The Watcher

On the day before Thanksgiving, the husband of a coworker gave her a giant, helium smiley-face balloon to cheer her up (personal story omitted). She tied the huge smiley-face balloon onto the chair outside her cubicle, two cubes up the row from me, and it's floated there since then....smiling.

The workday after the balloon arrived I was sitting at my desk, staring at my computer screen (typical pose), when I had a weird feeling. I looked up and slightly to my left and saw, just over the top of my cube wall, two huge black eyes with white dots in them. The balloon was staring at me.

Of course when I caught it staring like that it very slowly turned away but it happens all day long when I'm sitting at my computer. Sure, you think the ventilation system causes it to look one way or another--you think that giant smiley-face balloons have no free will. You haven't seen this one.

I mentioned the intrusive behavior of the balloon to it's owner but she either wasn't listening (it was a talk-over-each-other conversation) or she thought I actually enjoyed being spied on by a gas bag. She hasn't taken it home and it hasn't lost any gas as far as I can tell. It may be there forever....watching me.

It would be a shame if someone happened to it. ; )`