I went to the doctor’s office today. A Friday. I went at 12.30 because it was their closing time and hardly any patients would be there. I know all the people working there now, the phlebotomist, the office ladies answering the phones. But this afternoon a new hire was there. I could tell. Not only because I had never seen her before, but because she had no doctor’s office airs about her. They all develop it after six months, and you can tell how long one of them has been working there by their particular vintage, like sampling a fine wine.
I always put a coin into the ubiquitous Kaffeepause bank that stands there on the counter, a little Schweinchen with its own lonely air about it. I’ll stand in line waiting at the counter for minutes and sometimes a half-hour on a busy day and notice that no other coins drop and make that clank.