Distant+Whispers

Denmark rolled his eyes. “If you say so!” Denmark still distrusted East Indians at TnTClaims.
“Anything else?”
“I think that’s it.” Denmark’s glaze settled on the shapes and figures on the computer screen.
She wanted to ask if the company really had a chance. He couldn’t possibly have evaluated the
financials and statistics and other areas of the erroneous reports. Not in three days. She decided it
would be better to go home.
“Then I’ll get out of your way! I see you need to work. And I need some rest.” Petra turned to
walk away.
“Petra!” Denmark’s voice was a whisper.
She pivoted quickly. Too quickly! “Yes!” There was too much expectation in her voice. How can
anyone forget you!
Denmark’s facade slipped. His eyes softened. He parted his lips then forced them shut. Muted
giggles from the amorous couple in the shadows floated on the night air.
Petra stared into the silence for meaning.
“Denmark,” she said softly.
“Yes.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay.”
“Tomorrow. Okay. Good night.” Denmark watched Petra as she pivoted slowly and exited the
pool area. When she disappeared, he leaned back into his seat and noisily gulped air, like a swimmer
emerging from the depths and gasping for breath. He stared up at the blanket of twinkling stars, in the
vast sky above him and then turned back to this computer and tried to scroll through the slides of his
PowerPoint presentation. He was going to use a basic SWOT structure for the presentation: Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. After that, he would use the five forces that affect an industry
and give his assessment of TnTClaims’ position within those forces.
As he pulled up slide after slide, they all blurred before his eyes. He looked again into the night
sky and all he saw was the twinkling of her eyes and the constellation of her smile.
Damn it! Denmark closed his eyes tightly and filled his mind with figures and graphs and numbers
and bullet points. He envisioned the forces of government and customers and laborers with
TnTClaims in the middle. In his mind, claims filed by in a row and his mind’s eyes followed them as
they branched off here and there. Slowly, his professional mask assumed control. He turned again to
his computer screen and took control of the numbers and figures upon it.