I wake up to Andy strolling into my room like it's nobody's fucking business. Close behind him is a large hat-wearing Hispanic man with an identification card hung around his neck and a tool box in his left hand.
"Time Warner is here to install the Internet," Andy says. My head moves from Andy to the man looming behind him. He extends his hand.
"Hey man, how's it going?"
"I'm good, how are you?"
He is well.
Andy and I retreat to the living room which joins my bedroom. We watch
Seinfeld as the cable guy begins hammering a cord along the wall. Everything is fine. Soon we will have the Internet.
Suddenly, emitting from my computer is the strangely familiar sound of a drum being struck. I hear it once, the second hit is cut off by the cable guy pressing the mute key. I quickly realize this sound is so familiar because it is part of the drum-only soundtrack to a silly pornographic art film I shot and edited for my friend (porn in art projects is still going on apparently). I jerk my head around to see the cable guy who is now sitting at my computer franticly closing windows, pressing keys, and moving the mouse around. He looks at me briefly and then looks back at the computer screen which is out of my view.
I sit nervously not knowing what to do. Is he really watching what I think he is, or am I just paranoid?
Seinfeld is no longer funny because there is a stranger fifteen feet away who might be watching the only art-porn I've ever been involved in making. Andy is unaware of what is happening, he makes conversation that I can barely respond to.
I realize I am not wearing a shirt. "I better put a shirt on," I say as an excuse to get a look at the computer screen. I walk over and see that this snooping piece of shit is in fact watching the art-porn. Without turning around he hides the movie window. I look away just as he turns around to locate me in the room. I know what he is thinking:
does this shirtless twenty-something know I am watching his porno flick?Of course I know you're watching it you fucker... And it's not mine. It was a friend's project! I swear!
I return to the living room and sit, waiting for him to leave. He starts laughing.
"Aww shit!" I hear. He takes out his walkie talking and begins speaking very loudly, in Spanish, to a woman on the other end. He speaks enthusiastically, like he can't even believe what he's seeing. I try to follow along but he is speaking to quickly for me to understand what he's saying. The conversation goes on for two minutes. He says goodbye to the woman on the other end. The woman who I'm sure now thinks the cable Internet subscriber at 156 Calyer Street is a pervert. Or at least a very unoriginal art student.
Time passes and the cable guy says he is finished. We thank him. He leaves.
I go to my computer to find the art-porn hidden from the finder, but still open. The cable guy must have forgotten to close it.