Hours

His heart was racing, ears ringing, as though the walls were putting an end to their silence on some great sin of his, bound together in one fell swoop to ensure the job was done. How had he gotten here? Well he sat there and waited. He had sat for hours in that empty office that boxed him in to a widescreen aspect ratio, its silvers blues tanning the entire space through the wall-sized window at the far end. He sat on a single chair, the only piece of furniture on the grey speckled carpet, facing that window, his phone on the arm. And he’d waited for hours until, eventually, it rang. And his heart went racing, ears ringing, as though the walls were putting an end to their silence. Jump at the initial shock, he lunged, his finger dashed over the touchscreen. An awkward quiet, expectant. ‘Hello?’ Nothing. The time slowly ticking on the phone-log clock, counting the silence. And he returned to his looking, looking out the window at the wall of another building, its small, thick-framed, black windows and fake beige brickwork. He waited until the sun set, and the city went from blue to yellow, at which point he would know he had overstayed his welcome. But for now, the silence would do. The perfect conversation.