KUTUMBA RAO
225
As soon as I stepped outside, a man wearing eyeglasses saw me and
stopped. I don't know why, but as I soon as I saw him, I felt like putting
my Lord Brahma's arrow in his hand. "Is the proprietor not in town?"
I asked, giving him the letter.
The eyeglasses man read it.
"It
doesn't matter if he's not here," he
said. "Come this way, please." He led me to a room nearby. Until we
entered, the room had been empty, but on the ceiling a fan turned at full
speed.
The eyeglasses man sat behind a desk and asked me to take a seat in
front of him.
"There are no vacancies at the moment." He sounded very worried.
"What type of work can you do?"
I had to start all over again. I didn't mind-if he had wanted me to
work as the proprietor himself, I would have. But I didn't know if this
eyeglasses fellow had the authority to offer me a position, even as a
gatekeeper.
"Whatever work you give me to do, I will do," I said. "I don't know
what position the proprietor had in mind for me."
"That's the problem. The proprietor never has anything in his mind.
We have to work out all the details," the eyeglasses man said.
He also used we. There must be a special club of people who do
chores for the proprietor, I thought.
I didn't respond.
"Look, sir, there's a vacancy in one of the proofreader positions," the
eyeglasses man said. "The previous proofreader left to take a cashier
position with Turnips Company. Would you take that job? Just until the
proprietor comes?"
I'm not that intelligent a person, but I felt that the brains I did have
were melting away. A minute before, he had said there were no job
openings, now he said there was an opening as a proofreader. And what
about the old proofreader that left, who was now working somewhere
else as an accountant? Why would someone who is capable of
accountant-type responsibilities work as a proofreader? Would an edi–
tor leave this place to become a film director? Is life this crazy?
Anyway, did he expect
me
to decide whether or not I wanted to work
as a proofreader? I doubted that the eyeglasses man even had the
authority to give me a job as an errand boy. "Okay, you can give me that
position," I said.
"All right," he said. He picked up the telephone and lifted his finger
to
dial.
"What do you want for a salary?" he asked.
