Imaginings: Picture it& Write/ Drift

The lovely ladies over at Picture it & Write have given us this wonderful image for their creative writing exercise. They invite people to join in, comment with their contribution of fiction to accompany the image. This week my contribution is called Drift.

It was three o’clock, at Slim’s pizzeria on the South side of Chicago, when he walked through the door like a gush of wind. I took notice of the tall, slim man in the dark sunglasses whose thick black hair stuck out from under his skullcap. He looked around the small place until his eyes fell on me. He smiled, and it was like the rays of the sun. It made me feel like a flower and I soaked it up. He turned and took a set at the counter.

I rushed over to take his order. “A slice of the works and a coke,” he said. His voice sounded like a summer breeze on a hot day.

I put in his order and went back taking others but kept my eye on him. He ate, never looking around. After he finished he threw his money on the counter and headed for the door. With his hand on the knob he turned and walked up to me. My heart was pounding so fast I could feel my body vibrating. My breath quickened, when he extended his hand.

“Hi I’m Alan.” He said.

“Jasmine, but most everyone calls me Jaz,” I said, holding his strong hand.

He nodded and took off his glasses. His dark eyes looked like velvet dew. “I was wondering if I could take your breath away.”

He already had, but that was one of the worst lines I’ve ever heard. I started laughing. “That was sad,” I said over my mirth. A moment later he was laughing too, “Sorry about that.” We were laughing so hard that everyone in the room turned to stare at us. We finally stop after a few embarrassing minutes. “What time do you get off?” He asked.

“At four.”

“See you then.”

I watched him walk out and decided I was insane. I didn’t know this man, he could be a stacker or murder, yet my heart jumped with anticipation for the end of my shift.

We’ve dated for a week, talked about our lives, hopes and dreams. One morning, while we lay in my bed he asked me, “If you could go anywhere in the world where would you want to go?”

We daydreamed a lot while in each other’s arms, so I assumed this was more of the same. “Well, I’ve always wanted to fly. It doesn’t matter where I go, just would like to let the world pass under me while I floated in midair.”

“How about tomorrow at four?”

I turned to look in his eyes; there was no humor in them just the deep dark sensual stare he always gave me. “We can’t afford plane tickets anywhere; besides we have to work.”

“I quit my job yesterday.”

“ What!” I pulled out of his embrace. “I thought …”

“I told you I wasn’t going to stay here Jaz. Besides I have enough to take us anywhere in the world we want to go.”

“What about saving that money until you find another job?”

He held me tight. “I’m leaving here Jaz. This place has nothing for me.”

“ B..but I’m here.”

“You are the only reason I’ve stayed this long. Jaz, I want you to come with me. Remember what I told you, I’m not the kind of man to stay in one place for long. Come with me baby; let’s see what else is out there.”

I didn’t answer him. I loved Alan, but what he was asking me was crazy.

“If you want to come I’ll be in the back of Slim’s. I’ll wait for you until one minute after four, if you don’t come out then. I’ll know you decided not to join me.

I looked at the clock over the jukebox it was a quarter to four. I’ve worked at this dive since I was sixteen. It was the place to be when I was seventeen, but now at twenty-five it’s just a place that pays the bills.

You don’t think about romance or love in a dead in job, only how to make your bills and paycheck add up. Just drifting from one paycheck to the next. I was sick of drifting, thinking about how poor I was and how nothing special ever happens to me. Alan was the best thing in my world, the person that made life bearable.

I took off my apron and told Slim I quit and ran out the back door. I stopped dead in my tracks, stun speechless when I saw Alan sitting on a white fluffy cloud hovering around door level. He smiled at me and I caught butterflies.

“I was afraid you weren’t coming Jaz.” He reached for my hand. “Let me take your breath away baby?” I took his hand gladly, as I climbed up on the cloud. I didn’t question what this cloud thing was, all I knew was that I wanted to be with Alan and he wanted to be with me.

“Where are we going,” I asked, when Alan told his cloud to take flight.

“Anywhere in the world you want to go baby or we could just drift.”