He had never been a smoker, but watching others provided a lot of entertainment.
His office was on the third floor and his window gave him an excellent view of the spot where smokers gathered regularly. He would often sit, staring down for untold minutes, observing the comings and goings. It was his own private one-man gallery. He knew what his window looked like from down there. It was a large, tinted and impenetrable square of shiny glass. In short, no one knew they were being watched. He had his favourites, of course. He could sit in on mild seductions as they played out. People smoking and flirting at the same time. He had read somewhere that the word ‘smirting’ had been dreamt up to describe the practice.
Then there were the swaggerers that moved about puffing and flicking ash; these he called the posers. Occasionally he’d be treated to the furtive character with a guilt complex; continuously checking up and down the street, presumably looking out for anybody that might recognise them. He had been watching all this drama unfold for several years, and had only occasionally had twinges of conscience, regarding the amount of time he spent doing it. That was, until recently, when he had an uncomfortable experience with the young guy whose job it was to distribute any papers, mostly legal, that needed to be in hard copy format.
The truth of the matter being that he was caught. Caught in the act of gazing out of the window for a number of minutes, the exact timing of it unknown, instead of carrying out those duties for which he was paid. The lad had only just started with the company and had obviously entered without knocking. He just stood there smirking. That’s when it began. After that, the smartarse would knock, but only after walking up to the door very slowly, and making it quite obvious that he was trying to catch a glimpse through the frosted glass of his office. The whole affair had taken the shine off what had been a most enjoyable pastime. Meanwhile, it had to be said that the kid wasn’t well liked around the offices, owing to his cocky attitude and his general smugness.
The manner in which this all got turned around in such a brief and unexpected moment a few weeks later, was truly remarkable. It was fairly late in the working day when he happened to be indulging himself, peering out onto a quiet street. Two lads walked to the spot and both lit cigarettes. They were obviously not happy with each other. Body language alone told the watcher that they were arguing. It all became heated and fists started to fly. He looked on for several minutes as they rolled around on the ground exchanging wild punches. It all stopped suddenly when one of them stood up. The other lay still, very still. It was only at this point that it became evident that the one on the ground was the smarty pants from his office.
At first, as he watched the boy bend over checking for a pulse, he had a natural urge to phone the police and report what he’d seen. The boy stood again, looking sickly pale and looking franticly for any potential witnesses. After looking around, making sure he was leaving nothing behind, he walked away slowly, disappearing out of view.
Naturally, ongoing enquiries were made, following the discovery of the body and the immediate headlines. Several people in his office were spoken to with the hope of finding any possible witnesses. He himself was questioned, but not in his office, not near his window. He made sure he was elsewhere in the building when he spoke to the police. To further put himself out of the picture, he told the officer he was in a meeting during the estimated time of the attack. Of course, such a minor falsehood went by unnoticed. In the weeks that followed, any feelings of guilt or remorse regarding his silence slowly faded. In fact, it was all he could do to refrain from thinking kindly about the boy that got away.
After all, watching others provided such a lot of entertainment.