the thirtysomething corner

just something i was playing around with. The idea that sometimes we are happy staying in our corner than taking chances.

 

The girl stood on a corner waiting.
She wore a spectacular yellow dress.

The girl was waiting there as if it were a bus stop or if her parents were coming to pick her up from school.

The funny thing is she was not a girl at all.

The girl was a thirtysomething.

On the other side of the block she could see that it was sunny. The sun shone so bright and children were playing out on the lawn. She saw some of the smaller children running through a sprinkler at the corner home.

On the side of the street where the thirtysomething was waiting, it was overcast. The clouds were so gray she thought to herself, “Gee it’s dark out here.”

It began to drizzle a bit.

It was not enough precipitation to chase you indoors but enough that she needed to pull out her trusty umbrella. 

Out of her bag came a lavender umbrella with white polka dots. It had a black hook handle and sometimes when she would walk up the sidewalk she would take it out on the sunniest days.

 

After about a 23 minute wait, she saw a man on a bicycle coming her way. She felt her stomach fill up with butterflies as if she was a young girl again, but she did not want to ruin it by showing her emotion. She stayed poised holding her umbrella determined to be strong and remain dry.

 

Here he came gaining speed down the street toward her and her umbrella. Her head filled with wonder; is this the man of her dreams? The man she was waiting to arrive and make her corner sunny? Her stomach was twisting and turning and she felt a sudden bout of nausea. She found herself wanting to remove the biker from her view because her anxiety could not handle the answers without what felt like what would be an explosion. Yet, here he was only another few seconds and he would be tempting her with potential fate.  The anticipation she felt was the same feeling you have as a child when you heard the bell of the ice cream truck coming down your block. “Ice Cream! Ice Cream! Mom, the ice cream man is coming, can I go out? Can I, can I?” But suddenly the thirtysomething felt calm. She remembered she did not eat ice cream. Being lactose intolerant it just upset her stomach and it never ended well.

 

Suddenly the thritysomething began to straighten up and started feeling better no longer thinking much about the biker. He reached the corner and looked her way, showing her his gorgeous smile, but she just kept on looking out waiting for the bus or her parents or whomever it was she believed would be picking her up at her gray corner.

Reviews

[Requiem]

It's very hard to write this review with a 16 pd. cat on my lap who demands attention. Anywho. I could almost see this as a music video. It's really cool. It reminds us of the simplicity of childhood, how much we want it back at times. Also, it gives me the thought that we have to find our own happiness (like when we were kids, basically any and everything made us happy), we can't rely on others to give us that.

[SweetPeachesAlways]

You have this way of capturing a moment in time that makes one feel especially nice....
Very nice write...

[JC Fox]

Another great story and there is nothing wrong with staying in the corner, sometimes its much better than going and making an arse out of oneself.

[R J Askew]

I love this dream-like story for its simplicity. I read the umbrella as caution and the bike as adventure. Growing up is often confusing, there we are 15-25 one minute with the paint still wet on us and then there we are 35-45 and wondering if we've missed something or exhausted by kids. And the really good news is is that both these periods seem like golden ages a little further up the road. On the obverse side of caution are those who wolf life down ravenously and burn out one way or another, become crystal meth addicts or screwed up by excess of one kind or another. On balance I don't think there is too much wrong with being a little cautious.

[Forest Green]

Your story spoke to me of the future becoming rather bleak with age and the transitions to a future of reduced horizons.

You have a gentle way with words that makes a work like this meditative.

I enjoyed reading...

Forest

[mattavelli]

This is great! it has a lot of familiar meaningful images.
So this is a woman's mind hu? :)
I really like the contrast with the children. it seems as we get older we think too much. Next time the guy comes riding by on his bike, you should take your umbrella and whack him across the chest and drag him home. :)
Have fun.

[NJ Schneider]

This was very different in the sense of what the stories moral and meaning are... It is very short but you could have an entire conversation on what you thought it meant and that to me, shows an amazing writer. Great job.

[Wolfwind Words]

Interesting read. The concept of waiting for that right person to bring sunshine into ones life. is what i got out of this. I'm not sure how the thought of being lactose intolerant, would calm your character into feeling better.
I think this has alot of potential to become something more, if you wanted to roll with it.