Conversations using only words ranked 6,201–6,300

Maya, your hands are shaking. Are you okay back here?

I'm fine. Ask me again in ten minutes. Did you see the house? The turnout is huge. Every single seat is full.

I know. For a little community play, that's amazing. And this is our inaugural production, the very first one this theater group has ever done.

Which is exactly why my stomach is doing gymnastics. What if I forget my lines and disappoint everyone out there?

You won't. You're the protagonist, Maya. The whole story lives inside your character, and you've carried her beautifully since day one.

That's very kind, but yesterday's rehearsal was a disaster. I tripped over the sofa twice during practice.

And tonight the sofa is two steps further back. Everything will run smoothly, you'll see. No stumbles, no panic.

You sound so calm. How?

Because I only appear in act two for four minutes. Alas, my great acting career remains a secret from the world.

Four minutes in that enormous purple coat. Visually, you're the most memorable thing on that stage. People will be talking about the coat for weeks.

That's the plan. Now breathe. Three deep ones with me.

Okay. Okay, better. Are you coming to the gala afterwards? Apparently there's a live band and far too much cake.

I wouldn't miss it. I'm even preparing a very theatrical thank you speech with dramatic pauses and one tear.

Please don't. Save the tears for the stage. That's the cue for places. Wish me luck.

You don't need luck. Go on. I'll be watching from the wings, purple coat and all.

So, Mika, survived your annual checkup? You look suspiciously cheerful for someone who just got weighed.

I am cheerful, actually. My numbers were fine. The nurse even said my heartbeat was strong and steady, like a drummer keeping time.

Lucky you. My doctor sat me down and gave me the whole speech. He said if I kept eating the way I do, I would be obese within a few years and my heart would pay for it.

Oh no. Did he ban your beloved coffee too?

Not banned, but he asked how much caffeine I take in daily. When I said six cups, he just went quiet and started writing.

Six! No wonder you never sleep. Honestly, I cut back last year and now I actually feel sleepy at bedtime instead of staring at the ceiling.

That sounds like a miracle. He also told me to eat more fibre. Apparently vegetables and beans keep everything moving properly.

He is right. Brown rice became a staple in my kitchen. I eat it almost every day now and I do not even miss the white rice.

A staple, really? I might try that. The doctor also booked me for a prostate check, which was fun to hear at forty nine.

Everyone jokes about it, but my father put it off for years and regretted it. Go. Ten awkward minutes is nothing.

Fine, fine, I will go. Now, exercise. I was thinking of joining one of those rigorous boot camps where they shout at you at six in the morning.

Kenji, you have not run since school. You do not need a rigorous programme, you need a gradual one. Start with twenty minutes of walking.

Gradual is boring though. I want muscular arms by summer.

Muscular arms come after months of showing up. My trainer says the people who go slowly are the ones still training a year later.

Okay, deal. Walking, more vegetables, fewer cups of coffee. Will you check on me?

Every Sunday. And if you last a month, I will cook you a big bowl of brown rice and pretend it is a reward.

You really know how to motivate a man, Mika.

Okay, decision time. That new sushi place by the station, or the bakery down the street?

You say that like it is a hard choice. I have been thinking about their orange tart since Tuesday. It is full of real fruit pulp, not that sweet jelly stuff.

Fruit pulp for dinner? Kana, that is dessert with a job title.

It is a savoury menu too, thank you very much. But go on, sell me the sushi.

The fish is unbelievable. And the chef sets a little timer for the rice so it never sits too long. He is serious about it.

A timer for rice. That is either genius or slightly peculiar.

Peculiar in a good way. Although the menu did confuse me a bit. Half of it is in Japanese, half in English, and the prices are hiding in a corner.

See, that is what worries me. Places like that get popular, then they go commercially crazy and charge you eight pounds for one piece.

Do not start. Last time you went on a full rant about coffee prices and the whole cafe went quiet.

That rant was justified and you know it. Anyway, the bakery has that funny little wooden bread oven by the door.

That thing is not real, is it? I always thought it was just a replica for the photos.

It is a replica, yes, but a charming one. Look, I will gladly do sushi tomorrow if we get bread tonight.

Tomorrow, with the timer chef and the confusing menu?

Gladly. Now walk faster, the tart sells out by seven.

Fine, you win. But I am ordering something with actual protein in it.

Cheese counts. Come on, my treat.

Okay, remote is mine tonight. You always land on the shopping channel.

Fine, fine. Put the news on. Oh look, protests again. That crowd is huge.

They have been out there for three weeks. That is real activism, not just angry posts online.

I agree, but did you see the police response? Shutting down the news channels feels like suppression to me.

Careful, that is a strong word. Maybe they just worried things would get violent.

Come on, Ken. Silencing reporters is never about safety. That commentator on channel four said the same thing last night.

That guy? He has never met an argument he did not enjoy. Though he was right about the pandemic, I will admit that.

He was. Back in 2020 he said the whole world would be shut for a year and everyone laughed.

Nobody was laughing by April. Anyway, look at the next story. Another royal wedding.

I love that stuff. A monarchy with all those hats and carriages is basically a very long running drama.

But should a king really govern anyone in the modern world? Nobody voted for him.

He does not really govern though. He waves and opens hospitals. The politicians do the messy part.

Fair point. And he has to stay quiet on everything. That kind of neutrality must be exhausting.

Imagine never saying which team you support. I could not last a day.

You cannot last a minute. Oh, breaking news. They say a decision on the trade deal is imminent.

Imminent means tonight or next March? News people are so vague.

Apparently the vote was unanimous. Every single member raised a hand. That almost never happens.

Unanimous? Those people cannot agree on lunch. Something is going on.

You are turning into a commentator yourself, Yuki.

Maybe I should be. With the advent of all these streaming channels, anyone with an opinion gets a show.

True. Since the advent of social media, my uncle thinks he is a foreign policy expert.

Mika, please tell me you brought coffee. The whole office is running on panic and vending machine snacks.

Two cups. So, is it true? Someone actually broke into our systems?

Yep. A hacker got in through an old login page nobody had checked since last spring.

That is almost impressive. Was it a curious kid poking around, or something genuinely malicious?

Malicious, sadly. They went straight for our proprietary design files, the ones we never share with anyone outside the company.

Oh no. Those files are basically the company's whole life story.

Right. So the security team decided to suspend all outside access until they finish checking everything.

That explains why my screen has been frozen since nine. I tried to restart my laptop three times and it just stared back at me.

Everything is slow today. Even the internal chat has this awful lag. I type a sentence and it shows up a full minute later.

So basically, the morning has been completely chaotic.

Totally chaotic. People shouting across desks, three managers in one tiny meeting room. And guess who spotted the problem first?

Please say it was someone in security, for their sake.

Nope. Our summer intern. She noticed a strange login at two in the morning while she was studying and emailed her manager immediately.

That is wonderful. I hope somebody actually thanked her. A little validation goes a long way when you are new.

The director praised her in front of everyone. Meanwhile, the rest of us look pretty irresponsible for ignoring those security warnings for months.

Irresponsible is a strong word. Busy and slightly forgetful, maybe?

You are very kind. Anyway, no work until the system comes back, so we have an unexpected free afternoon.

Then let us go buy that intern a cake. She saved us all and she probably has not slept.

Now that is the best idea anyone has had today. Chocolate, obviously.

Okay, Mika, I have to say it: this war museum is way cooler than I expected.

Right? Come look at this. It's a model of the old fort, and you can see the whole perimeter with little guard towers on every corner.

That's a big wall for such a small hill. How many soldiers did they need to garrison a place like that?

The sign says about four hundred. And apparently half the job was procurement: someone had to get food, boots and gunpowder up that hill every single week.

I never think about that part. No glory in ordering boots, but no army without them.

Exactly. Oh, look, you can go down into the bunker. It's the shelter where they hid during the bombing.

Wow, the concrete is a metre thick. They must have kept adding layers to reinforce the roof after every raid.

Listen, they're playing the sound of airborne planes overhead. That's a bit much before lunch.

Sorry, but that recording gave me goosebumps. Imagine sitting in the dark with that noise above you.

Read this letter on the wall. A young man writes that he was terrified and thought he was a coward, but he stayed at his post anyway.

That's the most honourable thing in the building, honestly. Braver than any statue outside.

He says he wasn't fighting for vengeance either. He just wanted to be the protector of the village behind him.

That letter kind of ruins the action movie version of war in my head, in a good way.

Good. Now let's go be honourable in the cafe. I'm buying the cake, and you're carrying the tray.

Deal. I'll guard the perimeter of that cake with my life.

Mika, tell me the truth. Are you still mad about the boat trip?

Mad? Ken, you told me the lake would be sunny. I woke up and there was mist everywhere. I could not even see the other shore.

Okay, the weather up there is completely unpredictable. Even the locals just shrug and say wait ten minutes.

Well, I was glad I brought my scarf. I had it wrapped twice around my neck and I was still shivering.

You looked like a very stylish fisherman. And admit it, once the sun came through, the scenery was unreal. Those grey hills sitting in the water.

Fine, it was beautiful. And you caught something enormous, right? What was it again?

A pike. Long body, teeth like little needles. It nearly took my finger off when I got the hook out.

You screamed. You actually screamed. And then you dropped that shiny thing in the water.

My best lure! It was silver and it spun around to attract the big ones. It cost me twenty dollars.

Twenty dollars to trick a fish. Meanwhile a bird dove straight down next to the boat and got its breakfast for free.

That bird was showing off. But honestly, the wildlife made the day. The deer on the far bank, the herons, all of it.

I still say I saw a dolphin.

In a freshwater lake? Mika, there is no dolphin within a thousand kilometres of that place. It was a log.

It jumped, Ken. Logs do not jump.

It was a fish being dramatic. Anyway, the scary part was later, when the fog came back and I could barely navigate. I could not tell north from south.

That was when I got quiet. I honestly thought the fog would strand us out there all night with no way back.

We had the little compass and half a sandwich. We would have survived.

Half a sandwich, my hero. So, same lake next month?

Same lake, better lure, and I will pack two sandwiches.

And I am bringing a bigger scarf. Deal.

Hana, be honest. Did you understand a single thing in that lab today?

About half. I got lost the moment he started counting things by the mole. Six point zero two two times ten to the twenty third? My brain just quit.

Right? It is such a huge number for such a tiny thing. One molecule of water is just two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen, and somehow we need trillions of trillions of them to make a spoonful.

That is the part I actually like. The idea is simple. It is the terminology that scares people off.

Totally. Change the special words and suddenly chemistry sounds like cooking. Anyway, did your beaker stay warm? Mine cooled down way too fast.

I wrapped mine in a towel. Cheap insulation, but it worked. The temperature barely dropped.

A towel. I spent twenty minutes trying to harness the heat from the hot plate and you just used a towel.

Sometimes low tech wins. So what is the focal point of your report? Mine is the heat loss.

Same, I think. But I have to cite that article he mentioned, and I cannot find it anywhere.

I will send you the link. Just do not forget the page number or he will circle it in red.

He absolutely will. Hey, weird question. Did you notice the smell change halfway through?

Yes! I wrote a whole line about the sensory stuff. The smell, the color, the little bubbles. He might say it is not scientific enough.

I am a bit skeptical about that. Your nose noticed the reaction before the thermometer did.

True. A change like that has to manifest somehow, and it showed up as a smell before the numbers moved.

Write it exactly like that. Honestly, you should be teaching the class.

Only if you bring the towels. Come on, let us finish these reports before the cafe closes.

Hey Maya, did you see all the boxes stacked outside the church this morning?

I did! I nearly tripped over them on the sidewalk. Someone had cans of soup right where people walk.

That is their winter charity drive. They do a lot of outreach around here, food, warm coats, rides to the clinic.

Honestly, that little church does more for this locality than the city council does.

You are not wrong. The preacher there gave a sermon last month that was basically a to do list for the neighborhood.

Ha! Did anyone reach enlightenment, or did they just sign up to sort donations?

Mostly the sorting. Although my neighbor Frank says peeling potatoes for four hours brought him a certain kind of enlightenment.

I love that. I am not really a believer myself, but I show up every Saturday anyway.

Nobody minds. They just hand you an apron. It is all goodwill, no questions asked.

Right. And apparently one of the trustees who manages the building fund pushed to keep the old hall open instead of selling it.

Good. That hall was dying. They are trying to revive it as a community space, I heard. Tutoring, a repair cafe, that sort of thing.

So the church gets people through the door, and we get somewhere to fix our broken toasters. Mutually useful.

Exactly mutually useful. Come Saturday? I will save you the good apron.

Deal. But you are on potato duty, not me.

Okay, lift on three. One, two... wow, this mattress weighs more than my car.

Then stop dragging it along the wall! You just put a dent in the doorframe, Danny.

That dent was there before we arrived. Ninety percent sure.

Ninety percent. And who signed the lease after a ten minute viewing?

Fine. It was a rash decision. I saw the big windows and my brain just switched off.

Rash is the word. You never even ran the hot water. Push your end left a bit.

Left, got it. Hey, there's a parcel by the front step with your name on it.

Oh good, that's my kettle. I ordered it the second I saw the kitchen.

Speaking of the kitchen, the landlord says that orange lamp is a fixture, so we're not allowed to take it down.

A permanent fixture? It looks like a melted traffic cone. Also, this partition between the bedroom and the kitchen is basically cardboard.

Yeah, I tapped it earlier and the whole partition wobbled. Hear that upstairs?

How could I not? They're so noisy. Are they bowling up there?

Now I understand why the last tenants departed in such a hurry. They left half a sofa behind.

Honestly, when I opened that fridge this morning the smell made me reel. I had to hold the counter.

Okay, okay. Mattress down. Let me hear your reflections on my life choices while I sit on the floor.

My reflections are simple: big windows, terrible taps, and a friend who carries mattresses without complaining much. It'll do.

That's the nicest thing you've said all day. Pizza on the floor?

Pizza on the floor. And tomorrow we hide that lamp behind a plant.