Alexander Pigg and the Applecore of 1975

Do you often wonder why some buildings furniture within companies always remains the same? Why the furniture, however out of date in some big organisations become trapped in time, but the modern people in the building accepts and laughs at their surroundings? It was sunnier back in 1975 well according to Alexander Pigg it was.

The building Alexander took an interest in was very modern for its age back in the 1970’s. Alexander was never really sure what the building was there for and he had never been in it. The outside of the building had a large car park, (with hardly any cars). The windows you could not see through and by the way the building’s windows were slanted and did not let much if any kind of light in.

It was a long walk to the building that interested Alexander, especially from the bus stop and it had been raining. The rain for Alexander always covered up or seemed to what Alexander was doing or what people looking at him thought he was doing. The weather was a point of conversation, especially when you wanted to get in to a building and they had a receptionist, who was probably very bored. Alexander got to the steps of the building and looked towards the doors.

Alexander walked up the steps to the building, he pressed the buzzer, and his mind was buzzing. He wasn’t prepared for this new saga in his life. A woman answered. ‘Are you on the list’? ‘Yes replied Alexander’. The door buzzed open and Alexander entered the foyer.

Alexander was no longer in the present, long lights hung from the ceiling, with green plants thickly hanging everywhere, Alexander was not sure if the plants were rubber. A lot of floor a lot of ceiling and no receptionist.
Alexander noticed that the lift on the left hand side of the foyer was coming down. The doors opened and woman appeared and even from this distance Alexander could see that she was about 45, wearing thick 70’s make-up and she was wearing a nurse’s uniform.
Alexander was almost quickly ushered to a chair by this woman. The building was grand very posh, Alexander had no idea what they did here.
The nurse sat down with her clipboard and began to speak. ‘Why did you take the man from Ipswich to the bus station that Monday afternoon,’ she said. Alexander was not taken aback but seemed but answered to the best of his ability.

‘Would this man leave his wife and by my friend? The reply he got was ‘a slight flirtation and disappointment for you’. Alexander Pigg sat at his desk looking in to space; it was not the answer he was looking for.
The man from Ipswich (Humpy, who supposedly had the brain tumour) should be introduced to the guy on the bus. Alexander knew what way the man entered the bus station, and the man’s silly wife would come in the other way.
Previously Humpy had dropped Alexander some texts about what time they should meet. Alexander had left his phone at home, deliberately to avoid all this. But the man from Ipswich was needed by Alexander and they made arrangements later by text to meet in the Auberge Cafe Bar.
Alexander’s father was also driving him to the point of no return. Alexander’s father had shown him where to put the shoe polish in the cupboard, so no space would be invaded by Alexander’s cleaning products (they both had their own shelves). Alexander stood behind his father saying nothing but just looking out of the window imagining people in the garden drinking tea from a different age, polite conversation, meaningless conversation, like his father meaningless. He often heard laughter during the summer coming through his window; he never looked outside just in case he might see something he didn’t want to.
The nurse in the building butted in to Alexander’s thoughts. ‘What did you hope to gain taking Humpy to the bus station’? Alexander looked up and said, ‘Humpy is more like me than I care to admit’. The nurse slightly agitated said, ‘did you want to frighten this man you took Humpy to watch’? ‘Of course not,’ said Alexander. ‘Ask me something else; the bus station is still ongoing’. The nurse looked at her clipboard. ‘Your sagas seem to be marching on Alexander’. Alexander looked around the building and saw a man sitting in the corner on a rather uncomfortable sofa, the seat was to bag and the man was quite laid back in the chair, the kind of chair which was an effort to get out of.

The nurse spoke again, ‘lottery, bus stops, spiritualists, a man in a black hat, heaven, humpy, hate, and numerous other things seem to play a large part in your life, do you agree’? ‘It’s not life though is it Mr. Pigg’? Alexander had a slight ache in the back of his neck, he wanted a cigarette and some air. Alexander asked the nurse quite simply, ‘do you have a toilet’? The nurse said that she had to go and would be back in 10 minutes and he must stay seated so the people upstairs need to know where to come to get him. Alexander let the nurse leave first. He was alone again in the foyer. He eyed the front doors and discreetly got up and walked towards them. When he reached them they did not open. He began to panic. He headed for the lifts. He stabbed the ‘call button’ and it came quite quickly. The doors opened, there was no music playing in the lift. Why am I going up to get out, Alexander thought? He reached the third floor, the door opened.

The first thing he noticed was a large camera high up monitoring the corridor (it was like a camera his father had in the 1970’s). This whole building seemed out of date; the camera was huge in fact. He was dressed smartly so wouldn’t be seen as an intruder by anybody he bumped in to. He was faced with lots of doors, why bother he thought entering any of them, just for a look about, (but Alexander wanted to look).

The first room he entered had a very surgical smell; he could also see a man laying face down on the table. He could hear voices, Alexander walked deeper in to the room. The man laying face down had surgical instruments on his back. Why would somebody be operated on in such a small room, this is an office building, so he thought. There were two voices which could be heard, voice 1, ‘I told him nothing would change but you know what he is like, goes his own merry way’. Voice 2, ‘have they got the new one up yet’? Alexander immediately thought did they mean him? Alexander edged more in to the room, one of the people he could see more clearly now in a mirror the man came in to full view. It was the man from the bus station.

Alexander backed up in horror, knocking over ‘the world and his wife,’ knocking off the instruments from the man’s back on the table and making it worse by finding out he was leaning across this man. He turned to the door and fled shouting at the same time. The men who had been showering started to shout and scream, like a caveman jabbing a finger at him.

Alexander hit the corridor and ran and then saw two security guards coming in the opposite direction. Even they and the brief glance Alexander got was that the uniforms looked like they were made from polyester; their haircuts were from different age.

Alexander wondered should he have explained to the nurse that when he took Humpy to see the man at the bus station, he meant no harm. He wanted to be the mans friend, but not his wife’s the man at the bus station was all he ever wanted as a friend, who had immediately impressed Alexander when he saw on the man’s badge, it said doctor.