Summary

The third person narrator talks in the present tense, following the actions of Joe Pope. Joe stays at the office while all his colleagues leave. He watches people on the street and in other office buildings, jealous that their lives are better and more interesting than his. The narrator tells us that Joe stays back at the office to finish some work, however Joe spends the evening wandering from office to office and getting up to various mischief. At first he wanders from office to office to obtain different views of different buildings. Eventually he gives up on this, not seeing anything interesting. As he enters different colleagues’ offices he notes the way they decorate their work space. He finds this curious and strange and thinks about why people decorate their offices; “Is that what it means...