Author: Meri

Afternoon at a gym locker room. A cleaning lady is filling up the paper towel dispenser in the lavatory. A little girl comes to wash her hands, barely reaching the faucet. The cleaning lady looks at her.

“Can you reach the paper towels?”

“Of course, I’m already five years old!”

***

Late night at a train. Two teenage boys playing a first-person-shooter mobile game with sounds on in an otherwise quiet and sleeping car. The phone rings.

“Oh why do they fucking always have to call when I’m fucking playing!?! [pause, answers phone] Yes? Yes I’m at the train. Yeah ok, I will.”

***

[A guest post]

Morning at a pharmacy. The pharmasist offers help to a customer.

“Can I help?”

“Yeah, I’d need an allergy drug.”

“Do you have a specific product in mind?”

“Yeah, anything but the one that has the annoying jingle. It has played in my head non-stop for a few days now.”

“Ah, OK. Here’s a product from another manufacturer.”

***

Evening at a cinema. The pre-film commercials are running. A voice in a dog food ad asks rhetorially:

“Do you want your dog to be full of energy?”

A teenage girl in the back:

“No.”

***

Afternoon in a coffee shop. Two baristas serving one customer.

“What’s on the pulled oats you got there?”

“It’s the sweet chili marinade and I’ve added some parsley.” 

“Ok, I’ll have the halloumi instead.” 

“Can I put cottage cheese on top of the dry bread?”

“Do you want syrup with your chili chai latte?”

“No thanks.” 

“Yeah… it’s better to ask and make sure.” 

***

Afternoon at a café. A middle-aged couple. The man begins to converse.

“I thought I could buy some onion.”

“Mhm.”

“Bland onion.”

“Yes.”

“Like fresh onion. An omelette would be good. I could get some pineapple also.”

“That would be good, yeah.”

***

Late afternoon at a restaurant. Two young women tweeting.

“Is that like good grammar? ‘Strolling around Copenhagen’?”

“Yeah.”

[pause]

“Ok so I wrote ‘Casually exploring Copenhagen with this hottie'”

“With this hottie?”

“Yeah! Ok, look up cutie, smile, open your mouth, with your teeth out…”

[giggling]

“Ok, savage!”

***

Evening infront of a shopping mall. A young man talks on the phone.

“Hey you, yeah, I’m on the street, I’m outside. No. You get down here. No you come out, now. Now! You come out now! Yeah. [hands the phone to a young man next to him] Thanks a lot. Ok, so my friend comes out now. You give him twenty euros, ok? You just say it’s from me, ok?”

“…. well… nah… It’s too complicated.”

“Just give it to him, and then you…”

“Forget it. I won’t.”

“Yeah… well I need to… [walks away]”

***

Afternoon. A well-dressed elderly couple walk by a restaurant. The woman says to the man:

“Hey… look! A bottle of red wine, 10 euros! Should we go?”

“We already drank one bottle, darling.”

***

On a bus. An elderly lady hops on and starts talking to another across the aisle.

“There’s a fine hassle at the bank! What a cue. And one man fell on top of me. He fell on me! He was feeling dizzy you see. He had a dizzy fit. And was sent to the hospital. After the fall… I didn’t need to [pause] Luckily nothing happened to me! Even though I was squished right under him! [laughter]”

“Yeah, sometimes things…”

“…once a man’s shopping tote broke on the escalator, a canvas tote, the seam in the bottom tore up, all the books scattered around… I lost my step among the books. Yes… well…”

***

In a restaurant, lunch hour. Two middle-aged women talking.

“Our girl, she’s really social and outgoing but the boy – just like his father.”

***

 

On a train. Afternoon. Voice on the tannoy.

“And for the English speaking passangers: we are having technical problems so we can’t go as fast as we want to. We will be late about five to fifteen minutes. Apologize.”

***

Coffee house, afternoon. Two young men talking.

“He had a wife, did you know that? For years. And now he’s dating, a woman. Like… I didn’t see that coming. ”

“Yeah, I’ve seen… in concerts, I’ve seen him together with…”

“Yeah, hmm. Didn’t see that… but I’ll be in Berlin so I won’t be…”
“Maybe they’ll do a broadcast in radio or…”

“Yeah, I’m sure….”

***

Evening at a bus stop. Two women talking.

“I’m going to the church. The church is. It is! I want to go. I’m going now. The church is!”

“Me too.”

***

Morning, in a train. A woman talking to a man.

“Sorry what did you say to my father just now?”

“I told him I have a Philippina girlfriend.”

“We come from China.”

“Oh, China is closer.”

“Well, they are neighboring countries.”

“We’ve been together for a year, but we are both poor so… You know. Text messages, video calls.”

“Yes.”

***