It occurred to me one day in early December that I hadn't seen Brett in a while. Normally he was hyper-present: banging away on his guitar, stomping around the office to peer over people's shoulders, boots up on the conference table barking at the staticky entities on the other end of the phone. Today he was gone and I tried to remember the last day I saw him. I could not.
I swiveled around to Steve, the recently hired quality assurance manager.
"Have you seen Brett? Where's Brett?"
Steve craned his neck over his partition and scanned the environs like a periscope.
"I dunno."
"You dunno? You work for him."
Steve shrugged. "Dunno where he is."
"Has he been gone for a while?"
"I dunno," he frowned. "Can't remember."
"Don't you think that's weird?" I asked.
"What?"
"The fact that he was here and now he's gone."
He shrugged again. "Don't ask me, man. I'm just sitting here trying to write a fucking test plan."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know."
David rolled over between us.
"Is this a conversation I should participate in?" he inquired eagerly.
"Maybe," replied Steve. "I dunno, man. I think it's over."
David scrutinized Steve's face and mine in turn as we sat in silence. I rolled back and forth a little. I liked the sound the casters made against the wood. Finally we broke off and returned to work.