pause.

i kept my job. i did. and guess who was the one, i mean, after all that, guess who got it right between the eyes? another cliché, i know, but boy oh boy, what a great one it was… (BEAT) i even walked her to the elevator the day she left, her and the other three, this was several months after all the other…i was right behind them with a “so long” and “we’ll miss you” and right then, it came to me, it came to me with my friends standing around and that little…well, she wasn’t looking so strong anymore, there in the open car, this box of stuff in her hands, as the doors were closing i said to them all, but staring straight at her, i said, “you guys take care now!” just like that, and then they slid shut. huh…just like in kramer at the end. the doors did…(GESTURES) isn’t that funny? i never thought of that before…i said that and we laughed all through lunch about it, the guys and me.

pause.

i was at a seminar, big yearly thing the company put on. this one was in boston, six months back. my friend from chicago flew in for it. okay, so… after the morning session, just in passing as we were both in the restroom at one point, he said something to me, my friend, i guess trying to lighten things up a little, he mentioned work. and about the layoffs, and how glad i must’ve finally been to have gotten rid of you know who. and then he said, “boy, i really had you going that friday, didn’t i?” i turned to him, standing there at the urinal, my fly still open and i turned to him and the whole picture was clear to me. right then, it was as clear as a look into the future…what he’d done. what we always used to do to each other, see, he’d heard the real truth about what was coming and just couldn’t let it go without a little razzing and so he’d given me the call, let me stew about it over that weekend…he was going to buzz me back monday morning with the truth, but by then… (BEAT) yeah, he’d gotten me, alright, he got me good, just like the old days.

pause.