Hal

Hal

Hal, as so often happened, lamented his parent's lack of foresight. For, not only had Mr and Mrs Itosis called him Henry, but they had insisted that everyone call him Hal. In his teenage years he had tried to get people to call him Henry, but it just hadn't worked. And besides, he actually liked the name Hal.
And people definitely reacted to his name. He had believed that adults tried to hold their breath while talking to children, until he went to school and saw that they only did it with him.
He sighed and took a deep breath before he introduced himself to his blind date.

The ebullient parchment function

Eventually I decided on a soup despite the frightful menu. Paul chose a hotdog which we all acknowledged require some bottle. But nothing could dampen his ebullient mood. He had been looking forward to this function for so long, he kept reminding us. The unveiling of the parchment was to be done at 8 o'clock on the dot and before then we would dine and no doubt hear many times how much he had looked forward to this event. He enthused about everything, including the whole decor of the room, even commenting on the inspiring idea of using opal tables. He chatted to everyone who came even close to his vicinity, especially women though his optimism seemed a little misplaced there. He was overall so buoyant that I quickly grew tired and ended up sleeping through the whole presentation, which meant I had to improvise with my glowing comments about his speech. 

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