Best To Keep Some Things From The Public

Ray walked up behind the couple waiting for the next elevator going up and stood a self-imposed mandatory distance of eighteen inches from them, give or take a quarter inch or so. He had created the eighteen-inch rule when he was fifteen, and so far it had proven to be an adequate means of keeping himself apart from people in public without appearing to be a misanthrope.

The couple entered the elevator and the tall man in the blue polo shirt and khaki pants turned toward the bank of buttons on the left. Casting a glance over to Ray, who had turned to the right and stepped as far back into the car as he could when he entered the elevator, the tall man asked, "Floor?'

Clearing his throat, Ray replied "eleven" in a raspy, almost squeaky voice, which he immediately hated himself for.

As the elevator doors closed and the car began to rise, Ray pondered a few things that had been running through his head that morning;

"...the Kaczynski manifesto is nowhere near as crazy as the government makes it out to be...he might have been a kook, but he wasn't cuokoo...why in the hell are so many of the people buying bottled water belly aching about the environment? Have they no sense? Does anyone really have any sense? Is the human race really worth saving? There must be thousands of people who have gotten away with murder...I need some coffee, I hope Lena made some coffee this morning. That woman is wearing an ugly skirt...Geez this elevator is slow...)

Ding! The elevator came to a stop at the eleventh floor. Ray walked out and immediately turned to his left, walked exactly 23 steps to the first corridor that intersected with the corridor he was in, turned right and walked another 119 steps down the long hall until he reached his office. 

He could smell fresh coffee brewing from inside the office and smiled to himself - "that Lena," he thought, "is an angel. Too bad she can't figure out how to shower more than once a week."

He looked at the sign on the door as he pushed down on the handle, "Dr. Raymond Carson, Behavioral Psychologist" it read. 

Ray chuckled to himself as he walked in, thinking, "Right, if they only knew..."