Morning all and happy Friday. I hope your week has been all you wanted it to be. No lets see about clearing down our last prompt of the week. Timers set for fifteen minutes and off we go.
I may have to think about this a bit, but I kind of like it.
Friday, August 7th: It was a puzzling situation.
It was a puzzling situation. I liked both Kevin and Carl as people. In general, I got along with both of them, even if they were both argumentative enough that I often just sat quietly when they yelled over whatever was troubling them.
This time was different. Not that Kevin and Carl hadn’t fought before. You couldn’t have two such argumentative people in such a small group without there being arguments flaring up. They were generally easy to spot.
Most didn’t even stem from a difference of opinion. They just each wanted to control the narrative and the spotlight. Each wanted to be seen as the person who was right in their group. And in any discussion they were a part of someone always had to be right. It was never just a simple discussion with multiple perspectives. They had to get others to accept that they were right, and each wanted the others choosing them.
It was part of what made this discussion so puzzling. They each clearly had a stance and each obviously wanted to be right. But neither was talking about the actual subject of the discussion. They talked around it. They referred obliquely to it, so obliquely in fact that I couldn’t actually figure out what they were talking about.
That wasn’t like them. They were each very clear and made both their position and the topic clear. After all if you didn’t understand what they were talking about then your pronouncing them right had no value.
From the looks on the faces of others, none of them had any idea what the argument was about and found the situation just as puzzling as I did. Peter ventured a question.
“So what is the basic premise?” He asked when Carl paused after first having used the word premise in his last sentenced. We all leaned in.
“That much should be clear to anyone with even an ounce of intelligence by this point,” Carl said angrily. Instead of clarifying, Kevin jumped in with a defense of Peter.
The two devolved into an argument and then both stormed off in opposite directions leaving the rest of us sitting around still puzzled.
“Does anyone know what they were arguing about?” Wanda asked.
Slowly we all shook our heads. While the topic remained a mystery, their behavior was worse. It simply wasn’t the way either of them usually behaved.
“Maybe it is less of a manufactured argument this time?” Terry suggested. I looked to the doorway where Kevin had disappeared. Was that this issue? After years of arguing over nothing had they each now found something they disagreed upon so vehemently? Something that actually mattered.
“We won’t know until they explain,” Peter said. “But as I am a complete dunderhead I doubt my tiny little brain could even contemplated it when they did explain,” He said using the words Carl and Kevin both bandied about before they stormed off. He placed a hand on his head and sighed dramatically as he fell back on the couch. “Woe is me, I fear I do not even have enough mental power to get through this last essay.”
“You had better get through that last essay,” Terry said. “Or Professor Jacobs is going to skin you alive.”
“I don’t know,” Wanda said. “I always enjoy watching the professor’s verbal eviscerations, as long as I am not the one being eviscerated.”
“I’ll muster up the brain cells to finish the essay,” Peter said. “But I think I deserve a treat afterwards. Are there any good movies playing?”
“I’ll look them up while you finish,” Terry suggested.
“Don’t you have an essay to complete?” Peter asked, suspiciously.
“Finished it last night and was just checking my math for Professor Thomas’ assignment.”
Ten til Midnight 