January 20th, 2023, 12:17 AM

This is inspired by someone I met. Written in full freewrite in one take.

Jame, disease trickling down his brow with sweat, danced with me in the thickly smoking dancefloor, surrounded by red and blue lights, basslines, for seven hours; I felt his heat, watched the steam emanating from under his open leather jacket from his bare chest in the chilled club atmosphere, smoothing out his stiff, slicked black pompadour, and my pure, thrilling, and absolute terror.

I'd never felt anything like that.

The next day, I woke up in the morning, put on my flowery dress and did my hair, and got in my car to go to my job at Marcielle's Preschool for Special Children. I got there, I taught the children, I went to the teacher meeting, spoke with the two sets of parents and cleaned the classroom for the next day.

The next day, I put on my sunny dress, did my hair, drove through traffic to my classroom and Marcielle's, taught the class how to differentiate between dogs and cats, went to the teacher meeting where Janette said that one of her parents had sent her daughter to school with a phone, so young, and wiped the tables free of crumbs and fingerpaint stains.

The next day, I put on my red dress, brushed my hair, pulled up to the car park, and sat there in my car for two hours.

I started the car. My hands didn't shake, but I couldn't feel my fingertips. I pulled out of the carpark, crossed town, and stopped the car in one very specific spot. I'd been steering the car, but I hadn't been driving. The person driving was Jame."

analysis: This story deals with the complicated feeling some people have when, after having reached a peak, ready to enjoy their pretty house and pretty garden for the rest of their lives, something gets over the wall and makes them unable to ever be happy in their lives again. I personally have the fear that this will happen to me, and I think for most professionals this is a fear that most people don't know how to categorize, let alone deal with.

The main character of this story is a teacher, and that's a job that requires someone that looks good to parents. She finds herself, unexpectedly, dancing with a very unsuitable man, and she finds that she likes him more than her job. As I wrote above, this story is about someone who was told me a similar story.