Inspired by Samuel Beckett

"Wait until you hear it: just sit there, put your things straight, sit and just wait". This is what they say. This is what they say every time. To anyone. To anyone, day or night; night or day. No matter where or when they come from.... The same thing. The same thing every time.... You can see for yourself: here, sit here; no, perhaps over here, and listen: take note of the one on the right: that one is always loud, the easiest to hear.... See - was I right? They can't help themselves! And it matters not whether you're from here, from there, from anywhere, it's always the same thing, every single time. Sometimes they speak as they look at you; sometimes as they walk by. And sometimes, you can hear them shout through that wall, from God knows where: I don't know if you noticed the script? Look along to the left - you might need to move a bit - over there, there on the wall. Go passed the clock: that untidy bit of writing? On that scrawny bit of paper - from a photo-copier I don't doubt - stuck on with a bit of masking tape? From here it's just illegible, four or is it five lines, in some black marker ink? I don't know what it reads, never wanted to get close enough. But I know what it is - it's a script. It's their guide. Watch: see the one near the phone? Hear it ring? Watch: he'll turn his head. Yes: he's turning now, and watch: he's regarding the script: checking it quickly as he picks up the phone.... And now - as he's talking: notice the continual turn around to look? I've seen this happen a thousand times before. Like one of those old fairground clowns, his head moving quickly left, right, left, right.... And now - see the other ones over there? See them stop as they come near to it, and look at it - that one's pointing at it! And see in their bodies now, how they're looking towards it, and then looking back to one another, and then they kind of combine it seems, in some shared shape of agreement, before they carry on? It's like they've just consulted God! Got a dose of knowledge! So now they can go on with their going on! I see this every day. Every day - a thousand times before. Sit here and watch it, for as long as...:- you'll see it yourself: each of them walking, pointing, talking, conversing, shouting, looking, the whole round parade, all in the shadow of that single old sheet. And it seems these days all I do is notice: watch them move about, then stop, sometimes a few seconds, sometimes a few minutes, to look up - then carry on. They don't seem to know they're doing it, or even what they're doing. And whenever you ask what they're doing; whenever you say anything they say, "Wait until you hear it; just sit there, put your things straight, sit and just wait". Every time. Every single time. And I've been waiting 14 years. And I've never heard it - ever. And neither have they.