Someone Like You

fiction

"Mind if I ask you a question, Wyatt?"

He thought, could I stop you? "Go ahead."

"Haven't you ever wanted more?"

"More what?"

"More in life than what you have. To be more."

"Why would I want that?"

"I just think you could really be something. Make something of yourself. In the time you've been here I've noticed things about you, Wyatt, and I think you could have a real future."

He thought to himself, let it go, but he had let so much go lately that he just couldn't. Not today.

"You know what I've noticed?"

"No, what's that, Wyatt?"

"I've noticed that when people like you tell people like me that we should want more, they really mean that we should want to be more like you."

"Well..."

"And I think you really believe that's a compliment. Like the greatest thing in the world for someone like me is to be told that someone like you thinks I might possibly be able to become like them."

The smile faded from his employer's face.

"I think you see someone like me doing their job, and doing it well and you think, well we must be alike, the two of us. Look at how good he as at what he does. You think you are seeing a reflection of yourself."

"You are good at your job."

"I know that I'm good at my job. That isn't a question. The question is why you think that means I would want to be like you?"

"Excuse me?"

"Why do you think me being good at what I do means I would want to be like you. Or that I am in any way like you already?"

"Wyatt..."

"I'm going to stop you there. My name isn't Wyatt. Sometime ago someone who hired me decided that Wyatt seemed a good name for 'someone like me' and so he started calling me Wyatt. And then when someone like him needed help he said, 'oh you need to hire my man Wyatt.' and then when someone like the two of them needed help they said, 'my guy Wyatt is the one' and so on and so on until you. And the real kicker is when you each called to set up service you were told my name. You heard my name. But because someone like you said my name was Wyatt that is what stuck."

"Why didn't you correct me earlier?"

"You heard my name when you scheduled my services. You stuck with Wyatt. So to you I am Wyatt. And to me? I don't really care as long as the money hits my account on schedule."

"Well clearly you care, because you brought it up."

"I brought it up to let you know how very unlike you I really am. I have never once called you by the name of my last employer. Or by a name that I think would fit you better. But for you? Someone like you said something and that is what mattered. You only care about those that are like you. That's why you think it's a high compliment to tell me I could be like you."

"I just think you are selling yourself short to..."

"How many people like me have you hired over the years? People to provide services that you couldn't possibly do yourself? From the smaller jobs to the bigger ones? From repairs to security? How many of us have passed through your doors?"

"I couldn't begin to say."

"And do you have a guess as to how many people like you I've ever hired to help me?"

"Well that's ridiculous."

"Exactly. I have never, nor would I hazard a guess have any of the other people you've hired, ever once considered hiring someone like you. Why would I? What use are you? What do you do? What can you do? Except pay someone like me to clean up your messes, fix your broken things, protect you. Why would I want to be more when from where I'm standing it certainly looks like less."

"Wy...I mean...well I don't know what your name is if it isn't Wyatt so I'm just going to use that. I think you're being very disrespectful and I expect I was wrong thinking that you could be something more. It seems like you are what you are and what you will always be."

"I reckon that's true."

"Well good. Now that that's settled if you see Joanna in the kitchen before you go she'll make sure your last job is covered."

"Thank you. And, though I know you won't hear me, her name is Elizabeth."