Part 9

A MOMENTARY LAPSE OF REASON

Present Day

At work, Sky hammers on as usual.  She always had an uncanny ability to do her job well despite such a worried mind, and lately, even a breaking heart.

Noon comes and lunch is normal – the air saturated with meaningless chatter, and that smell of something, some meat, fried.  The general lack of sensitivity amongst the employees, coupled with Sky’s oh-so-quiet desperation, ensured that her anguish remained hidden throughout lunch.

Still, Jonathan sensed something…  She needed him…  She needed someone… someone who could give rest to her tired heart.  This is what she needed more than anything – rest.  Rest from being dragged through mud, rest from having her will pulled out from under her feet, rest from the emotional pain she had endured over the years…

And more than all this, Jonathan knew he needed someone too, someone to bring purpose to his meaningless existence.  He carried a deep sadness with him between the ever tiresome work-eat-sleep routine.

Lunch is over, workers shuffle back to their desks.

Jonathan sees Sky has already made it back to her desk.  Sensing an urgency in the moment, he begins to walk toward her desk which is nearly on the other side of the building – not knowing what, if anything, he will say when he gets there, but knowing it is time nonetheless.

Back at her desk, Sky is leaning back and rocking in her chair as she often does when she is anxious or worried about something.  Out of the corner of her eye, she notices his approach.  Her mind starts racing.  Her chair rocks harder as anxiety filters out through her feet.  She begins to reason within herself, “But how long would that last?…  What if the gods decided to change that too?!” But thoughts were moving too slow, time was no longer on her side.  The same urgency arose in her heart as it did in Jonathan’s, a pounding that filled her whole body with a will of its own.  She catches eye contact with him as he gets nearer.  Then, in a momentary lapse of reason, and in a complete submission to her innermost desire for freedom, she –

*THWAP*!  *BAM*!

Her leg must have pushed out one too many worries… it sends her flying backward, smashing her head into the filing cabinet on the way down.

“Oh no!  Are you okay?!”  Jonathan’s walk turns into a run.

He reaches her desk just as she stands back up, holding the back of her head and grimacing.  Obviously, both her and Jonathan are speechless for a moment, face to face and only inches apart.  She regains composure, looks him in the eye, and then …

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