He walked into her cabin to find
someone else sitting in her place. She smiled at him like she was expecting
him. So he smiled back, half a smile, at the stranger who seemed to know him
pretty well. He said hi, and fumbled for the next set of words. She responded
with a chirpy giggle, followed by an update on her weekend. He found an uncanny
resemblance. She sounded like her. The giggles, the pauses, the raise of the
eyebrows. And yet, it wasn’t her. Creepy, he thought. And then, her phone rang.
“Hey Bob!” she answered. Bob, his senior, was never great with newcomers.
Forget calling them on their first day, many a time he’d pass by them and
behave like they never existed. For months together. And then this. She has a
3-minute long conversation with him on a project that’s been on for the past 3
weeks. She’s been here for what, 3 hours? WTF! Somewhere in between, she caught
him stare at her. ‘Are you alright Tim?” Startled, he looked away, mumbled ‘yup
Im ok’ and then fixed his eyes back on her. She noticed that something was
wrong. But left it at that. She walked out with a file in her hands and his
eyes following her. Outside, Joanna sipped on her coffee near the vending
machine. Sarah walked by and Joanna smiled her flashiest smile seeing her. ‘You
got a haircut!!!’ She squealed! Sarah, overwhelmed at first, soon calmed down.
And with a frown replied, “And Tim doesn’t seem to like it.”
