Paul The Critic Pt.4

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Part 4: Stuck in a cafe with Chatterbox and Co.

…Paul was about to let loose is wrath, when a feminine voice behind him said, ‘Hello Paul who are your friends here?”

“Oh! You must be Paul’s sister! How nice, my name is Laura, whats your name? You look like Becky…”

Paul just sat there with his head on his hands, groaning. Would this chatterbox ever shut up and leave him alone? It was bad enough that he had run into her three times, but now she had met his sister, Sarah! Slowly the chatterbox’s grating voice filtered back to him…

“…Oh Sarah you should have seen it today, I just happened to meet Paul on the elevator today. It was a good thing too because our elevator got stuck, and we could have died, but Paul was so brave. Oh this is my husband Darius, isn’t Darius such a cute name? He and I met two years ago on an elevator, isn’t that so romantic? He is such a handsome guy, with such a cute name, kinda like Paul. Don’t you think that Paul is a cute name….

Paul was really starting to get angry, he had been minding his own business in the elevator. He hadn’t asked for any of this, now his sister was getting dragged into it, could it get any worse?

Finally after what seemed like hours to Paul, Laura finally said, “Well, Darius had better get back to work and I have annoyed you enough for one night Paul, bye.” With that Laura and Darius turned to leave. Sarah sat down across the table from Paul, and asked, “What did she mean when she said she had annoyed you enough for one night? Were you mean to her? She seems like a very nice girl.”

“Yeah, a really ditzy one at that…”

“Paul!”

“Hey look, I was stuck in an elevator with her for what seemed like an hour, and then she just had to be sitting next to me in the opera, and made a very embarrasing entrance. And now she shows up at this cafe… I am really started to get annoyed!”

After this Paul and his sister settled in to their normal conversations. Before they knew it the cafe was closing. Paul watched as his sister caught a cab and left. Paul ran out to the edge of the sidewalk and called for a cab, seconds later a common yellow cab pulled up to the sidewalk where he was standing, and he got in.

“4th and Harrison,” Paul mumbled as he shoved $10 at the cab driver.

As the cab weaved in and out of traffic his thoughts drifted back to the events of the day. His nose wrinkled with disgust as he thought of the Chatterbox, before he knew it the cabbie told him they were there. Paul didn’t pay much attention to where he was, he just got out. He had just gotten his foot out of the car when the driver peeled away…
“Moron!” Paul exclaimed as he turned to mount his apartment steps. It was then that he noticed, this wasn’t his neighborhood. He had no clue where he was. “Great! This is just not my day, not only do stuck in an elevator with a chatterbox that ruins the rest of my day, I get stranded somewhere in New York City by some idiot cab driver!” Paul ranted on for several minutes, screaming down the street at anyone who came within earshot of him. Suddenly everything went black… Paul woke up, he had no clue how long he had been out… His head was throbbing, he tried to move his hands, they were tied up, everything was quiet and dark…

Part 5: Paul tied up in a small dark room - will be written by Kluane