The Wickedest Man in The Meeting Room

So I'm in my daily team meeting at work, everyone standing around the edges of the room, prom-nerd style, listening to the facilitator make announcements. My attention waxes and wanes, and during one of those waning periods, I hear the very softspoken, skittish, and generally humorless guy next to me whisper "Satan!"

I look up at him (no, not because I think he's calling me), thinking this might be a manifestation of some joke, but he isn't smiling, just idly looking at the person speaking, maybe a little bored.

About a minute goes by with my looking around to see if anyone else heard what I heard, and am just about ready to write it off as an hallucination, when, just loud enough for me to hear, the guy says it again. This time he's staring at the floor, seemingly not paying attention to anything. I keep staring at him, and I think he notices, because he makes a little quarter-turn away from me to face the manager currently speaking.

Now, I'm all for civil irreverence. Rattling the status quo can be useful and funny, as long as it isn't fundamentally disruptive or painful. But this was just too much of a disconnect not to be disturbing. The guy never says anything that isn't work-related in a meeting, and for his first departure from this pattern to be the repetitive whispering of "Satan!" is a bit off-putting.

I couldn't be sure I heard what I did, of course, but there wasn't a real way to find out. Not that wouldn't be awkward.

DEAN: "Say, Bill?"
BILL: "Hmm?"
DEAN: "Did you just say 'Satan?'
BILL: "What?"
DEAN: "Um...were you just talking to The Devil or anything?"

I kept listening carefully throughout the meeting, certain I misheard, hoping he was really saying "It's eight and.." or "Say, tim.." or "He's Hatin'," but he didn't do it again. So I'll never know. There is a possibility that he might have muttered "Manson is my king" once, but he could just as easily have been clearing his throat.

Comments

[Shawn]

Ah, but does his muttering also include "heretical maxims about housewares and berries"? If the answer is no, evidently there is nothing to be concerned about. If the answer is yes...hmm...

[Laura]

Maybe the word was "satin."

Perhaps he was contemplating wardrobe plans or an upcoming purchase of bed sheets.