The Pure Life of Dreams

May 10, 2023May 11, 2023

Death of the Journalist

He was only visiting for a short time but it was always a dangerous junction where the car accident occurred.

People crossed there all the time, under the Brentford overpass, at the cross walk; even though you were hidden in the shade behind the thick grey concrete supporting pillars of the freeway.

May 5, 2023June 17, 2023

Cheerleaders for the New Guy, Join the Fun!

The office’s older parts of the building, red orange stone arches and brick walls interplay with modern smoky blue grey glass facades, overlooking green rolling hills. I am at a new place of work, or a new company or a company that acquired us.

And I have a desk in Lesley’s office at the end of the building, only she does not look like Lesley. She is sporting a brown, almost bronzed, bob.

They need to reassign me as the location is temporary.

When one man comes in, and hangs out in an alcove formed by the stone arch in our office, and starts smoking a cigarette, I realize it is probably time to move on.

Another man has also been promoted and they are reallocating spaces. Outside on a grassy knoll there is a whole fanfare for him. I walk out to where a group of workers are gathered, and in the center of the circle, is one of the higher-ups.

She is dancing like a cheerleader with angular thrusts of hips and high energy fist pumps to welcome the new recruit to management. She is dressed in a gold bodysuit which spangles against a clear blue sky backdrop.

I could never get that enthusiastic about work. It must be exhausting.

Behind both her and the gathering, a few young men in aqua colored tunics who were going to a football game, join in.

They have plastic water spray bottles in their hands. They make a dance out of the sprayers, fist pumping them too.

“I come from a foreign state,” I explain, “so I never understood what you guys do.”

The jocks choreograph claps and sprays from their bottles. Their tunics remind me of the car wash guys over on Connecticut. Then one of the jocks aims his sprayer at me, and jets water at my hair.

Instead of joining the hoopla, I try to get my new place aligned. One of the watching crowd tells me to ask HR or building facilities, but I cannot use some-one’s influence.

“I shared an office,” I start to explain, but then I cannot remember Lesley’s name. Was it Pamela or Nicole?

How can I get an office if I cannot even remember who I shared the previous one with?

“No, you will not be able to get an office.”

“Well I need a window seat, next to a window. Bright sun.”

One of the jocks pulls out a silver pointer from his back pocket, then he points it south to show the best sun facing location.

“Yes, we may have something for you!” he shrieks.

“But it needs to have sun,” I repeat. Then I add hopefully, “and be a window seat.”

Main photo by Conrad Poirier, pioneer of photojournalism in Quebec, via Picryl. Miracle sign photo by Dayna Bateman via Flickr.

April 27, 2023June 15, 2024

Lights Out for the Comfort of Strangers

Dawn after lights out in the comfort of strangers, when the birds start singing

I was in a dorm with four beds, arranged in a square, one bed in each corner of the room, lights out, and I was in one of the beds with Matthew’s wife. Matthew was an ex-workmate.

We were furthest from the window and I wasn’t sure why I was sleeping with her because in the other three beds lay married couples, or couples who were single but seeing each other.

It was just the luck of the draw or how the lots were drawn.

Photo from Wallpaper Flare

April 14, 2023April 14, 2023

Floating towards the End of Days in Guatemala

It was our last day in Guatemala and it was clear we could not carry on.

Alexis and I had argued for most of the holiday and we would split up upon our return. It was a fait accompli.

That day I decided to go off by myself on a two-hour walk to the next beach over. We would have one last dinner upon my return.

I headed out through the mall, passing first through Harrods, and I thought it a shame that they had these same stores here now, that the world was becoming so homogeneous.

And at the end of the mall, I came out onto a rocky beach and realized then that I was barefoot and maybe I should have brought my shoes. The rocks were hard on my feet but it was too late to go back and fetch them. I would have to manage.

As I continued on I thought back at how we had agreed on Guatemala. We had spent many evenings at the hotel restaurant but even though she was a good traveler we had always argued about some such unimportant thing or other, and we knew we couldn’t continue.

I stepped up and over huge flat beige boulders buried partially in the sand. Pools of seawater collected in the natural dips of the rock. It was a shame we were splitting up but there was no way we could continue.

By then I had taken off my shirt and was holding it along with a spare pair of shorts in my hand and to make climbing more efficient I bundled both into my back pocket. Even so, by the time I got to the end of the path, it was getting towards dusk and it had taken a bit longer than I expected.

And at the endpoint, I found a small red house, far end of the path, and next to it lay a short boardwalk that followed the line of the water’s edge. The boardwalk lay out to sea a few feet as if stranded by the low tide. And the path was now reduced to a bland dusty road that split a promontory of small rocks and gorse. Alexis would say it didn’t look like much, but that would be just like her, right?

The clock on the house said quarter to five and I would have to hurry in order to be back for dinner. And I could imagine her getting cross, so I set off immediately back.

As I neared the mall, the crowds started to thicken and I knew I would have to push past them.

Inside the mall I found myself stuck behind two people who were especially slow. They were young and at first, I did not recognize that they were together. The girl had a condition, a long spindly arm that required she hold onto the rail of the steps. I was back in Harrods and I had to duck under her arm to get past, and only then did I realize that they were a couple, or a brother and sister.

Still, I pushed on at a frantic pace. I waved my hands, palms together in front of me so that I could slice through each group I crossed. Speeding now, I came to a full flight of stairs in a dark ornate oak hall with curled gold finial posts at the top of the bannister, and I grabbed one of the posts and used it to launch myself in the air.

I floated high over the steps, just as the post buckled under my grip and I thought that it could not have been made of gold after all, but must have been made of some cheap plastic instead.

And I floated over the crowd, over all five steps, and gliding steadily to the floor, it was then that I thought I stood a chance of returning on time.

Photo via PxFuel

April 5, 2023June 9, 2025

The Last of the Fairground Events

As the fairground sights wound to a close, the sun hit the stalls with the setting shade. Up on the hilltop ridge, the students piled back heading home, cast in shade, shadows of bodies.