with the paper bag.
I wonder what he's going to do, he thinks. He eyes the objects sticking out of the large man's bag. He can see a couple cans of vegetarian baked beans nestled next to a tall stuffed giraffe and a large black umbrella. He can only imagine the adventure that awaits the large man inside the park today.
The waiting room is sparsely decorated, grey. He sits alone on a small, metal-frame couch built for two people. There is a second couch identical to this one across the small room. The large man with the bag and the tall man in tweed are sitting on that couch. There is a sorry-looking plant on a small table in the corner to his right. A flickering fluorescent light beams down from above. That's the government for you, he thinks.
He looks at his watch. It's 2:20 pm. At 2:20 PM, he's suppposed to be waiting in this waiting room. He's waiting. The schedule in his hand says that he's supposed to be wait in this room for fifteen minutes, from 2:15 PM to 2:30 PM precisely. Then it's his turn. He'll have 30 minutes inside, then it's back to work. That's what the schedule says.
There is a fat lady sitting behind the desk. She isn't paying attention to him. Her desk sits in a small office behind an open window looking into the waiting room. In the window, there is a small, cheap counter with a clip board on it. Attached to the clipboard is a pen on a string. It hangs from the counter, gently swaying. The fat lady is sitting at right angles to the window, showing her bulbous profile to the waiters. She's entering some sort of records into a computer, her arms waggling as she types. She reminds him of some sort of ancient nobility. She's probably fat because her schedule says "eat" too often.
He looks down at his shoes. They're brown. The leather is starting to pale at the toe. He can see the criss-cross pattern of wear under the laces. He thinks he will be scheduled for a trip to the shoe store soon.
His attention is drawn away from his shoes by a man all in white who enters the office. He bends over the fat lady and whispers in her ear. A look of consternation crosses her face. "Alright," is all she says. The white man goes back to where he came from, somewhere behind and to the left of the fat lady. That look on her face tells him this wasn't on her schedule.
It's 2:25 pm. At 2:25 PM, he's suppposed to be waiting in this waiting room. He's waiting. The schedule in his hand says that he's supposed to be wait in this room for fifteen minutes, from 2:15 PM to 2:30 PM precisely. Then it's his turn. He'll have 30 minutes inside, then it's back to work. That's what the schedule says.
There is a fly buzzing around the ceiling. round and round, left and right, back and forth. Nobody swats it because it's not in their schedule. The tall man in tweed coughs, then clears his throat. "Excuse me," he says. The large man with the bag shifts in his seat. Nobody speaks.
Soon enough, the man in white is back. He whispers to the fat lady again. "Oh, well. Alright," is all she says. This definitely isn't on the schedule. Something really must be wrong. Her face is bunched up in a mixture of anger and confusion.
Suddenly a scream comes from the Park. A man is screaming bloody murder. "You can't take me out of here! You bastards!"
Soft voices are heard asking the man to calm down.
"I'm not fucking going out there!"
The soft voices are there again, starting to rise. "Please come with me. we need this room. Your time is up."
"Sir!" then "BAM!" then silence.
Was that a gunshot? He thinks to himself. He's never actually heard a gunshot before. He's heard of a gunshot. it couldn't possibly have been a gunshot, but what else could it have been.
It's 2:27 pm. At 2:27 PM, he's suppposed to be waiting in this waiting room. He's waiting. The schedule in his hand says that he's supposed to be wait in this room for fifteen minutes, from 2:15 PM to 2:30 PM precisely. Then it's his turn. He'll have 30 minutes inside, then it's back to work. That's what the schedule says.