what's in a name

I opened the door to the cable guy. “emilie?”, he asked. he was very tall, heavy, and wore a mask and blue medical slippers on his brown work boots. he spoke with a soft eastern european accent. I said, “yes, come on in!”. i led him through the front door to the living room.

“the funniest thing just happened to me.”

“what was that?”

“when i arrived i went up to the front door of the building, knocked, and a girl answered. i said ‘i’m here to fix the internet, are you expecting me?’ ‘yes’, she said. i didn’t ask her name, because she had been expecting me, but i thought to myself, she doesn’t look like emilie.”

i giggle, nod my head. i didn’t know the website had a picture of its customers.

“i began to work on her internet, and awhile later, another spectrum crew showed up. they said, what apartment are you working on, and I checked, I looked at my phone, and I said ‘B’. ‘this isn’t B’, they said. ‘this is A’”

“oh so the other girl downstairs called for service too?”

“yes, and it’s so funny, i just knew it wasn’t you. i have a theory..”

“tell me about your theory!”

“i have a theory that for every name, like you have a picture in your head for who that person is. like karen, she’s blond and thin lipped, or amber, amber is huge and big hair. and when that girl answered the door, i thought huh, she doesn’t look like emilie, but i won’t ask her because she’s clearly expecting me, but i just knew she wasn’t emilie. what’s her name?”

“there are two girls downstairs, there names are shelley and anna.”

“oh yes, she’s anna, tall girl, dark hair, i know it”

“yes that’s anna”

“but anyway, that’s my theory”

i blush, smile, fiddle with my nails, “well I corroborate your theory”

and he continued to fix my internet.