Ulric came into the store more than once. He was wearing a gray puffy winter vest over a long sleeve gray shirt and was complaining like usual about what was wrong with the store, and asking me what I had been doing all day, and telling me that he’d been working on his screenplay.

I’m at the part where the ghosts come in, he said, and I had no idea what he was talking about. I don’t know what his screenplay is supposed to be about. He just started working on it a couple of days ago. It might be a sequel to Ghost Town - I think that is what the movie is called: a movie that I didn’t think was actually about ghosts.

My boss has never written a screenplay. Neither have I. He doesn’t consider himself a writer, but any time he writes an article he tells me, now that’s how you write an article! And then he makes me sit and read it in front of him.

There’s no point in trying to talk to him about writing, because he’s the ‘real’ ‘artist’ between us who went to Cooper Union and mentions it every time I see him, and he’s probably the real writer too even though he makes sure to tell me that he doesn’t consider himself a writer but maybe should because he wrote a dissertation about sexual identity with some Professor Hyman who keeps on bringing all the prizes to that small prestigious school of theirs.

Every time I try to talk with him about my ideas regarding writing, he gives me weird looks and continues talking about himself. But, I mean he does that in response to most things I say unless I’m specifically talking about him or the company.