Hacking the System: An Error Creating Story

I walked into the bar and immediately saw him. The man sitting there, on his own, nursing a beer. I had seen him every day for the last week, sipping that same bitter drink while staring at nothing in particular. Always alone, always looking lost.

It was obvious he needed someone to talk to. Someone who could understand. Someone he could trust.

I wanted to give him that chance. I wanted him to open up to me. To tell me about his problems. To tell me how burdened he felt by all the secrets and lies in his life. I wanted to be that person he could turn to so that he could finally get some relief from the pain of carrying around all those burdens by himself.

So I walked over to his table, sat down across from him, and said: “Hi, my name’s Jane. I’ve seen you here before, drinking alone every evening for the past week or so now. You seem like you need somebody to talk with about your problems or something like that?”

He blinked at me for a second or two, then he chuckled and said: “What? No! That’s not what this is about! Look at me! Do I look like somebody who needs help talking about my problems?” He gestured at himself with both hands as if showing off a new sports car or something like that. “Do I look like somebody who feels burdened by all kinds of personal problems? Do I look depressed or anything like that?”

I smiled back at him, pleasantly but still puzzled by his question: “No… no, of course not… I just thought maybe we could have a chat or something like that? We don’t even have to talk about anything important…”

He grinned widely at me: “Oh yeah! A chat! That sounds just great! Yeah! We can have a chat all right!” He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a quarter-pounder in a paper bag and held it up for me to see: “You wanna buy me another beer? This one’s finished already and I want another one with these burgers here! Two beers makes it more fun when we can have a nice long chat together!”

I nodded happily and gave him another smile: “Sure thing! That would be great! Two beers sure will make the conversation even better! Let me go get them for you right now!” And then I turned around and walked towards the barman without waiting for his answer. I was sure he would be happy with two more beers and an extended conversation with me.