I can see a rich man talking with his hands. He is talking on his phone. Using his hands to emphasise his words as if this helps somehow. Directing a friend maybe, or a mother, or his lover.

‘Come and be wealthy’ he says with his hands. Does this help? I ask myself. Does he know that the person on the other end of the line cant see his hands? He doesn’t care anyway. He’s rich. Maybe the person he’s talking to has a powerful telescope pointing directly at him and is drawing an intricate diagram of the hand movements in order to discover the secrets of being rich or the direction to happiness. What if the man had a hands free-kit for his phone! Imagine the possibilities. He could talk on his phone and use both his hands and the man with the telescope would get twice as much information. Not only is there the verbal stimulation but also visual stimulation from this guy. He’s a real treat.

Sorry, I feel I must clarify something. When I said before that he was talking with his hands I actually meant ‘hand’ as he was using the other one to hold the phone to his ear. Sometimes he would stop and use the other hand so I guess in a way I was right.

Anyway, back to the hands-free thing. How has this advance in technology managed to pass this man by? Surely a man as wealthy as this would have upgraded when he realised how freely he could express himself whilst organising board meetings or ordering Cantonese food or phoning his wife to say that he is staying late at the office while his secretary nibbles at his ear. Maybe he’s not as rich as I thought. Maybe he’s ordering his hands-free kit now and is practicing his hand movements hence the swapping of the hands.

He’s becoming a lot more animated now. His face a little angrier and his hand gestures are much more exaggerated. He’s pacing up and down so I guess the guy with the telescope is having a hard time keeping up. The angrier he gets the louder he gets and his words begin to reach my ears. I can pick out phrases like ‘over my dead body’ and ‘it only happened once it didn’t mean anything’, maybe the secretary came clean.

I’m guessing the angry approach didn’t work. He’s fumbled around in his pocket for a cigarette and is sitting down now. WHAT IS HE THINKING!!? Doesn’t he know that these telescopes have infrared lenses and they can pick up the cigarette glow from miles away? With the fight leaving him his free hand becomes the support his head needs and he seems to finally accept his somewhat distressing condition.

The conversation grinds to a halt and he hangs up his phone and puts it in the jacket pocket of his suit. He looks dejected now as he puffs the last of his cigarette and stubs it out on the floor. It seems that without the phone his head needs both hands to take the weight. He stares at the stub for a minute as if he’s contemplating having another. Or maybe he sees that spent cigarette as a reflection of how his life seems to have panned out for him and he wishes that someone would come and stub him out.

His face looks like he’s staring at the business end of a rather large divorce settlement and suddenly that pre-nuptial agreement doesn’t seem like such a good idea. He definitely wont be getting that hands-free kit now.

Whatever the cause of his pain is we might never know but I’ll keep a determined attitude as I leave the safety of my telescope, gather my carefully drawn directions and set off to find him.