overheard

by bofa xesjum

otto could not help overhearing the conversation at the next table. there were four people at the table. a woman wearing a red hat, a man wearing a green and blue striped tie, a man with a black mustache, and a woman with a purple flower in her hair. the man with the green and blue striped tie was saying, no, it could never have happened that way, because the temperature in des moines never gets to 100 degrees. but you never know, the man with the black mustache objected. otto could not catch the reply of the man with the green and blue striped tie. daphne would never stand for it, the woman in the red hat was saying. that is because she has no grasp of statistics or probability, said the man with the black mustache. what about arkansas? the woman with the purple flower in her hair said. i think we should all just relax, said the woman in the red hat. nobody ever accomplished anything without indonesian chicken salad. now the words began coming thick and fast, and otto could hardly keep track. she never said any such thing. rick let her know right where he stood. have you ever actually been to albuquerque in the winter? that’s what they all say. but it is what i have been saying all along. i never laughed so hard in my life. otto finished his coffee. suddenly he felt sure that the quartet were aware of him listening to their conversation, though he could not have said why he thought that. as nonchalantly as he could, otto got up and left. it was cold and dark outside. he walked back to his room at his usual brisk pace. when he got home he realized he had forgotten almost all of the conversation he had heard. for the thousandth time, he told himself he should buy a little notebook to record things as he saw and heard them. but even if he bought the notebook, would he have the nerve to write in it if the people he was recording could see him doing so? it was getting late. he decided to think about it in the morning. otto fell asleep and dreamed. he did not dream about the four people in the cafeteria. he dreamed he was at a seashore and wanted to get on a boat that was also a refrigerator. a creature in a blue cloak would not let him on board. the seashore was covered with crabs, and a dark shape loomed up in a mist. you don’t have enough lemonade, he was told, come back when you have more lemonade. otto never dreamed about what he had seen and heard, only about things he had never seen or heard.