Silver Screen

I had been feeling trapped in myself all day. Work, family, the world in general, it was all just stress. It’s normal, I told myself, everyone has days like this. The idea was supposed to reassure me but it only made me more irritated. So I tried my usual hobbies to get it out but they just felt flat and thin, like a piece of plywood that, if you run your fingers over it in the wrong direction, will give you splinters. 

I stewed for a while. I was snappy with everyone, though I didn’t realize it at first. It took a small argument with a lady I’ve been talking to to really get through to me. That’s me, always the last one to know my own emotion. Good ol’ Johnny America working for his piece of the american dream getting know where. Good ol’ Johnny plugging away like a champ. 

The thought made me even more angry. I had to leave. I broke off the conversation and grabbed my coat. I grabbed my hat, the fancy one, too. Don’t know why, just felt right.I needed to let off some steam, so I lit up as soon as I was outside. It was the middle of the night but that didn’t stop me. I walked down the sidewalk under the oil-yellow street lamps. The taste calmed me some, gave me something to focus on. I kept walking. After five minutes I came to the basketball court, the one on Cavour that’s surrounded by a high chain link fence. There was another street lamp right there lighting up the place. 

Then an idea struck me. I’m done with this, thinking like this does no one any good, least of all me. I look good, I feel good, so why aren’t I dancing? 

So I danced, I shimmied those feet and I shook my hips, probably too much like how a girl dances because frankly I have no idea what I’m doing.I did it anyway and felt slick and sexy, like classic Gregory Peck or maybe a young Jimmy Stewart. I felt fabulous. 

All at once it stopped, the feeling, the desire to move, it was just gone and I stood there basking in the afterglow. I started to walk home and I noticed two people coming towards me; two younger girls, maybe low twenties. When they approached one of the two laughed and told me I couldn’t dance. I grinned into the dark and told her:

"I know."