01/13/2023
By Kate Stone Lombardi
I love to eavesdrop. There, I’ve said it. I overhear a sentence or two, and then I’m off to the races, imagining the whole story.
The other night, my husband and I went to the movies. Yes! A real theater. With a big screen! It was delightful, and I hope I don’t pay the price in Covid.
Anyhow, here is the fragment I overheard:
Place: The lobby of the movie theater.
Dramatic personage: man looking arrogant and speaking loudly into his cell phone.
Overheard: “Either you accept us in the next 40 hours, or we go to court.”
Hmmmm. Who is the us? He and his spouse? Are they applying to a Co-op board? Or is it a business he refers to? Or perhaps it is a settlement offer from a law firm? And why 40 hours? It was about 7 pm on a Thursday. What is the significance of Saturday at 11 am? Why then?
As a writer, my instinct is to wrap a story around that sentence. Unless I overhear something even juicier tomorrow.