I Never Knew It'd Be You

Circus Music

"Ron, let's go," Leslie called into his office.

"Why?" asked Ron. He was carving a walking stick from a branch and obviously wanted to continue instead go to a government meeting.

"Come on, it's about the budget."

"Ughhh... Okay, fine," Ron grabbed his notebook. He'd had that same notebook for as long as Leslie worked there, but he had only ever used one page. And he had given that page to Leslie because she wanted to talk to him about woodworking to connect with him and instead he just wrote down wood types and gave her the list.

"Our investigation has uncovered some bad news," Ben started as Leslie and Ron sat down in the meeting. "The Pawnee government is bankrupt and will be shutting down."

Leslie looked at Ron and saw a ridiculous grin spread across his face.
"I'm sorry, I just started hearing circus music in my ears. What did you say?"

"Leslie, the government is broke," Ben said, seeing her dismal. "The government is shutting down this summer. We are boarder lining on a full blown crisis."

Leslie was paralyzed from shock. Her mouth hung opened. The meeting ended but Leslie just sat there.

"Okay, Leslie," Ben said. "This is ridiculous. It's 9:30. Go home."

Leslie didn't move. She couldn't move. Ben eventually just decided to steer her to her car and hope she could snap out of it and drive home safely. Or maybe just sleep in her car if nothing else.

Leslie begrudgingly walked when Ben shoved her out. He leaned in the window of her car. "Leslie, drive safe. The government is broke and there's nothing you can do about it."

Leslie didn't snap out of it immediately. She sat in her car until 11:45 that night. She finally decided she was cold and wanted to drive home. She wished she never met Ben. She knew it wasn't his fault, really, but he was easy to blame and it did almost seem like he shut down the government.