Holiday Decorations

I was sitting at work today, minding my own business, when a strange woman came to the wall near my cube and set up a ladder in front of it. For the next few minutes, she set about cleaning the wall. When that was done, she adhered a plastic hook to it. At which point, she promptly walked off with the ladder.

I sat there staring at that hook, wondering why anybody would just hang a plastic hook in the middle of a wall and then hang nothing on it. I turned it over and over in my head trying to determine what could possibly go on that hook. I was stumped.

About 20 minutes later an idea struck me. I immediately grabbed my coat off my desk, walked over to the hook, and hung my coat on it. With a satisfied nod, I went back to my desk and proceeded to work…the mystery having been solved.

Another 20 minutes passed when I heard someone behind me murmur, “Hmmm.” I turned around to see the same strange woman standing in front of the hook holding a large Christmas wreath and staring at my coat. She contemplated the situation for several minutes before setting the wreath on the floor and walking away. A strong urge compelled me to retrieve my coat, but a stronger urge compelled me to wonder what on earth she had gone to do.

A few minutes later, the strange woman returned with another woman, pointing at my coat in explanation. I watched both of them stand there in front of the hook staring at my coat. The second woman had an almost pained expression on her face as she stared hard at the coat, her brow scrunched in thought. She tapped her lips with the forefinger of her right hand.

Suddenly with a disgusted huff, she reached up and took my coat off the hook, threw it on the floor, and held out her hands in a “Ta-da” kind-of-way to express to the other woman that the problem was solved. She then stomped off down the hall, mumbling something under her breath.

The first woman stood there for a few minutes looking after the retreating woman. Then, she looked down at the coat on the floor and then back up to the hook. Then, back down to the coat and finally once again at the hook. Finally, she shrugged her shoulders, picked up the wreath, and hung it on the hook, turning and shifting to get it just right. Then with one more confused glance at my coat, she too retreated down the hall.