The Strangers

I’ve kept count of the times one of the roommates has left their empty coffee cup out with the spoon still in it, rendering both mug and spoon unclean even after the sticky residue at the bottom has been washed off. Six.

The first time was on a Tuesday when I got home from work at eight o’clock. I am always very tired when I get home from work because it is very tedious and I concentrate very hard. That is the first reason I dislike having roommates. However on this particular day I got home at eight o’clock and I was pleased to find that no one was home.

What did irritate me however was that my key got stuck in the lock again so that by the time I did get inside it was 8:05 p.m. and so I missed the introductory remarks on my favorite program. Regardless I came inside and settled down on the couch. Myself was already on the couch and I started petting him. He was sitting up, not lying down.

Let me explain that I am very tired after work because all day I am sorting envelopes with addresses written on them in small fonts, and it takes the utmost concentration. So when I get home I often want to watch TV with Myself and drink some ginger ale and go to bed. Sometimes I do a puzzle.

I was thinking about doing a puzzle because I had already seen this particular episode when I saw the living room doorknob start to turn. And in walked Tomtom, the skinny man with the sagging face. I was not happy to see him.

He wandered in as though he were lost in his own living room and stood for a minute in the V-shaped light the TV made on the floor. He was holding a white mug in both hands.

I continued to pet Myself because Tomtom’s presence made me very nervous. At this point neither of us had acknowledged each other.

“A little dark in here, isn’t it?” he said finally.

“Yes,” I said.

“Mind if I turn on a light?”

I would mind very much but I am trying to be hospitable, so I said, “Okay.”

“I don’t mean to disturb you,” said Tomtom, as if he needed the light on to begin talking. “I do have a bit of a…wrinkle, though.”

“What is it?”

Myself strutted over to the other side of the couch and sat upright right in the middle of the cushion, as if saying to Tomtom, “This couch is full.”

Tomtom continued to stand and blow into his mug.

“Well, the project I was working all month…fell through, so I was hoping I might be able to give you your rent check a little bit late.”

I hadn’t taken my eyes from the television yet and didn’t intend to. I didn’t mean to be rude but I also wouldn’t know what to do with my face if we were looking at each other. I wished Myself were back so I could continue to pet him.

“How late?” I asked.

“I’m not sure. A few weeks, at the most. I’ll get it to you, though, I promise.”

“Why? Are you getting another project?”

“That’s…up in the air.”

Because it wasn’t a question I didn’t know how to answer it so I didn’t say anything at all.

“So, is that okay?”

“Yes.”

Then he looked around as though he were looking for something to do. He still seemed very lost.

“I’ll need it by the twentieth, though,” I said.

“Yeah. That’s perfect. Thanks.”

I nodded. I didn’t know if he had other things to say. After a minute he kind of nodded back and then left, closing the door behind him, which made me glad I had made allowances for him.

After that I was too tired to get up and set up a puzzle to do, so I finished watching the episode. When it was over I walked down the hallway to the kitchen, which has windows on two sides. Myself followed with her tail in an S in the air. It was almost bedtime and because I wouldn’t be able to go to bed without a full stomach I made toast. After I buttered it I put the knife in the sink and it was then that I noticed a mug in the sink with a spoon still in it, and around the bottom of the inside of the mug was a ring of brown stickiness. But it was not the color of Tomtom’s mug so I do not know whose it was.