Scene One – HOPE or DESPAIR – Madison, Wisconsin, May 2020
“She wouldn’t take the bait until all her babies were gone,” I say. Jeannie finishes the last nibble of her avocado toast and pushes her plate to the center of the table. She brushes crumbs into the scoop of her hand and drops them on the plate. The mound of crumbs is stacked like an ant hill, a home for ants without ants. Jeannie returns her gaze to me. “What do you mean Bobby?”
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Scene One – THE OTHER MAN – Old Town, Chicago, Illinois, April 1981
I grab the phone from the wall on the first ring. “Hey Robert, it’s Linda. Can we talk?” “Sure, what’s up?” Her tone softens. “I hope you won’t be shocked. We’re friends – right?” She pauses. “I’m having an affair. His name is Ben. We met at work. I never believed this would happen. How could I cheat on Dan? Then again, you might have sensed that things weren’t perfect between us.” “Maw, Maw,” Tom’s crow cawed. I sensed urgency in his complaint above the din of the portable radio tuned to Top Forty Hits. Every day my neighbor, Tom, selected the same AM radio station to share his favorites with our neighborhood. In pleasant weather, the crow joined the radio music on Tom’s deck. I wondered if the crow tried to elevate his voice above Fats Domino? Sometimes when we agree to complete a job at work, we don’t have good ideas of how we will accomplish the task. Or, we agree to do a favor for a friend and later we fear that we won’t have resources to meet this commitment. We may have committed because it’s difficult to say “no” to our boss. Or, with our friend, we may want to help, so we say, “yes” without forethought. Although we don’t have a clear vision of how we will meet our commitments, we start our work and trust that we will receive direction and resources we need. We may be bothered by a problem. “Let go of it. Get over it,” our friends advise. We may fear the result of letting go so we continue to do something that is inconsistent with what we want to achieve. However, if we are prepared for change, I suggest that we let go of our fear of letting go, and rely on our values and abilities to take us to a result we desire. |
About the AuthorI write personal essays, creative non-fiction, flash fiction, and self-development articles from my home in Madison, Wisconsin.
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