standing outside behind the car. he takes food from a plastic bag and begins to eat. while i walk by he stares blankly. as i pass i wonder if he's trying to stare me down. he looks too relaxed, eating his snack, to appear threatening. there is still something vaguely menacing about his eyes.

when i come inside the building i receive a phone call. it is a wrong number. a woman's voice insisting that someone named "delgado" is here. i inform her she is mistaken.

she calls again later in the afternoon, two minutes before i usually go out for lunch. when i step outside the staring man is still there, eating the same snack. i look quickly at my watch but the battery has died.

[02/26/03]

there is a draft coming from the hole in the wall. i left the room for a few moments to warm up outside in the path of the sun. when i returned, there was a one foot by one foot panel cut out of the wall directly in front of my desk. while the room was frigid before, now there is a winter draft that climbs up my pant legs and cuts through my shirt.

after staring at the hole for a few hours i walked over and peered inside. it is dark, and there are all sorts of conduit running throughout the cavity. there is a bright red wire that isn't in conduit that i want to touch, yet won't.

i tried to speak to the manager about the hole, but he isn't around. my fingers ache when i type, and i think i'm catching a cold. tomorrow i'll bring a sweater.

i'm concerned about the hole. i looked around for debris to see if someone quickly cut the hole and left. i see nothing. perhaps the hole has been there all along and i've only noticed now.

[02/26/03]

the drunk's hand moves. it is hanging at his side one moment, and leaping up to grab the knee of the man next to him a second later. he mumbles something incoherent to the outside world.

the man quickly brushes the drunk's hand aside. uncertain where he is, the drunk opens his eyes and stares at the man. the man is terrified but doesn't know what to do other than stare back.

other passengers on the train become tense. some secretly hope for violence, while others want to get off of the train as soon as possible.

at the next stop the drunk stumbles off in confusion.

[02/25/03]

"slow down, stupid car!" the ten year old yells as he is nearly run over crossing the street. he stops, stares at the car driving away, continues crossing the street.

once across the road he pauses to regain his composure. this is the third near-miss this week, and he feels as though certain mechanisms are conspiring against him.

[02/24/03]

we stand there gawking at the wall of the stamp shop. none of us know quite how to respond to the sight of the german stamp, the ghost of hitler's face printed upon it. did he dream that his power would last this long, haunt this far?

paused, stunned, unsure what to say about this.

speaking at once, we all express the peculiar feeling it's conjured. transfixed, we continue staring.

[02/11/03]

fatigue falling, war rumbling. go/no-go. soldier slips the small pill into his mouth, military issue, tucks it under his tongue. smooth feel of the casing, rolling it around the mouth. go/no-go. he's been up for over seventy hours, the voices tickling all around him. sleep abandoned.

she's probably tucked into her bed right now. teddy watching over her. go/no-go. if he closes his eyes he can see her for a moment, thousands of miles away, home.

looks over the trench. bodies running. gunfire. a screaming. penetration. go/no-go.

[02/11/03]