Barefoot in the Park (standard:Flash, 954 words)
Author: discopants	Added: Aug 02 2004	Views/Reads: 3343/2237	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A short tale reflecting the numbness of losing your job.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story


"Andrea," I exclaimed and smiled involuntarily. She had worked with me
at the I.T. company and had lost her job at the same time as me. 

She sat down beside me. "You look like a dog that's lost its bone," she
commented. 

"I feel like it." I told her what had happened and felt a vague sense of
appreciation that she was there to listen to me. 

She stood up and slipped off her shoes, exposing her stockinged feet to
the damp footpath. She took my hand and pulled me from the bench. 
"Dance with me," she instructed. 

"Are you mad?" I asked gently. 

"Probably." She placed my right arm around her back and held my left
hand. I felt awkward but began to dance with her anyway. 

"That's not so bad, is it?" she asked after a few moments. 

"No," I replied, manfully ignoring the bemused expressions on the faces
of onlookers. 

"Just look at the stars," she suggested. 

I squinted skywards through the dusk but could only see grey clouds. I
conveyed my observations to Andrea. 

"No, no, not literally. Use your imagination." 

"All right," I agreed. I tried to do as suggested but still felt faintly
ridiculous about doing so. 

"So what about you. Have you found a job?" I asked, feeling the need to
move our conversation back onto a more prosaic footing. 

"No," she replied flatly before adding in an almost sing-song voice,
"But I'll be starting up my own I.T company soon. Do you want to help 
me do it?" 

"Yeah, sounds great." 

I knew that this concept was like the stars in tonight's sky but like
them, the idea was alive in Andrea's imagination. And as I danced in 
the park, self-conscious and embarrassed, I was grateful to Andrea for 
allowing me to escape from myself for a few precious minutes. Such was 
the power of dance and of mad Andrea, but in all too short a period, I 
would be myself once again. 


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