The Waiting Room
~ Chapter Nineteen
Punctuation, Heart of Gold, and the Monkey
Another
day had started in The Room.
“It’s getting a might
crowded in here, wouldn’t you agree Mr. Rainey”
came Shooter’s
drawl.
“No one asked you.” Mort relied.
“I know
no one asked me. I was just saying, purty soon it’s gonna be
standing room only. What will we all do then, Mr. Rainey? What will
we all do then?”
Mort ignored Shooter and typed another
sentence into the computer. He had been typing all morning; just
typing. He wasn’t sure if it made sense. He wasn’t
sure if it was
going to help them. He wasn’t sure…
“Mr. Rainey?”
Shooter interrupted.
“I’m not listening to you.” Mort
warned him.
Shooter ignored Mort’s comment.
“Mr.
Rainey, I don’t believe you are typing the story right. It is
suppose to be a story? If it is, I don’t see how
you’ll know when
you have come to the end of it, since by my calculations, someone
reading that gibberish wouldn’t even know where a sentence
ended.
You got no punctuation in it, Mr. Rainey. Now you know your friend
Jordan would not approve of that. I think you need to correct that
wishy-washy story, or as they say in the computer world, dee-leete
it. Is that the right word, Mr. Rainey? Dee-leete? Yes,
that’s what
you need to do. Dee-leete it and start again. Start again before
Mistress Hall finds out what you’ve done.”
“Shut up.”
Mort barked as he slammed the laptop down. From across the room, Sam
made his way to Mort’s desk. He stood quiet and timid,
waiting for
Mort to acknowledge him.
“What the f--k do you want? Isn’t
there some sandwich that need ironing or something?” Mort
snapped, waving his hand towards the kitchen.
“Uhm, I could
not help but notice you’ve been a bit tense lately. I know
it’s a
strain Mr. Wood has put on you, writing a way out of here and all. I
thought maybe you might need a break.”
“A break?”
Mort shook his head at Sam in a sarcastic manner. “You think
I need
a freaking break already? It’s only been an hour. You think
I’m
tense now, come back after lunch…if you ever get around to
making
it.”
Sam looked sadly at Mort then waved to the far side of
the room. “Come, come Mr. Rainey. I think you might enjoy
this.
Please, won’t you come over.”
Mort looked over to where
Sam had pointed. To his surprise he saw a paint canvas.
He looked
up at Sam who was smiling at him.
“I’ve taken up
painting. It’s very relaxing. I think you might enjoy it.
Please
come and see.”
Mort rolled his eyes, resigning himself to
the fact that Sam would not leave until he went to look at the
painting
.
“Jesus, if it will get you off my back. Lead away
man.”
He followed Sam over to the canvas. Sam got to it
first and turned it about so Mort could see what he had done. It was
a primitive creation. Almost child-like.
On the canvas Sam
had painted a rainbow. Beneath it a clump of flowers were in
bloom.”
“Nice” Mort tried to sound interested.
“Rainbows and
flowers.”
“Oh, oh, no, Mr. Rainey. Not just any kind of
flowers. Dutch Irises. Very beautiful this time of year you
know.”
“Whatever. But I don’t paint. So don’t
expect me start
now.”
Mort turned on his heel to return to his desk. He froze
when he saw Sparrow sitting in his chair, pouring himself a shot from
his whiskey stash.
“Sparrow!” He screamed and quickened his
pace in his attempt to reach the pirate to wring his scrawny neck.
Jack scrambled out of the chair and ran to the far side of the room,
spilling the contents of his glass on the way.
“Bloody
‘ell! Rainey! Ye got no heart, ye don’t. Ye should
take a lesson
from Crissy. Now she be a pirate with a heart of gold. She’d
share
anything with ye…why…she even shared this fine
hat I wear
today…now that be someone with a heart. Ye could learn a
lesson!”
A screech from above distracted the Captain.
“Me
monkey!” He dropped the drink to the floor and ran to the
ladder
that led to the top of the book case. “I’ll be
havin’ words
with that wench Shelley as soon as I find a way out of here”
he
promised himself.