Tales Of The Gurrier

‘Hi Gabe.’

‘Hey Ralph.’

‘How’s it going?’

‘Oh not so bad. Ups and downs you know.’

‘It’s a big job.’

‘The biggest. I wouldn’t mind it so much if it wasn’t for those damned left behind.’

‘Oh yeah, they’re the worst.’

‘Aren’t they just. They’re just so, I dunno…’

‘Ungrateful?’

‘That’s it ungrateful. I mean we have a job to do you know. It’s not like we have a choice. One lady came up to me the other day and started yelling about when she was going to be let on up to join her family. When she didn’t like what I had to say, well you know what she did.’

‘What?’

‘She spit in my face.’

‘No!’

‘Yep, right in my face bold as brass. Shouting a lot of insults about the management. I said ‘lady there’s nothing I can do for you. You had your chance. The warning signs were there. You could have taken the insurance policy just like everyone else’. Well she didn’t like that, oh no.’

‘What did she do?’

‘Well I figured for another rain of spit and curses but one of the Risen turned up and ate her brain.’

‘Oh that was lucky.’

‘Yeah thank God for small mercies I say.’

‘I’m seeing him after lunch I’ll pass it on.’

‘Thanks Ralph you’re a brick. Say have you seen Lou.’

‘Yeah he was by the pool earlier talking himself up with the waitresses. Heh, that Lou, he’s a card that one.’

‘Well I think he’s an insufferable bore. Of course he’s the cat with the cream now. I suppose this little firework display is his handiwork.’

‘I expect so but don’t let him get to you Gabe after all he was the one who fell not you.’

‘Yeah, yeah I know but it’s like sometimes I feel like..like..’

‘Like what are we doing here?’

‘Exactly! I mean what did you do last night?’

‘Well after work I headed back to the hotel and played Go Fish with Mother Teresa for an hour or two, she cleaned me out and then er, in bed by seven thirty I think.’

‘See that’s what I mean. After my killer day I had to hear Augustines confession again and then it was two hours moral argument with Thomas Aquinas before bed. Well I tell you I’m sick of it. I mean here we are at the end of days and look who is having all the fun.’

‘Who?’

‘Ralph sometimes I think you left your brain back under that tree in the Garden. Lou, that’s who. I snuck down to the bar last night when everyone was asleep.’

‘You never!’

‘I did. I wanted to see what the fuss was about. Well guess who he was down there with.’

‘Who, who!

‘Attila The Hun, Paganini and Steve McQueen.’

‘No!’

‘Yes and they were all roaring drunk. Paganini is on the piano playing ‘Great Balls of Fire’ and knocking back the tequila, Attila and Steve are arm wrestling in a mess of broken glasses and beer bottles and Lou is just standing there with these two pneumatic bimbos on his arm grinning like a Chesire cat.’

‘Well I never.’

‘I’m not having it Ralph, I’m going to blow my own trumpet over this one.’

‘Now don’t get yourself worked up again Gabe. The Boss is letting Lou have his time to shine. You have to admit he does a good job. I wouldn’t know where to begin. Besides it’s almost performance review time and you don’t want another black mark against you. Remember when you gave them Fire and how mad He got over that FUBAR.’

‘That was you Ralph you fool!’

‘Was it? Oh yes so it was. Well better the devil you know eh?’

‘What? That makes no sense. I think you lost it up there. All that sitting around and waiting, nothing to do all day, eat a bit of mana, have a pray, go talk to an ex pope. It’s not healthy. Listen I met this guy in the bar the other night. Big guy, asian I think, real cheerful fellow, laughed all the time. Anyway he was telling me about this big idea he’s had about, well its sort of like eschatological recycling and Gandhi, Thor and I think he may be in to something.’

‘Wait a minute Thor thought it was a good idea?’

‘Well that may have been the mead talking but that little indian guy Gandhi is really on board and he was sober.’

‘I dunno Gabe. Things are kind of wrapping up down here you know. The big guy is about to retire and hand over the reins of the family business. I mean this is where its all been leading up to for the past oh, forever. You think now is the time to bring a new cosmological plan to the table?’

‘Now is exactly the time Ralph don’t you see, a change of management, everything being shaken up. Time for a new direction, a new broom. This could be it for me Ralph, the big time. VP of the firm. Ahem, of course I’ll need steadfast people under me Ralph. Good people, people I can trust. Gandhi and his Asian buddy I mean they may have the big ideas and all but they’d just be the consultants on this you know. Doing the heavy lifting, the broad strokes. It’s kind of like when we outsourced the torture and stuff to Lou. He got the flak for that and we came up smelling of frankincense. And let’s face it these two are not exactly tip top material. They’re hard workers and all but its, well you know how it is up there, complicated.’

‘They’re no angels.’

‘Amen to that brother.’

—————————————————————————-

Yet another dialogue piece. I’m building up quite a collection of these.
This weeks Flickr Fiction photo was brought to you by Flickr user Petteri Sulonen. This weeks participants are Teaandcakes, Tadmack, Aquafortis and Elimare. Click on the links to read their versions.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 4th, 2006 at 10:19 pm and is filed under Flickr Fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.