Page 272
Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2026 1:01 pm
— Well, that’s it — that evil power is no longer there. That’s why you feel disarmed.
The mess in your head might still remain — please, don’t take offense, I’m
not insulting you — but the point is, that’s why you started keeping a journal,
to re-evaluate everything and put things in order.
— Yes, yes, yes.
And imagine, the employee says to me himself:
— Alexandr, I know that you are truly right about everything, and you really
see everything; you weren’t wrong about anything. Every time you said I had
messed something up, did something wrong, or overslept, or went on a
binge, or that my head just wasn’t at work all day but somewhere else — I don’t
know how you do it, but you always hit the mark. But it was so unpleasant
for me, and so on, that I had to defend myself, and that’s why I behaved
so poorly toward you.
Can you imagine? This is being said to me by an employee who has never
spoken to me like this. I mean, never in his life has he admitted guilt; he
always made it so that I was the one at fault and the bad guy. And here, for the
first time, he admits everything. I didn’t even bring up the subject; he started
it all himself. On the contrary, I was actually afraid of such a conversation
because the aliens told me that if such a talk happened, it would be painful,
bad, I would snap, and that would be it — I’d fail the exam. Can you imagine?
But it gets even funnier.
The situation keeps getting more absurd. I don’t know how long this person
plans to stay with me, I don’t know if he’ll work for me, and I have no idea
what he might pull the next day. The funniest part is that since I’m forbidden
from initiating any topics, I just have to sit there and wait for the employee
to bring things up himself. Imagine: the next day arrives, and he doesn’t
ask me anything. He doesn’t talk about when he needs to leave or where
he needs to go. He just says, “Let’s have breakfast.” I say, “Yes, let’s have
breakfast. Please.” And we just talk about random things: he tells me about
some movie, asks me to look at a painting he made. Can you believe it?
The mess in your head might still remain — please, don’t take offense, I’m
not insulting you — but the point is, that’s why you started keeping a journal,
to re-evaluate everything and put things in order.
— Yes, yes, yes.
And imagine, the employee says to me himself:
— Alexandr, I know that you are truly right about everything, and you really
see everything; you weren’t wrong about anything. Every time you said I had
messed something up, did something wrong, or overslept, or went on a
binge, or that my head just wasn’t at work all day but somewhere else — I don’t
know how you do it, but you always hit the mark. But it was so unpleasant
for me, and so on, that I had to defend myself, and that’s why I behaved
so poorly toward you.
Can you imagine? This is being said to me by an employee who has never
spoken to me like this. I mean, never in his life has he admitted guilt; he
always made it so that I was the one at fault and the bad guy. And here, for the
first time, he admits everything. I didn’t even bring up the subject; he started
it all himself. On the contrary, I was actually afraid of such a conversation
because the aliens told me that if such a talk happened, it would be painful,
bad, I would snap, and that would be it — I’d fail the exam. Can you imagine?
But it gets even funnier.
The situation keeps getting more absurd. I don’t know how long this person
plans to stay with me, I don’t know if he’ll work for me, and I have no idea
what he might pull the next day. The funniest part is that since I’m forbidden
from initiating any topics, I just have to sit there and wait for the employee
to bring things up himself. Imagine: the next day arrives, and he doesn’t
ask me anything. He doesn’t talk about when he needs to leave or where
he needs to go. He just says, “Let’s have breakfast.” I say, “Yes, let’s have
breakfast. Please.” And we just talk about random things: he tells me about
some movie, asks me to look at a painting he made. Can you believe it?