I’ve gotten far enough along in the Martin Chronicles and there’s enough time between entries that it’s probably going to be confusing to those of you who either haven’t read all the installments or have forgotten what came before. My apologies. If you are curious enough, you can either go back into my blog to find previous posts about Martin and Beulah, or you can ask me and I’ll send you the PDF’s. As a reminder, I started this story earlier in the year as an example of what an epistolary story looks like (one told through letters). I’ve come to the point where telling this story through letters is becoming limiting, so I’m planning to branch out after this and transition to using an omniscient narrator. Thanks for hanging in there with me, those of you who have, anyway. And now, here’s the next installment:
The Journal of Beulah Bartimaeus.
This morning, I sent Martin Anderson an intra-office email requesting that he come to my office at his earliest convenience. I used the word “Query” in the subject line, hoping that would be sufficiently vague. He showed up almost right away, which was gratifying. After he closed the door behind him, I went right to the point. “Why did you ask me that question about the squirrel clip art on the poster for the time management seminar?” This seemed to catch him off guard – his face was smirkless and he took his time answering. Naturally, his answer was in the form of a question, “Why do you ask?” What the heck?! I thought it was a really straight-forward question that would have a straight-forward answer, but no. We were evidently going to have to do this the hard way. (Ha ha – sounds like I was planning to get out my collection of torture tools and lay them out in front of him while doing the whole villain speech.)
“Let’s just say that it was an odd question to ask in light of the materials I had just presented. I don’t know you, Mr. Anderson, but I suspect you weren’t just being flippant.” I left it at that, hoping this oblique compliment would flush out the goods.
“Why, thank you, Miss Bartimaeus – I am encouraged by your faith in my character.” Not only did the smirk return, but I was affronted by the use of the title “Miss.” Apparently this guy completely missed the Modernity Train, either that or he chose to watch it go by – I’m not sure which of those options makes him look worse.
And then, awkward, uncomfortable silence. At least it was awkward and uncomfortable for me. I wondered if he was trying to decide whether or not to take me into his confidence. Or maybe this really was just a practical joke and he was contemplating how to take it further. Meanwhile, I was fidgeting with my mechanical pencil, pressing the button to lengthen the lead piece and then pushing it back in. Nervous habit. I’ve never been good at staring contests – I always break first. I couldn’t stand it and finally blurted out, “Do you know anything about the BOII?”
But amazingly, he broke at the same time and asked me, “Have you ever heard of the Bureau of Interesting Ideas?”
We had spoken over each other, but each of us got the gist. And just like that, we went from being somewhat adversarial to being like members of a club so secret that we didn’t even know each other was on the membership roll…until now.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Dear Bucky,
How are you and Suzanne and the little bruiser? That’s enough small talk – time to catch you on on what’s been going on at work. I decided to go to the Time Management seminar being given by Beulah Bartimaeus and realized when I saw her that she was the HR person who interviewed me for the job. I was the only one who showed up for the seminar, so I felt kind of sorry for her. She seemed nervous and the information she presented was rather dull. Must be an awful job to have to do that kind of thing. When she asked if I had any questions, I know I probably should have shown some interest in the time management strategies she presented, but I’d only attended the seminar because of the squirrel-infested poster she put up. So that was the question I asked – why did you use squirrel clip art for the poster? Right after the words left my mouth, I realized I shouldn’t have asked – she must have thought I was just making fun of the whole seminar. She looked somewhat stricken but rallied and told me that the company that asked her to put on the seminar provided the poster for it. Very curious. I thought about asking something else, but figured I’d already cemented myself in her mind as a great dolt, so I thanked her and left. I heard her muttering something after I closed the door – no doubt an insult I deserved.
Over the next couple of days, she kept showing up in accounting to go use the copy machine. She’s probably done that before, but I never noticed. She’s one of those sort of nondescript people that you forget right after you’ve seen them. But now she was on my radar and it appeared that I was on hers. I kept catching her looking my way and then she’d turn away in embarrassment when I’d catch her. It was kind of fun, actually. Maybe she has a crush on me! Don’t laugh – stranger things have happened. On the other hand, it seemed unlikely after the last impression I made on her. I couldn’t figure out why she seemed interested in me.
This morning, I got an email from her asking me to come to her office at my earliest convenience. Believe me, by this time, “earliest convenience” was as soon as I got done reading the email. When I got into her office and closed the door, she started right off by asking me why I’d asked that question about the squirrel clip art on the poster. Directness is a quality I really admire in people, but I was still somewhat cautious about divulging the information about the BOII. What if no one else is supposed to know about their secretive correspondence with me? So I didn’t give her the direct answer she deserved – I took the indirect approach and said, “Why do you ask?” She looked quite annoyed by my non-answer. Can’t say I blamed her. She went on to say that she thought it was an odd question and then paid me the compliment, however small, of saying that she didn’t think it was because I was being flippant. I thanked her for her faith in my character, which, now that I think about it, may have come across as mocking instead of gentlemanly. There’s really no hope for me, is there?
After a brief moment of thinking through the options, I decided to go ahead and ask her if she’d ever heard of the Bureau of Interesting Ideas. At the exact same time, she asked if I knew anything about the BOII. As they say, the plot thickens!
I hate to leave you hanging with that surprising revelation, but I need to get going. More details to come and all that.
Love,
Martin
As a final note, I’ve always been fond of the idea of being able to look at events from the different perspectives of the characters involved. This installment allowed me to explore that with Martin and Beulah’s telling of the same story from their own viewpoints.
This has been Fiction Friday with your host, Lynniebeemuseoday.
I’ll probably do the thing that I always talk about, at the time that I unusually mention. Better not divulge any more detail than that.
Lynniebeemuseoday 