Outside Species

Koen walked in announcing he was becoming an “outdoor person.” He’d listened to a twelve minute podcast and suddenly felt chosen. Cleaner Joke saw the catastrophe loading and handed him a trash bag plus a sermon. Then Koen put on these shades: unisex, rectangular, aggressively green. Five minutes later he stood in the parking lot staring at a paving stone, whispering that he could “hear nature.” The sound was just Nik trying to rescue a fried snack from the microwave. Koen nodded anyway. Being outdoorsy is mostly nodding at nothing with conviction.