Inspiration Words: Balloon and Perplexed
Paul sat in the large, open office area at the training center. He leaned back in the chair, resting his head against the back, with his legs stretched out in front of him. Most of the lights were off, and a balloon drifted by in the light breeze made by the air conditioner. Somehow, the balloon must have wandered in from the main room where the party had taken place. He caught it when it brushed against one of his hands that were dangling down over the sides of the chair.
What a night. Paul thought. Since he had started working for the English training center (a company that offered extra English classes and activities for children and adults), everyone used Paul’s English name so much he had started to think of himself as Paul rather than Fu Hao (foo how), his Chinese name.
As far as he could tell, the party had been a success—dozens of new students had come, and Paul had smiled and made small talk, making everyone feel important and excited. Paul had noticed that the students liked talking with him, and he had enjoyed all the attention. Maybe it was because of his height. Paul knew he was taller than most of his other Chinese co-workers, especially since he was in the South. Or perhaps they had noticed his handsome features and carefully styled hair. Paul had taken extra time to make sure that the gel he used in his hair was just perfect today. But he really hoped they enjoyed talking to him because he was so much fun to be around. He had made jokes, and everyone had laughed at all the right places.
Whatever the reason, Paul relished the attention and was looking forward to working with any new students the event brought in.
Paul’s phone buzzed on the table, but at first, he didn’t notice he was receiving a call. Since the end of the party, his phone had been vibrating almost constantly with WeChat (a social messaging app) notifications from all the new students. He had been ignoring them for the past several minutes, enjoying the silent office. But once he realized it was a phone call instead of more messages, he checked the caller and saw that it was one of his best friends, Cai Ling (tsie leeng).
“Hey, Cai Ling! What’s going on?” He said as he answered the phone.
“Where are you? Why haven’t you answered any of the messages in our group? We all had dinner and now we’re having some drinks, and we thought you were going to come!”
Paul put the phone on speaker so he could scroll through his messages while he listened to her. There, he found the messages in their group chat with some of his closest friends from university. “Oh no, I just saw your messages. I thought I mentioned that I would be at a party for my new job at the training center. We just finished.”
“Well, you definitely didn’t say anything about that to us.”
“Oh, oops.”
“You could come over now? We’ll probably be here for a while still.”
Paul glanced at the time on his phone. “It’s already 11 p.m., and I have to work tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow is Saturday!”
“Yeah, at training centers, the weekends are the busiest, so I have to work all day tomorrow and Sunday.”
“Ahh, well, sounds like we won’t be seeing you much.”
“Listen, I’m sorry I can’t join you tonight, but I really need this job. You know I’ve been looking for a job for a long time, and now I finally have one. Can’t you be happy for me?”
“We are happy for you, right, guys?” A chorus of agreement sounded over the phone, and Paul realized she had put him on speaker. “Didn’t we have dinner to celebrate your new job last week?”
“Yeah, and now I have to work according to their times, which unfortunately, are opposite from your work schedules. But I’m gonna still hang out with you all. I’m just completely exhausted tonight. How about next week?”
“Ok, no problem, man.” Several of the guys echoed the sentiment before Paul hung up.
I really should go home. This is gonna be a long weekend.
Six Months Later
Once again, Paul sat in the office under the dimmed lights, having collapsed into his chair. They had just finished the Christmas party, and Paul laughed again as he thought about their parody skit of Home Alone. Until this year, he’d never even seen the movie, but one of the foreign teachers at the center had suggested it for the party. All of his students had done a great job, and he was so happy when his boss complimented him on the participation of his students.
But the best part was when they begged him to sing a song. Everyone had screamed and cheered, and it had been perfect. Being here made him feel like a movie star. Everyone loved his classes, so he had been trusted to teach more and more of them. Last month, his boss had given him the teacher of the month award, and Paul hadn’t stopped smiling for the rest of the week.
As he reclined in the chair, he scrolled through WeChat posts, looking at all his students’ posts from the evening. He smiled when he saw the selfies he had taken with many of the students. Then, in the middle of posts of students dressed in reds and greens, he saw a group of people at a restaurant. Those were his friends. Why hadn’t they invited him to join them? Why were they hanging out without telling him?
This is ridiculous. How can I be so popular here at work, and my own friends don’t even want to hang out with me anymore? He scrolled through the unread messages on his phone. Nope. No invitation. Paul found the picture again and stared at it, perplexed. Yep, everyone was there except him. Had they made a new chat group without including him? That’s ridiculous! How could they be so exclusive?
Paul began composing a scathing attack on the heartlessness of his friends as he searched for that group. He found it and was about to start typing when he paused—300 unread messages. He scrolled through the messages and realized they had invited him, but he had put the group on mute because he kept getting notifications during his class, and he really couldn’t be disturbed. Oops.
Paul put the phone down. No wonder they had stopped calling him. He hadn’t hung out with them in two months.
He picked up the phone again and called her. “Cai Ling?”
“Who is this?”
Paul grimaced. She either hadn’t checked the caller ID, or she was trying to put him off.
“It’s me, Paul.”
“Oh, hey. Nice party. I saw your post.”
“Thanks, I saw your post too. Are you guys still hanging out tonight?”
“Yeah, but don’t you have class tomorrow?”
“I do, but if you guys will be there for a while, send me the location, and I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Great! See you soon!”
Paul smiled, gave himself a spritz of cologne, and left the nearly empty training center building.