A third power outage at a restaurant

A restaurant. A man and woman sit at dinner. A bluejay perches on a chair nearby.

Man: I had the funniest dream last night.

Woman: Did you write it down?

Man: No; it was so funny that I was sure to remember in the morning. I woke up at three thirty and thought, Oh, that was funny: I’ll write that down in the morning.

Woman: You hate seeing patterns, but you do this every week; I bought you that dream journal for a reason.

Man: I should buy you a meta-narrative slash critique-of-Capitalism slash banal-praise-of-Marxism slash why-is-Fascism-on-the-rise-in-our-society journal.

Woman: I’ve been meaning to buy myself one of those.

Man: And a red pen so you can symbolically write in the blood of the bourgeoisie.

Woman: This wine is good.

Man: I’m not going to let you distract me with wine, but I agree the wine is very good.

The bluejay caws; at the sound of the caw, the woman’s wine glass shatters in her hand.

Woman: I don’t know my own strength! And you’ll never guess what I was thinking about, though.

The man stands and takes an empty wine glass from a neighboring table; he pours her another glass.

Man: I love guessing games.

Woman: Go on.

Man: Why do the rich people keep stealing from the poor people?

Woman: No.

Man: If we could all have a living wage and wear virtual-reality headsets, societal problems will disappear—oh, and free bags of potato chips to eat while in virtual reality.

Woman: No, but you are warm. Very.

The bird caws again.

Man: What is up with the animals in this restaurant?

Woman: Oh, come on, guess again!

Man: But at least the power hasn’t gone out.

Woman: That’s it!

Man: Wow, I got it in three tries.

Woman: Yes, I was thinking about the power going out, and the darkness, if the floor under this table is clean enough, and if the darkness lasts long enough, and, I was thinking, well, maybe, you know…

Man: Why do you care if the floor is clean?

Woman: Well, Nigel, I said “clean enough” and I emphasized the enough when I said it, and, as I was saying, I was thinking, well, maybe, you know…

The power goes out; the three sit in darkness.

Woman: Darling, I’m getting under the table now.

Man: Why?

Woman: Can jays see in the dark by the way?

The jay caws loudly again.

Man: No, I don’t believe they can.

Woman: Good; bring the wine bottle, darling!

Man: I suppose they have an incredible sense of hearing though.

The jay caws loudly again.

Woman: I was hopeful we would navigate the next few moments without conversation.

The end.

Published by Mink

The amazing writer, husband, father, traveler, and in general a uniquely amazing person named Jared Mink.

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