Food for Talk

The man felt empty inside, and with each unfulfilling moment felt an increasing desire to change that. As he prepared his lunch, his thoughts traveled nowhere in particular, each tangent fading from memory as the next took hold. He froze, now intensely aware of being alone. No one could hear him. “No one can hear me,” he said, as if to prove that he could, in fact, hear himself. The noise startled him. “Why am I talking to myself?” Again, surprise. “Stop it!” “Am I going insane?” Only chewing silenced him. He finished his meal, but the empty feeling remained.