SMITTY:You Look Horrible. What S Happened to You?

A Chance Meeting

PAT:Hi!

SMITTY:Hi, Pat.

CHRIS:What’s up?

SMITTY:You look horrible. What’s happened to you?

PAT:Nothing.

SMITTY:Oh, good. Just the day? I have days like that, too.

LEE:You make the day you have, you know. I mean, expect the worst and you’ll

get it. Cheer up, Pat. Things will change, once you change yourself, of course.

You know: smile and the world smiles with you.

CHRIS:Nothing? You seem upset.

PAT:No, it’s just my job. Kind of, but not exactly.

SMITTY:I wish I could forget my job, too. Now I gotta work Saturdays.

LEE:Try running an ice cream parlor. Seven days a week of pure torture.

CHRIS:You sound really disturbed, Pat. Are they cutting back? Is your job in danger?

PAT:In danger? No, it’s not in danger. It’s dead. I was let go three weeks ago.

SMITTY:Oh, bummer. Big bummer.

LEE:You screwed up again, didn’t you?

CHRIS:And you didn’t say anything? What’s wrong with you? We talked three or four

times since then, and you never said anything. Let’s go for coffee.

PAT:No, I gotta get home.

SMITTY:Yeah, me too.

CHRIS:I know you do, Pat. But ten minutes for coffee won’t hurt.

LEE:Okay. Ten minutes. Let’s go.

[At coffee]

CHRIS:Now, what happened?

PAT:Nothing. I got fired. Cutbacks, same as everyone else. They let 35 of us go—

all at once.

LEE:Thirty five? Wow! Did Trainer get the ax, too?

PAT:I don’t know. I think so.

LEE:Wow, I wonder what Trainer will do now.

CHRIS:What’s your next step?

SMITTY:Unemployment! I’ve been on it more than off it.

PAT:Unfortunately, he’s right. I’m on unemployment. I hate it.

SMITTY:I love it.

LEE:Yeah, that’s because you try to avoid responsibilities. Pat is trying to face them,

and I think that’s good. If we don’t face our problems, we’ll never solve them.

CHRIS:Yeah, but you won’t be for long. There are lots of places you could work.

SMITTY:That’s not what the papers said. Everyone’s cutting back.

LEE:I have the classified section right here. You can have it. It’ll give you some leads.

PAT:I’d have to relocate to stay at my present job, and I really don’t want to do that.

CHRIS:What do you mean?

PAT:I’m not qualified to do anything more than I’m doing. The market has

changed; there’s no place for my skills anymore.

LEE:Is that what happened to Tommy? No skills?

PAT:I don’t know. I never hung out with Tommy.

SMITTY:That’s what everybody’s saying; computers can do it better. Soon they’ll have

robots, and we’ll all be up the creek.

CHRIS:What about retraining?

PAT:Me? At 31?

SMITTY:Are you 31? I thought you were a lot older. Really? You look good.

LEE:Yeah, 31 is kind of old to start all over again.

CHRIS:Yes, you at 31. And 31 is not to old to retrain. And you might like it. You’ve

got enough money to take a year off, retool, and get back in the game.

SMITTY:Back to school, like Rodney Dangerfield.

LEE:I’m not sure that’s the answer. I think you gotta get your act together. You’ve

got this defeatist attitude. You’ve got to get rid of that. You want the name of

my shrink? He’s great. Deals with all sorts of problems.

PAT:I don’t really want to see your shrink, much as I should, I know. I guess with

unemployment I can make it. Yeah, I could do it.

CHRIS:And you might even like it. You enjoyed college.

PAT:And I know exactly what I’d train for.

LEE:How can you know with such certainty? Have you looked at the predictions

for the growth in different jobs?

SMITTY:Hey, how about getting out of here? I have to get home and take the kid to Little

League. Talk about problems. Little League. That’s a problem.

CHRIS:What would you train for?

PAT:What do you think of this idea?