Missing Wit

6: Friends

  Eric woke up with a severe pain in his neck. He had fallen asleep on his desk. He lifted his head off the table and rubbed his neck. He then looked at the computer screen. He had finished the news about the interview last night and sent it to the newspaper he wrote. Eric got up from the table and went to the kitchen. He picked up the water bottle in the refrigerator and drank all. He had drank half liter in one go. While he was drinking water with great appetite, a message came to his phone. The message was from Paul and contained an address. Eric knew this address; this belonged to a cafe. It was his favorite cafe. Eric wondered if Paul's choice of this cafe was a coincidence or whether he had chosen it on purpose. 'How much does he know about me? I think this is a coincidence,' he thought.

Eric changed his clothes from yesterday. Then he grabbed her pack of cigarettes, his lighter, his phone, wallet, and tablet on the table in her room, and walked out of her apartment. This time, he hadn't forgotten to take his coat on the way out, which was a very important progress for a forgetful man like himself. As soon as he left the apartment, he turned right and walked briskly to the end of the street. He took a cigarette from the pack in his pocket and began to smoke. He turned right at the end of the street. He walked towards the main street, looking around.

He headed towards the bus stop on the main street and began waiting for the bus. At the same time, he continued to smoke his cigarette. Today was very important to Eric. What Paul had to say about the accident was very important. After all, this was the beginning of everything.

'Why would he want to meet at a cafe?' Eric thought. He looked to his right and saw an old man with a cane sitting on the bench. They came face to face with the man. Eric watched the man for a while, rubbing his first three fingers lightly on his chin. Then he took one last look at the man out of the corner of his eye and turned to face him.

A minute after Eric made eye contact with the old man, the bus approached the stop. Eric let the old man get on the bus first. Then he got on the bus. The bus was empty; There wouldn't be many people at this hour. Bus was one of the self-driving vehicles. Eric took a seat on the far right of the rearmost four-seat seats—the one closest to the door. Shortly before Eric took his seat, the bus began to move. He pulled out his tablet and reviewed the questions he had to ask. He made some changes to the questions he looked at. Finally, he started to write the introduction of the news that he will write today and will be published tomorrow. This would save time, finish earlier, and sleep more. But these efforts were in vain; the next few days would be sleepless for Eric.

Eric got off the bus. The cafe he was going to was on the street behind where he landed. The first person he looked at when he landed was familiar. This woman, with short blonde hair, a red coat, and beige pants, was a journalist she had known for a long time. They had previously worked for the same newspaper. Eric thought he was a very good journalist.

The woman noticed that Eric was looking at her. She turned to Eric and waved at him. At this, Eric began to approach the woman. Eric had waved to her after he had come a little closer. After a few steps, Eric began to increase his stride height. He quickly approached the woman. He staggered a little when he came near her, but she grabbed him by the hand and lifted him up.

Eric looked at her face. The woman had several wrinkles on her face. However, Eric thought that these wrinkles suited his face. In his own opinion, there was nothing more foolish than women changing their face to another. Eric still hadn't let go of her hands. To be precise, Eric had grabbed her by the wrist.

"Good morning," said the woman, "you're as unwary as ever."

Eric replied by shaking his head. One of his eyes was squinted. "How are you?" Eric asked, after he let go of her hands.