Hwanzahh

 

I am visiting one of my old workplaces, HaitchPee, to ask about the possibility of being reemployed. The office environment is much changed – where I expected a bright, spacious front room populated by staff I find it has been completely vacated and the opening blocked off by a clumsily erected cardboard construct, taped into place. I explore and make my way up a wide curving staircase. My old boss, Gee Emm, sits at a desk to the left at the top of this stair, and Kay Ess, another company director, sits across from him, over to my right. I am still standing on the stairs and conduct my conversation with Gee from there, (awkwardly) talking to him over the rail. I make a pun, taking a statement of his and quoting it back at him, changing one word to “birth” for comic effect – my newborn son is imminent and although the tone is jocular my situation is quite desperate. With a sly wink Gee says he has heard as much, and knows that I am soon to be a father-

Gee calls a sudden staff meeting and everyone assembles around a large oval desk. Once everyone has shuffled into place - there seems to be a single empty chair which I assume is for me – Gee quickly (and jokingly) quickly dispells this notion with an aside to the assembled staff. And so I watch from my position on the stairs, Gee's chummy orating slowly drowned out by hip-hop-esque beats. My view is then interrupted as someone dressed as a great purple phoenix stands in front of the table, slowly flapping their outstretched feathered arms and further distracting me from what is going on-