Conversation.

A bus whizzes by as P and O walk through the overcrowded pavement to get to their usual restaurant. It is the last week of the semester with plenty of work due but neither of them feels like they are making progress. The meal is supposed to be a pick-me-up. 

P is saying to O, “God! The amount of work I need to do is almost biblical. I need to stay up all night to make a decent dent.”

O replies, “It is 7, I have been doing shit since 9 this morning. After food, as soon as it hits 10, I am going home.”

P says, “Yeah my brain refuses to cooperate even a little bit anymore I’m going to try till 10 too, I don’t want to be at the library after you leave anyway.” O sees a mother with her baby in the stroller walking towards them and moves out of the way. He is walking close to the kerb; P notices the mother at the last moment and barely dodges them when they are near. He almost hits the wall of the building on the other side. 

He bounces off the wall, regains his gait, and continues, “Who the fuck gives a minimum requirement of 30 pages for an assignment that was given 2 weeks ago.”

O, “Sociopaths.”

P, “How many pages do you have till now?”

0, “22, that means 8 more in 3 days.”

P laughs and sighs, “He is a sociopath.”

P stops talking and looks at O. They are both smiling and looking at each other. It is awkward for O. 

P finally hears O and interrupts the silence, “Wait it is due in 3 days? What is today?”

O, “Tuesday.”

P, “Oh wait that is 3 days, why did I think it was 2?”

O, “How many pages?”

P, “1 and a half.”

O, “That is nothing. Were you going to proofread and do a second draft before submission? Why were you so worried?”

“No, I have 1 and a half pages.”

O stops in his tracks. P ends up slightly ahead. 

“What? How are you going to do the rest in 3 days? Not even 3, less than that.”

P goes back and grabs his coat sleeve to pull him along. 

“Don’t be dramatic. Now that I have more time, hopefully I will finish that half today, then 14 tomorrow, 14 on Thursday, proofread and submit on Friday.”

O says, “That is insane. Good luck bro. Why did you say when I called you this morning that you were going to take today off till the evening because you “did not feel like it.”” O annotates the last bit with finger quotes.

P replies, “Yeah, I came to study with you because you said studying alone is boring. If you had not, I would have probably been starting now. Actually, I don’t know. I can see myself starting earlier or later.”

P ponders this for a second, “Probably earlier. I would have called you to come.”

O, “Why do you do this to yourself?”

P, “I don’t do it to myself. I would love to work on a schedule; it sounds positively delightful but I just… don’t or… I can’t. It’s hard to explain. I have tried before; it does not communicate.”

They reach the restaurant, O opens the door and lets P in. 

P continues, “It’s like… I try and then just… Nothing.”

O, “Huh?”

P, “It’s like… Wow! It’s hard to even come up with an analogy for it”

O sarcastically, “Try.”

P snorts back sarcastically, “Well I came up with just one now just don’t know if it will communicate.”

O genuinely, “Try.”

P notices that O wants to listen. He cannot help but try again.

P, “Well, I just came up with it.”

O, “I know.”

P pauses for a second and looks at O. He wonders if the tone of the conversation has changed. He is going to assume it has.

With a smile he continues, “Well two people exist. They both wear glasses in a world where everybody needs one and wears one. One of them takes their glasses off and says that he can’t really see well without them. What they mean is that they can’t really see things clearly without glasses. You know, like with glasses the world is in 4K but without them it is barely 720p.”

O interrupts, “Wow, analogy within an analogy. Analogy Inception.”

P does not laugh, just gives O a death stare. O replies, “Ok! Wow. I am just saying. Unnecessarily aggressive.”

P continues with the death stare.

O, “Okay! Continue, please. I am listening.”

P, “Well now I can’t remember what I was saying.”

O, “Ugh., pfft… Without glasses the world is like 480p or something.”

P snaps his fingers and throws O a quick figure gun. 

O, “Eww.”

P, “So, person 1, with glasses 4K and without 480p.”

The host appears at this moment. “Good evening. Table for 2?”

O, “Yes, please. Thank you.”

The host says, “Follow me.”

P tries to continue, “Now when person 2 takes their glasses off...”

They reach their table and sit down. The host hands them the menu. “A server will be with you shortly. Regular or sparkling water?”

P replies quickly, “Regular.”

The host leaves. 

P continues, “Ok so there are two people.”

O, “You were on person two already.”

P, “Oh, ok so person 1.”

O, “With glasses 4K, without 720p.”

P, “You said 480 the last time.”

O, “Your chance to say something new now.”

P retorts, “Aggressive.”

O, “Please continue.”

P, “Ok, so second person takes off their glasses, and the world is a true blur. They take off their glasses, and it is all a thick fog. Somebody censored everything. Not even 1 centimetre of visibility. However, they both say the same thing, “I can’t see really well without my glasses.” However, what they mean are two very different things.”

The server appears, “Hi! Have you decided?”

P, “Not yet, give us some more time.”

The server leaves. O says, “I had decided.”

P snaps in O’s face and says, “Pay attention to me please. Now the thing is, the second person assumed that, because everybody in this world wears glasses and sees equally well when they are wearing glasses, they must see equally bad without. Everyone even acts the same and says the same thing about not wearing glasses, but the second person notices some discrepancies in what people say and how they behave without glasses. It is different than what person 2 experiences themselves.”

O interrupts, “So everybody assumes that everybody sees equally well with glasses and equally bad without them. How do they know that everyone’s lenses in their glasses are made the same, in fact wouldn’t someone notice that some people’s lenses are thicker than others?”

P clarifies, “No it is a world where Optics is basically magic. Everyone’s lenses look the same and work the best they can, so they have nothing to suspect.”

O replies before taking a sip of water, “That’s pretty cool.”

P, “It is.” P once again has forgotten what he was saying. He looks at O with a confused expression. 

O says with a mouth full of water, “Dish-krepan-shiesh.”

The server re-appears, “Would you guys like to order now?”

O says before P can say no, “Yes!”

P is frustrated by this and keeps repeating discrepancies in his head, so he does not forget again. He looks at O as he orders his food. He is so focused, it amazes P. O makes eye contact with him and says, “What do you want?” 

P focuses his eyes on O’s face rather than the entire scene, “Umm…what did you get?”

“A Burger and Coke.”

“I’ll get the same burger and a Diet Coke.””

“You don’t even know what burger it is.”

“It’ll be fine.”

“Now back to my thi- “

“Anything else?”, the server interrupts.

O says while P waits, “No.”

P complains, “That was annoying.”

O, “He was doing his job.”

P, “Yeah I know.” P leans back and folds his arms. O looks at him waiting.

P, “Oh! Yeah. So… magical optics. Everyone in the world sees the same with glasses, they all look the same and because of that they don’t realise that everyone’s glasses must be different. Due to that, everybody assumes that they see the same without glasses too. Person 2 notices this because they see that they have a significantly harder time without glasses compared to others. They talk about this to person 1 but person 1 does not get it. He says that it does not make sense because he cannot see without glasses either, nobody can. Person 2 has a tough time explaining because even though what they see is different, the words they have to describe what they see is the same as the words Person 1 has. How can you communicate something with words that mean different things to each person, especially when that something is not something that everybody knows about or even thinks about.”

O is confused about this but gathers his thoughts about it and replies tiredly, “Ok. And?”

P replies, “Well, without the words person 2 does not know how to explain it. They just need to make sure they always have their glasses with them.”

O asks, “Why is that a problem?”

P, “Because everybody doesn’t have to have glasses with them all the time, it is good if they do but if they don’t, it is ok. Person 2 does not have that luxury.”

O, “I wouldn’t say person 2 is missing out on a luxury, it’s just a different lived experience. Plus, how hard it is to make sure you always have your glasses if it is something so necessary you are less likely to forget it. I always have my phone; I can’t even remember the last time I forgot it somewhere or didn’t realise I had forgotten it almost at once. If the glasses are so necessary to a normal life, person 2 will have a hard time forgetting them.”

This stumps P, they don’t know how to extend their analogy now, they don’t know how to explain the whole thing yet. At that moment, the server comes back with the burgers. He places the burgers in front of each of them.

“Coca-cola for you.”

“Thank you.”

“Diet Coke for you.”

P comes up with an explanation, “Ok, here’s the twist.”

O to the server, “Thank you.”

The serves turns and leaves.

P says to the leaving server, “Umm, thank you.” The server does not hear them.

“Anyway, here’s the twist, person 2’s glasses have a mind of their own.”

O is picking up his burger and hears what P just said, “Wait, what?”

P continues, “Well not a mind of their own but person 2 doesn’t have control of them. They are on his face when they are, and they aren’t when they are not. They do the job always but not really in the way that is the most convenient to person 2 if that makes sense.”

O, “It doesn’t.”

P, “Well I don’t really know how this analogy goes further from here.”

O, “You tried your best, I’m proud of you.”

P, “Thank you very much.”

O, “I get what you mean though. You are person 2 obviously and everyone else is person 1, but, you know, at one point you just got to figure out how to make the glasses work for you. Either be there completely ready when the glasses are in your full control, whenever that is or, figure out a way to get the glasses to not have a mind of their own.”

P, “The glasses aren’t in my control that is the whole point. I can’t use a broken tool to fix the broken tool itself or the mess it has created.” 

O, “What else are you going to do? I guess get a new tool or perhaps it is not the tool that is broken, it is your method of using it that is wrong.”

P, “It’s the tool.”

O, “Are you sure?”

P, “A hundred percent.”

O, “Well if the glasses have a mind of their own and that makes them broken and you cannot use the broken glasses with a mind of their own to fix your situation with them. You need to adapt the situation to fit the glasses.”

P, “The ‘situation’ here is the way the world and society functions.”

O is stumped. He picks up his burger and says one last thing before taking a big bite, “You might be fucked bro.”

P, “Yeah, I already knew that.”

The adrenaline and excitement of the conversation suddenly dies down, there is once again no solution. P is no longer observing the conversation, he is in the seat in the restaurant. His focus shifts from just them on this table to the restaurant itself. The restaurant is full but not overly loud. He notices we are sitting next to the kitchen door which constantly opens and closes. He gulps and can hear it very loudly. He did not realise how thirsty I was. How long was I talking for? He is holding the Diet Coke can with my index finger on the tab. He opens the can and I take a sip.

<hiss>

I see O in front of me; his mouth is full of food. He is trying to chew but it is definitely a task. I see my burger below me, which is still untouched, I notice the fizz bubbling up from the can, mixing in with the air. I finally take a sip. It is crisp, cold, and satisfying. I see my burger but cannot remember why I ordered it; it does not seem that appetising. I take a bite of it anyway. It’s good but not what I wanted. I still cannot remember why I ordered it. I think I want onion rings, they will be nice with the burger. They will make it better. What kind of restaurant doesn’t serve fries with their burger? I call the server and order the onion rings. I ask O if he wanted anything or if he wanted to share the onion rings. He said no because he didn’t want to feel sleepy when we went back to work after dinner. I tell the server that is it and say thank you properly this time. 

There is still work to do after this, but I feel focused now. I might be able to get in 3-4 pages rather than the half. I’ll probably keep studying even after O leaves. I could stay up till 3 am easily. I should’ve ordered coffee. Coke has caffeine though. Good enough. The burger is overly chewy and the bread dry. My mouth is dry again. I take another sip from the can. Was that why my mouth was dry before? No, I hadn’t taken a bite yet. 

The lighting in the restaurant is dim, but the restaurant is beautifully decorated. The lights itself are beautiful. The ceiling is pretty high, but the room itself stays cosy. It’s getting louder, the table next to ours is getting more and more drunk. The servers leaving and coming back is loud but it’s rhythmic so it almost makes it fun to watch. I realise I’ve just been looking around with a blank face. I look at O and raise my eyebrows to signal ‘what’s up’. He flips me off and continues eating. I continue eating too. The kitchen door opens again, and the server comes right to our table. 

**

The onion rings arrive. P smiles brightly at the server and begins to scarf down the onion rings. There is a satisfied look on his face now. O and P finish their meals in peace and try and get back to studying quick. P asks O, if he wants to stay till after 2 am and get some snacks and drinks on the way from a shop. O agrees because he would rather stay up and finish his work rather than go to bed tense. P is glad because he knows the next few hours will not be boring, exhausting, confusing, disorienting, or disappointing. He can make some progress. The glasses are on for now.

THE END.