On my third round of sneezes, my coworker Jim said (again), “Bless you.” He knew it was getting embarrassing after a full morning of sneezing. I was disturbing everyone around me, working as we do in cubicles without much privacy. “Cold or allergies?” he asked.
I didn’t know but couldn’t answer him right away because I felt another sneezing fit coming on. This was ridiculous. In our old offices, I could have just shut my door and hid from the rest of the staff until it was time to go home. Here, I was completely exposed, my a-choo! a-choo! a-choo! ringing out across the cubicles in annoying triplicate. How could anyone concentrate?
“Bless you, bless you, bless you,” Jim offered. “I think you’re being visited by a sneezing angel.” That was a nice thought. Maybe people weren’t as annoyed as I’d assumed. I reached for another tissue. “Ah, yes,” Jim said, “comfort from a Kleenex angel…”
And from coworkers who really do bless me with their kindness. To think I could be shut up in my old office, without any blessings at all.
