We should have seen it coming. Everything it seems, must somehow be squeezed onto a balance sheet to be understood. No one takes a step these days without the numbers to back it all up. The numbers, man! We need to see the numbers!
Imaginary Keith looks half-respectable at the meeting, sitting there quietly in the corner in his blue jeans and Columbia short-sleeve shirt. Out of the corner of my eye I can see him craning his neck, trying to read from the files lying on the attorney’s desk.
I sit at the table, across from the attorney, doing my best to follow the conversation. Nodding is important, I’ve found, at least in America. I don’t know how it is in the rest of the world, but around here everyone wants to believe that the other person is listening. I might even go so far as to say we depend on it.
I nod constantly, showing the attorney that I am capable of absorbing everything he says, proving the foolishness of the American’s dependence on nodding. I mean, if the attorney talked for three or four straight years, and I sat there nodding the whole time, would I have the goods to be an attorney myself?
“Yes, I see,” I say. Nod, nod, nod.
“The first thing we need is an honest look at an accurate balance sheet,” the attorney says.
I nod some more. I will get Imaginary Keith right on it, as soon as we get home.
“Yes, I couldn’t agree more,” I say. “We can do that.” The attorney and I are in the same boat. He’s the captain and I shovel coal. When the meeting is over I walk out into a blindingly bright afternoon, shielding my eyes from the sun. It looks just like I am searching for land.
“We’ll mail you an invoice,” the woman behind the wheel says. From the cut of her blouse, I decide she is the first mate, and wish her well. The gangplank sways slowly under my feet as I head towards shore, and I realize I can’t remember the last time my feet have touched bare earth. I breathe in, searching for coal dust, but smell nothing. Can a person choke on fresh air, I wonder? What becomes of a man, tossed back into the world after so much time at sea?