He made a joke.
She took it personally.
She said a sarcastic remark.
He wondered what she meant by it.
He mentioned a past interaction, simply because the memory popped into his mind.
She thought about the past.
He changed the topic.
She snapped at him.
He stumbled, shocked by the impact of the sting.
She misinterpreted his silence and was sucked into the quicksand of her own doubt.
She launched a full-out attack at his perceived assault, in defense of her own shortcomings.
He shut down.
She continued her tirade.
He made an excuse, said he had to go.
She started to cry.
He said he was sorry, then added that he didn’t know what for.
She hung up.
What I like about this is that it could be an arguement about almost anything.
ReplyDeleteI've fallen down this flight of conversational stairs more than a few times. I'm pretty awful at plenty of things.
ReplyDeleteThis wasn't at all inspired by my "He/She," was it...?
Actually,no- but you did inspire it. I was reading a letter you wrote me a long time ago where you had talked about how "the only cessation of assumptions is the end of correspondence" and it got me thinking about the thousands of interactions we have everyday where each person has the wrong impression about what is said and forms conclusions that the other never even knows about...
DeleteAstutely done! I'm sure everyone has found themselves in that story a few times in their lives
ReplyDeleteNowhere do signifiers float more than in personal interactions... nice summary of how these things go, and so succinctly!
ReplyDeleteWow, this just sums up human interaction perfectly!
ReplyDelete