Randomly Dumbfounded Jer

Words by Joel Dale Image from Gemini - curated by Joel Dale

“I think Robert Downey Jr. doesn’t approve of my work ethic.”

Jer looked stoically at his friend. He’s heard these inopportune, random exclamations before: “do you even know Robert Downey Jr.?”

“No,” replied Joel. “But it’s what happened in my dream last night. That man is incredibly professional. And if you really think about it, I am not exactly going into the office at 8am and giving it my all. You should have seen how prepared he was. All sorts of notes for his role. They were hand written. In a thick journal!”

“In your dream”, Jer said with what he thought was a tone of obviousness.

“Yes,” said Joel, with a tone that indicated he completely missed the point.

Jer paused, his mind searching for how he wanted to respond. He could see the stress lines in Joel’s face as this dream somehow got him tilted towards a weird state. Feeling awkward, like a consultant called in to explain to the CEO that the CEO themselves is why the business was losing money, Jer took a breath and organized his thoughts for diplomacy:  “I think you might have other things to be concerned about.”

Joel stared at him blankly, wind whipping through his unkempt hair, then took a moment to double check his safety harness. It was a long way down.