HOME | DD

Description
It was in the back of the land where the town met the country, on trails behind farms in the suburbs where Mr. Meister preferred to take his evening after-work walks to help his mind and body after the long nine-to-five as a salesman at the vacuum store. He knew the trails by heart, which left his head free to have whatever thoughts it chose.
“Out of all jobs, I had to pick this one,” he thought, “selling vacuums to clients, in other words selling spaces of nothing to someone, and Mr. Klamm is late on giving me my promotion. Perhaps if I had worked overtime today, instead of taking the day off, I would sooner see the light at the end of the tunnel, that is, I would get my promotion, but it’s summer, besides, I’ve been feeling tired, and I need this walk to air out my thoughts, so to speak. I’ve been feeling tired, I need to rest too. I’m halfway finished and there’s no sense in turning back, but perhaps I should take a break.”
The only thing for a mile around was a giant slate boulder, casting little shade but forming a convenient, but hard, seat.
“It’s shaped just like a skull – like the head of a giant stone golem that has been destroyed. It could come back to life any moment.
“My job at the vacuum store is difficult, indeed, and I certainly have earned my upcoming promotion. If I don’t get it, I’m going to have a word with Mr. Klamm. After all, he’s applying to keep me, not me applying to stay. I already have my promotion coming, it’s just not official in a worldly sense yet, but it’s mine. Yes, it appears I’m going to have to have a word with Mr. Klamm, I’ll tell him, ‘Mr. Klamm, I work overtime every day, I work on weekends, except on Sunday, when I go to church with my family. I’m your most valuable asset, don’t you see? Why don’t you pay me like that?
“No, I can’t say that. I’ll have to think of some different way to say it. Saying it like that can do nothing good.”
He heard laughter coming from the farm behind him. There was a group of children, playing on the farm. He heard a boy’s voice:
“Sammie, won’t you come here?”
“Yeah, we shouldn’t’ve brought the girl.”
“Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I have cooties. I already had my cootie shot! Well, I think so. I had a lot of shots yesterday.”
“Then let’s let her play. Tag, you’re it!”
“I’m not it. You weren’t it!”
“We just started.”
“Then that’s really not fair.”
A large, tired, dog with short, dull brown hair had taken up lying by Mr. Meister’s feet.
“You mutt! Flea ridden-mutt. As if it weren’t enough that I had to rest here when I should be walking, you prevent me from walking out again.”
He nudged the dog with his foot.
“Leave Poochie alone!” said the girl.
“Here, pooch!” a boy responded.
“Yes, take your dog, he’s too big and doesn’t need to be blocking the way of passers-by. Take him and play tag with him as well, whatever will move him.”
He returned to thinking. “Yesterday I stayed at work until seven. An indecisive customer could not decide whether to make the purchase at all. It’s my responsibility that I can even retrospectively say ‘customer’ in this story at all. Well, I sold the customer on it. It was blindingly obvious, the decision, yet they needed me to make it for them. Well, that was that. If only Mr. Klamm were there to see, he would not hesitate in promoting me! Yet, Mr. Klamm prefers to stay in his office, far away from any of us, inaccessible. Yes, my job is not to sell people things, but to attain the inaccessible. After all, I sell spaces of nothing to anyone who ventures to walk in those two doors.”
He was looking around. The sky was mostly blue with some clouds, there were four children playing, the dog had not yet moved, and there was a rainbow in the distance. It is very bright, with the sun shining down hard. He sees apparitions of water and figures down the trail, and despite the intense light shining on him, feels like he is standing in a shadow.
“I’m standing in the shadow of nobody. Where’s the way out? I would get out of this shadow if I could. But I’m not in a shadow. Nothing is casting a shadow around me, except this rock, and it’s much shorter than I am.”
He moved to the other side of the rock.
“I still feel like I’m in a shadow.”
The children were running toward the rainbow in the distance, but a couple were staring at him.
“Hey Mr., why are you saying weird things to yourself?” He must’ve been talking to himself and not realizing it.
“Mr., won’t you come over and play with us?”
“I can’t. That would be trespassing.”
“It’s not trespassing if we invited you!”
“I’m pretty sure it still is trespassing if you invited me. You’re children. Where are your folks? You ought to have their supervision, and not hang out here where random strangers pass by.”
“Our parents told us we could be out here! We’re responsible!”
He felt like he had eyes in the back of his head, and that those eyes saw an inky mass, like a giant slime mold growing in the shadow of nobody.
“I have to get out of this shadow. I have to!”
Apparently he was speaking aloud instead of thinking again.
“Whatever.”
The last of the children turned his back on him and they were all a mile away already, heading toward the rainbow.
“Look, there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!”
“Look what Sammie found, Michael!”
“I know, Lucas!”
“There are no pots of gold at the ends of rainbows, or we’d all be filthy stinking rich.” He was certain that the children could not hear him now, even if he was speaking instead of thinking.
“John, stop dragging behind! Last one to the gold is a rotten egg!”
A mass of tendrils had gathered behind Mr. Meister, tendrils from the growth that had grown in nobody’s shadow. They pulled him away from the rainbow, the summer, and into the shadows, away, away.
He was in the store, following a customer.
“This is the newest model. It has no cord, so you don’t have to worry about winding it back up, or going over the cord with your vacuum.”
“That’s nice, but it’s out of our price range.”
It would be another long day, working overtime as a vacuum salesman.
“Out of all jobs, I had to pick this one,” he thought, “selling vacuums to clients, in other words selling spaces of nothing to someone, and Mr. Klamm is late on giving me my promotion. Even when I work overtime, I still don’t get my promotion. I’m the best of all the salesmen here, and my records prove it. I’m not one to overestimate myself, in fact, quite the contrary, I tend to underestimate myself. But it is a fact I stand in nobody’s shadow.”

Description
It was in the back of the land where the town met the country, on trails behind farms in the suburbs where Mr. Meister preferred to take his evening after-work walks to help his mind and body after the long nine-to-five as a salesman at the vacuum store. He knew the trails by heart, which left his head free to have whatever thoughts it chose.
“Out of all jobs, I had to pick this one,” he thought, “selling vacuums to clients, in other words selling spaces of nothing to someone, and Mr. Klamm is late on giving me my promotion. Perhaps if I had worked overtime today, instead of taking the day off, I would sooner see the light at the end of the tunnel, that is, I would get my promotion, but it’s summer, besides, I’ve been feeling tired, and I need this walk to air out my thoughts, so to speak. I’ve been feeling tired, I need to rest too. I’m halfway finished and there’s no sense in turning back, but perhaps I should take a break.”
The only thing for a mile around was a giant slate boulder, casting little shade but forming a convenient, but hard, seat.
“It’s shaped just like a skull – like the head of a giant stone golem that has been destroyed. It could come back to life any moment.
“My job at the vacuum store is difficult, indeed, and I certainly have earned my upcoming promotion. If I don’t get it, I’m going to have a word with Mr. Klamm. After all, he’s applying to keep me, not me applying to stay. I already have my promotion coming, it’s just not official in a worldly sense yet, but it’s mine. Yes, it appears I’m going to have to have a word with Mr. Klamm, I’ll tell him, ‘Mr. Klamm, I work overtime every day, I work on weekends, except on Sunday, when I go to church with my family. I’m your most valuable asset, don’t you see? Why don’t you pay me like that?
“No, I can’t say that. I’ll have to think of some different way to say it. Saying it like that can do nothing good.”
He heard laughter coming from the farm behind him. There was a group of children, playing on the farm. He heard a boy’s voice:
“Sammie, won’t you come here?”
“Yeah, we shouldn’t’ve brought the girl.”
“Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I have cooties. I already had my cootie shot! Well, I think so. I had a lot of shots yesterday.”
“Then let’s let her play. Tag, you’re it!”
“I’m not it. You weren’t it!”
“We just started.”
“Then that’s really not fair.”
A large, tired, dog with short, dull brown hair had taken up lying by Mr. Meister’s feet.
“You mutt! Flea ridden-mutt. As if it weren’t enough that I had to rest here when I should be walking, you prevent me from walking out again.”
He nudged the dog with his foot.
“Leave Poochie alone!” said the girl.
“Here, pooch!” a boy responded.
“Yes, take your dog, he’s too big and doesn’t need to be blocking the way of passers-by. Take him and play tag with him as well, whatever will move him.”
He returned to thinking. “Yesterday I stayed at work until seven. An indecisive customer could not decide whether to make the purchase at all. It’s my responsibility that I can even retrospectively say ‘customer’ in this story at all. Well, I sold the customer on it. It was blindingly obvious, the decision, yet they needed me to make it for them. Well, that was that. If only Mr. Klamm were there to see, he would not hesitate in promoting me! Yet, Mr. Klamm prefers to stay in his office, far away from any of us, inaccessible. Yes, my job is not to sell people things, but to attain the inaccessible. After all, I sell spaces of nothing to anyone who ventures to walk in those two doors.”
He was looking around. The sky was mostly blue with some clouds, there were four children playing, the dog had not yet moved, and there was a rainbow in the distance. It is very bright, with the sun shining down hard. He sees apparitions of water and figures down the trail, and despite the intense light shining on him, feels like he is standing in a shadow.
“I’m standing in the shadow of nobody. Where’s the way out? I would get out of this shadow if I could. But I’m not in a shadow. Nothing is casting a shadow around me, except this rock, and it’s much shorter than I am.”
He moved to the other side of the rock.
“I still feel like I’m in a shadow.”
The children were running toward the rainbow in the distance, but a couple were staring at him.
“Hey Mr., why are you saying weird things to yourself?” He must’ve been talking to himself and not realizing it.
“Mr., won’t you come over and play with us?”
“I can’t. That would be trespassing.”
“It’s not trespassing if we invited you!”
“I’m pretty sure it still is trespassing if you invited me. You’re children. Where are your folks? You ought to have their supervision, and not hang out here where random strangers pass by.”
“Our parents told us we could be out here! We’re responsible!”
He felt like he had eyes in the back of his head, and that those eyes saw an inky mass, like a giant slime mold growing in the shadow of nobody.
“I have to get out of this shadow. I have to!”
Apparently he was speaking aloud instead of thinking again.
“Whatever.”
The last of the children turned his back on him and they were all a mile away already, heading toward the rainbow.
“Look, there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!”
“Look what Sammie found, Michael!”
“I know, Lucas!”
“There are no pots of gold at the ends of rainbows, or we’d all be filthy stinking rich.” He was certain that the children could not hear him now, even if he was speaking instead of thinking.
“John, stop dragging behind! Last one to the gold is a rotten egg!”
A mass of tendrils had gathered behind Mr. Meister, tendrils from the growth that had grown in nobody’s shadow. They pulled him away from the rainbow, the summer, and into the shadows, away, away.
He was in the store, following a customer.
“This is the newest model. It has no cord, so you don’t have to worry about winding it back up, or going over the cord with your vacuum.”
“That’s nice, but it’s out of our price range.”
It would be another long day, working overtime as a vacuum salesman.
“Out of all jobs, I had to pick this one,” he thought, “selling vacuums to clients, in other words selling spaces of nothing to someone, and Mr. Klamm is late on giving me my promotion. Even when I work overtime, I still don’t get my promotion. I’m the best of all the salesmen here, and my records prove it. I’m not one to overestimate myself, in fact, quite the contrary, I tend to underestimate myself. But it is a fact I stand in nobody’s shadow.”