I live in a world of black and green -- mainframe colors, that is. Everyday I come to office to work, I plug-in my earphones, face the monitor and caress my keyboard for eight hours straight. Everyday, for just eight hours, my cube is my kingdom, my black terminal screen is my territory, and the green letters are my constituents. And every night as I come home after work, the only thing I look forward to is sitting in that same cube again tomorrow. For me, work is life. For me, life is just eight hours of work plus a couple hours for travel and a few more for traffic.
That is why my life was disoriented when a foreign color intruded my kingdom.
She came to me with vivid pink and sunny yellow. As soon as she stepped in front of my cube, she tipped the balance of my work-life scale.
What used to be an 8-hour routine became an 8-hour torture. I started to yearn to see her more often. Instead of me looking forward to working eight hours then coming home for the next day, I became obsessed with getting a glimpse of her hair, her eyes, and her face. And every time I get a glimpse, my heart shatters bit by bit, knowing that I can never fully appreciate her beauty and that she can never really learn of my existence.
My black and green world has vanished. What remained was a chaotic concoction of black and yellow, green and pink, with the pink and yellow dominating mostly. But the colors never resulted to a bright and sunny blend-- they instead mixed to radiate a blinding tint which hurts the eyes of those who stare.
So I was blinded ultimately. I saw nothing more except her. I look forward to nothing except a glimpse of her. My work deteriorated with it to the point that I have become the best to worst employee in just a few days. That's when I decided to make my move.
As a blind person would feel his way in a room, so did I felt my way nervously to her place. Slowly I walked, trembling, until I reach the front of her workstation. From within my darkened sight I saw a ray of pink and yellow in my periphery.
There was no turning back now, I said to myself. So I collected all the courage I have been keeping my entire life and formed them into a single word.
"Hi!"
I did not expect any answer from her. I can't think of anything at that moment. But she replied.
"Hi".
It was more than I could handle. I was flooded with a barrage of colors that completely knocked the sanity off me. But I'm out of courage so I collected all my known wisdom next and weaved them into the most rational sentence to say.
"You're Marie, right?" I asked
"Yes I am. And you are?" She asked back.
"My name is Earl" I answered.
"Oh. Hi. Nice meeting you."
Then she faced her monitor once more and continued what she was doing before I came. I stood there just doing nothing, waiting for some miracle to happen or something. I was still in shock with what just happened. Then she said something again which completed changed the entire feel and color of that scene.
"Do you need anything? I have to go back to work now."
I don't know what I said after that but the next thing I know, I was back at my cube with my earphones on, yet no music is playing. I was staring at my monitor although it is turned off, and my fingers are fiddling with the keyboards unconsciously.
And I can see a different color, too -- the blue screen of death.
