Observations on the world and its inhabitants
The group chat, pretentiously named The Committee for Public Safety, had been dormant for three months. It blinked to life on a rainy Friday night. Elara [20:14]: [Link: Billy Joel – Just the Way You Are] Elara [20:15]: Is this the most romantic song ever written, or a toxic plea for stagnation? I need coffee ...
The Epistolary Convergence WhatsApp messages disturbed the digital ether. Tarek (14:11 Friday): Walker, Elara. Need to map the intersection of digital validation and real-world solvency. The friends’ latest theatre requires surgical review. Gilded Spoon, Sat, 19:00? Walker (14:28 Friday): The theatre of the self, budgeted in borrowed pixels. I shall bring my forensic narration. Confirmed. ...
The call was brief—deliberately so. Tarek rang Elara around five thirty. His tone was clipped, almost procedural. He mentioned that he had a conversation with Walker about ‘this’. But he was seeking a different kind of dialogue, one less restrained than his recent conversation with Walker, which, by design, was clinically detached. He was in ...
A phone call via WhatsApp at 8:17 am on a Saturday morning. (Tarek, spotting the call thinks to himself: Alice? The only reason to call before the coffee has fully processed is either a family emergency or an existential crisis over kale. And I’m betting on kale.) The Phone Call Tarek: Good morning, Alice. Alice: ...
WhatsApp Chat, 3 Days Prior Elara: Saturday afternoon? The new place in the Jewellery Quarter, “The Gilded Spoon”? They have decent coffee and a courtyard. Tarek: Courtyard is a plus. Will tolerate the name. 15:00? Walker: The Gilded Spoon… sounds like a metaphor for our current socio-economic status. I’m in. I shall wear my finest ...
Tarek came across Captain Walker’s blog post, “Emotional Intelligence: Conceptual Frameworks, Applications, and Critical Perspectives,” the day after it was published. He consumed it the way a starving man consumes a five-course meal, each paragraph a well-structured bite of clarity in some foggy areas of his existence. It was like a field manual for his ...
A month or so after their breakfast discourse on love, Walker found himself in the passenger lift of Tarek’s building, invited to dinner. He was ascending to the domain of a man who believed in the tangible virtues of a well-calibrated life. The secure parking, accessed with a precise code and monitored by Tarek’s remote ...
Tarek’s gleaming Bentley Continental purred to a stop outside Jane’s modest home, its polished surface glinting in the afternoon sun. Net curtains twitched in unison across the street as neighbours, once again, peered out in wonder. “Why’s he visiting her again?” their unspoken questions seemed to echo across the quiet cul-de-sac. Tarek’s bespoke shoes clicked ...
