By Shiv Rayani
It’s my turn.
I see you all stare back. Faces and eyes and corporatism. Coughing and clearing, I try filling your silence with my voice.
My whimpering, little voice.
Whilst you hear it tremor above surface, the real quake rumbles under my ribs.
I’m fret.
A flood of red burns every inch. Carefully crafted caveats obscure off the cue-cards. My tingling tips shake them uncontrollably. Unhidden. Unbusinesslike.
You look away. Unimpressed.
As sense abandons these fumbling words, I secretly surrender, praying that the Gods might…
—“OKAY! Thank you, Tim.”
The CEO’s seen enough.
So you feign applause.
And savour pity.
Your title was a good hook, & I enjoyed how some images (Real quake rumbling under your ribs; tips of your fingers shaking the cue cards) kept me interested. But the two-word line “I’m fret” stopped me. It didn’t sound right. Did you mean “I’m fretting.”? Or, “I’m fraught.”?
Probably should’ve gone with ‘I’m fraught’.
I liked the emotive quality of this but also tripped over the “I’m fret.” Fret is a verb. Fraught just means “fill of/filled with” You are probably confusing it with the expression “fraught with danger”.
I fret – would have been the proper use, but it’s very mild with the rest of the description. I’m terrified/petrified/overwhelmed or something like that would fit better.
‘Fret’ is also a noun used exclusively in British English to mean ‘a state of anxiety’. Not sure it can used in the same way in American English.
But, still, I take your point and another (better) word would probably have suited.
I can equate to this story, Shiv. I, too, have had days like this when I was an instructor facing a new class.