Re: Vampires

Re: Vampires

Three documents remained open, waiting to be filled with whatever proper nouns emerged from his digital pen. All three were different formats—a response email, a fill-in PDF, and an already-formatted Excel spreadsheet—and all beckoned with an urgency equal to a black elevated pickup passing on the left: no real benefit gained but in the quick and the done.

            Yesterday he had been reading American Gods in his office with the door closed and the blinds shut. That he had only been reading seemed an unearned luxury, and he had a drawer open just in case someone knocked on his door and he had to discard the novel quickly. He had been periodically moving the mouse on his computer to keep its screen from going black, but it went black anyway seventeen pages in. He wouldn’t have noticed the cars honking outside if not for the midlevel honk, probably of a black pickup truck, sustained so long that it would have been met with applause in a jazz club. Or at least that is what he thought—he hadn’t been to a jazz club since high school, when he mistook an entrance into a jazz club for a free concert, but enjoyed the club anyway for its similarity to the way he had seen it in the movies.

             The computer screen eventually blackened, the honk eventually ended, and he was still just reading his book. The office was quiet and the world was calm. For minutes, maybe twenty, he read. Within the next six minutes, he heard three slight high-pitched chimes, notifications of email on his desktop. He stopped reading and directed his attention to the black screen, lured by the three siren calls.

            After reanimating the screen by petting the mouse, his eyes did not dilate nor brighten, and he reluctantly encountered the following:

Dear Dr. Morris,

I hereby approve the cost associated with your attendance to the SIC conference in UAE with the understanding that all documents be submitted to IR with the secretary of DTH copied. Irrespective of attendees, please fill out the attached form in order for BLD to take into account the remaining funds in your SOL.

Also, it is imperative that you answer present email with your official acceptance of all liability.

Regards,

Dr. Renfield.

He opened the form and left it up while he opened the next email:

To Whom It May Concern,

The Excel spreadsheet, attached, must be returned, full, no later than October 30, 2014, in order to process all approvals regarding activities and luncheons within the current fiscal year.

Regards,

Ms. Westenra

He opened the Excel spreadsheet, left it on his desktop, and looked to his third email:

Dr. professor quincey,

sorry to write you now my mom had to be sick today and you were not in your office when I came and I have a few questions!  It is just that I could not attend and I have five lectures but my mom is sick and I was on vacation until Sunday because I don’t have classes except yours on that day. I need to give my presentation on thursday so what can I do dr. ???? I have five lectures so I can’t do so many presentations on that day

Sent from my iPhone

            The three documents are still open, even if they are behind a screen gone black, a digital curtain of inactivity, not reflecting anything anymore, let alone his own pale form, hunched, pocked, and dead. Someone will reanimate the mouse eventually, some sort of unnatural light will give angles to the room again, and some mischief might be deduced. No mischief happened here, though, no mischief at all.