After some minutes he picked up the notebook and pencil and left the room. I spent the rest of the day reading some stuff which could turn to be useful for Martin’s next documentary film, drinking coffee and eating sandwiches. Alone. Thanks to my rapid metabolism which allows me to put as many sandwiches inside my stomach as I please, without thinking about what will happen to my skinny body constitution. Finally, it looks like I fished something out of this paper pile. Something that can be useful. And then satisfied, I went home.

This evening, I watched a couple of boring TV shows, read some book and spent some time dreaming about my future.

Recorded October 29, before going to bed. End of line.

Oct, 29. Morning. from Dictaphone Record. by Martin

I still do not know what it really was. And I expect the absolute essence of happening to be never revealed to my poor mind. Was it luck or misfortune? I only can say it was unusual. Sitting in front of a monitor, I was trying to gather all pieces of supposed documentary feature into a single shape. My stomach was in process with the breakfast I ate an hour earlier, and my brains were processing the pieces of video and the writing stuff while trying to overcome a state of sleepiness. I asked Elise whether she could find and bring me a folder with some papers I wanted to see in addition to what I saw on display.

And then it came. The thing was falling out of the blue sky. My old-fashioned office phone rang, and I almost instinctively picked up the instrument while continuing to view the lines of text and the photos covering a surface of my computer’s monitor. That was the call of a lifetime.

I am a person who hardly perceives too many things emotionally. But about this matter… my thoughts and feelings mix in a turmoil state of mind I have. Currently, I try to finish my new work as fast as I can, no matter that indeed there were moments when I regarded it like the oeuvre. And at some moment I thought that maybe I shouldn’t hurry up too much, but to prepare the ground for it and wait for revelations and glimpses that should be developing momentum for the great work. I really don’t think it is a crazy idea to think about a doc film as about the piece of art. I mean, at least, such thing can be one in theory. So, I thought maybe it was better just to collect some material and to concentrate on the work mentally.

Just some days ago I was asked to do some job. And now I’m obliged to make a film on the topic that isn’t my primal interest. I say obliged, because I mean I didn’t want to do it, especially borrowing time from my project number one. I mean, that looks to me like wasting time. But that was the order from the company which is one of the very few clients asking for our production. That means that we really depend on them. That means we depend on their cramped audience and the soap, cola and bouillon cube advertisers. That means if we – first of all me as director and author – don’t make exactly what they ask for and when they ask, we’ll go out of the industry. And I will need to find some other job to do in the case.

And so, in a state like this, I receive The Call. And here comes the voice on the other side of the wire which shakes my life entirely. At the moment, I could not know it. I felt crazy and irritated from the very morning. But then I also sensed that this could be the most interesting.

A voice on the other end offered me to be provided with information of great importance. In the situation like that, there was too much of everything-for-you thing. And it was the voice itself that didn’t sound natural to me. It was like it was produced by some vocal synthesizer or was computer-effect masked. Early in our conversation, I started to feel that there had to be something wrong with it. And most probably, it seemed to be some crazy joke. Since the day the telephone was once introduced by Mr. Bell to humanity, there was always a part of this humanity that played in the way like this to entertain themselves with such a silly game.

And step by step, as one phrase was added after another, the thing felt strange. At some moment, it didn’t look funny at all, but really strange. Almost from the beginning, a guy who was on the other end of the line started to perform tricks that I am still not able to understand. He was telling me about things that no one except me could know. At least, I thought so before that moment. He was telling me about what I was doing yesterday and some days ago and also my numbers, passwords and all the most intimate data things. How can anybody know what I use to open my e-mail? I’ve been hacked or something.

Nobody could know that much about me. I hardly can say that I have any close friends of mine. And I don’t remember any stable personal relations – including these with women – in recent years. Now I think all this was done to make me agree to no matter what proposed. But when you propose to a journalist, a writer or any television man something really sensational, why would you play so much of a game then? Why almost threaten?

There are questions you can’t answer. Especially, when there are other people’s minds and the other people’s plans involved. So, all I know I should get to the place at a time fixed to be ready to receive some sensational material which should be revealed through media, the requirements provided. And it was stressed that I should never tell anybody about details of this meeting.

I was so shocked that for some instants it seemed to me I did not know what to do then. When indeed deep inside I knew, of course. And then I noticed I was watched by Elise. As I understand, I looked strange and astonished. Possibly a little weird. And she looked at me in some peculiar way. I just forgot what I asked her about before and why she was standing right then and there, catching me in a state like this. And finally, I was a little irritated about her. She was standing in front of me with her long unwashed hair hanging down. Gosh, why does not she try to be a little more of a woman? She is not that bad I should admit. Now I consider that subconsciously I chose to hire her among all of the opportunities – actually not a great variety of candidates – also because she had the most attractive looks. And she indeed can be a rather attractive girl. She is rather handsome. Sure she is. But maybe, some strange people like me tend to get together with other people who are a little strange too, somehow.