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Valerie's Gallery is a collection of thoughts, poems, stories and other writings. Some are observations of the different ways people communicate and are all based on actual encounters. They were all written by my Mother as part of her Major Work for her Degree in Communication. |
Me. Communicating, clear tones, precise
request,
‘One ball point pen, please’.
‘One?’ asked the girl, feeding back
smartly.
‘One’, I confirmed. We were doing
nicely.
‘Ordinary or twenty five center?’ she
queried.
I had not been aware until now that any
great choices existed in the ball point pen sphere,
but I’m always game to make changes.
‘Twenty five center’, I said, really
splurging.
Girl, beginning to make a move, ‘Black, Blue, Red or Green?’
I was dazzled by so many choices, it was
hard to decide.
Finally I said with relief, ‘Black’.
‘Black’, said the girl.
Good feedback again.
‘Black please’, I confirmed.
She disappeared under the counter.
Finally her voice floated up again,
‘Fine or Medium?’
Me, faint from all these decisions so
early in the morning,
‘What’s the difference?’
‘The fine is fine and the medium is
medium’.
‘Oh’. I said.
What else was there to say in the face
of all this knowledge.
‘Well, medium please’.
She emerged in triumph, placed the pen
in a paper bag
and handed it over.
‘Thirty cents please’, she said briskly,
further confounding my already hazy morning.
Written by Valerie Hazel Torning.
