It's getting better, isn't it? I think so...so much so I can't even bear to look at the older stuff at the bottom! I worry at what shocking errors I will find...maybe it's better that way; signs of progression!
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
...first base
Matt sat on the bench that was carved into a felled tree, he was feeling decidedly...dodgy and out of place in the heat of the midday sun. His stomach burbled away, rotating like a frothing washing machine. At 15 years of age he felt light-years behind his peers, they all had girlfriends or had run around the bases. Matt was so slow in catching on to girls that he didn't even know what the terms "first base" and "second base" meant. Today, a smile would do.
The huge park was full of couples playing games, small children flying on swings. Older generations in their coats smelling flowers and pointing to invisible items in the sky. Mums with their babies on reins fed the noisy ducks bread. An odd squirrel launched itself from branch to branch like a furry gymnast. Life was all around, he felt like a square boy in a round hole, sitting alone in his NHS specs, faded t-shirt and ankle swingers. He looked around the green, leafy park hoping to catch a glimpse, making out a shape of the distant walking female, wondering if it were his muse. He squinted through his glasses to get a better look, she wore a white flowing dress with red flowers around the hem. She was young, shapely, elegant and walked with a heavenly bounce.
Matt felt his attraction becoming slightly more obvious than it should, covered his embarrassment and looked away from the approaching goddess on the pathway. Over his shoulder a Dad and his toddler son, kick (and miss) a small football and fall over. Their Chocolate Labrador puppy pounced, and shook the ball in its mouth. The image of family life made Matt feel warm and cosy.
"Hello?" a gentle, light, sensitive feminine voice spoke from behind his head. His heart bounced like a rubber ball Turning towards the voice, thousands of thoughts ricocheted as he tingled, he pushed his spectacles up, adjusting his sight. She was standing before him in the same soft white dress, the sun blocking out her true image as it shone behind her head. Angelic.
"Pleased to see me?" she questioned with a knowing-too-much kind of smile. Matt squirmed covering his attraction physically..
"Yes. I uh...am." his nervous words tripped and stumbled their way out of his desert dry mouth. In an instant, she kissed him on the cheek and his world suddenly felt lighter, meaningful, and damn good.
"Hello Matt, I am Amy." Matt twitched his toes again to prove he wasn't dreaming. His soaking wet socks totally ruining his cool. She held his clammy hand and pulled him up from his numbed seat.
"Let's walk, we've got a lot to talk about."
Floating on air, sweat oozing from his every pore, Matt and Amy walked amongst the dogs, children and Frisbees of the springtime park — together.