“Can I get a tight spotlight?” He waited a moment and then he was captured in a stark circle of light. “Thank you.” He looked out into the darkness. “Should I just start?”
“Whenever you’re ready,” she said, evenly enough to disguise her impatience.
He took a deep breath. “I used to think that the whole world revolved around me. I wondered what it was that people could possibly do when I wasn’t around to watch them.”
He paused, half expecting some kind of response. “I used to imagine that I could fly…that I was the strongest boy in the world…that I was Superman or Hercules…that everybody wanted to be my friend.” He took another pause. “But then I grew up.” Another pause. “Mostly.”
“Interesting,” she said, hoping that he wouldn’t realize that she didn’t think it was interesting at all.
“I used to think that anybody who made an effort to get to know me would realize how great I was and that they would want to be my friend…who would want to be my lover…who would want to walk with me through life forever and ever…”
“Because the whole world revolved around you,” she said dispassionately.
He winced and then nodded. “Yeah.”
“But then you grew up.”
His cheeks grew a bit warm. “Mostly,” he said hoping it would make her chuckle.
She chuckled…but mostly because he was expecting her to. “I think Carly Simon wrote a song about you.”
He smiled. “”Well I always wanted the girls to dream that they’d be my partners…”
“Of course you did,” she said dryly.
He was pretty sure she was making sport of him but he wanted the gig so he let it go. “Well, I’m older now and I know the world doesn’t revolve around me. Hell sometimes the world doesn’t seem to know that I’m even here.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
He paused again. “Yeah,” he lied.
Her right eyebrow arched up knowingly. “Really?”
He grinned wolfishly. “Mostly.”
She chuckled…honestly this time…and nodded. “Thank you,” she said making some notes on her Blackberry, “we’ll be in touch.”
“Okay, cool,” he said.
And then the spotlight went out.
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