Lonely as a Cloud

 

Loneliness enveloped him almost completely draining his spirit, enthusiasm, and desire for accomplishment. It was a heavy swampy slime that figuratively clung to his drained spirit, a debilitating and creeping, corrosive corruption, dragging him down as an endless series of scenarios played in his head. Each iteration involved his nonchalant approach strolling across that open battlefield of emotional exposure filled with giggling girls and wanton rejections too numerous to mention, the surviving victims slinking back to their corner, wounded having shown their hand and having had their advances summarily rejected, like Napoleon’s army half-starved and broken trudging precariously back to France after that terrible Russian winter shoeless and despondent.

 How could this task be accomplished without embarrassment and disgrace? There she stood radiant and beautiful beyond all measure, an angel landing momentarily on earth to be harassed by a Cretan such as himself. What would he say? What could he say? How do you catch a sunrise with all its glorious hues, or a butterfly gently lighting momentarily on a flower? And then there was the issue of a second sentence and presumably a third after that? It was exhausting to try to be nonchalant about something that was desired so deeply, to douse the fires of loneliness. It simply had to be done come what may. He straightened himself up and began his advance throwing caution to the wind; like a fish out of water, or an astronaut cut off from his oxygen supply, he made his way across that long wooden floor prepared to face an emotional gauntlet, with that awkward proposal on the tip of his tongue that the silver-tongued devils found so easy to present.

“Would you like to dance?” he stammered.

She smiled and said YES! Oh rapture, what bliss! Now there was only the task of clonking around the dance floor pretending to know how to dance. Relief and joy were all mixed up in a joyful mélange. They danced for the rest of the evening and the fires of loneliness were doused.

 

Jim

Apr. 2022