Follow the Feeling

Follow

the Feeling

(A-Wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-wam-bam-boom!)

By

D. David Croot

1

"Yeah sure, " he said, sat back at his computer desk that had recently been enhanced with a laptop.

"So how do I open this up again?" he asked politely (he always was).

"You clasp the middle button thingy then press the on button situated in the corner of the laptop and then it should load up in no time." She gave a smile that took twenty years off of them both.

She was a beaut. A fading beaut but so were most in the offices in the centre of the country... or so he was reliably informed. Nobody wanted his job and he didn't want to give-it-away. Think of the pension and the hours worked! A lifetime of grafting that has made him the man he is today, right now, in the moment a thinking feeling human with impulses and the ability to provide for a family that knows and loves him and he can do no wrong for he knows no other way!

In the break room they talk of who enjoys their job the most and how they can perform that much more efficiently as a unit. Never out of earshot from management I might add.

It is important to remember these are not children looking for several house points or merits, they are adults in a world or their own making. This is how they have chosen to be. Lying little shit-sniffers to get ahead in a crappy job for a puerile company who does not care if they live, love or loathe... It was also a windy day but the sun sprinkled itself with the odd flourish here and there.

Swan-necked Cassandra, who everybody refers to as Cassie, it rolls of the tongue so much sweeter sat conversing (one sided) of the woes of middle age and how she felt out of place in a world where they valued beauty but never knew how to talk to it.

Those within range were sickened by her candidity and wished to a non-existent god they had not heard what she was speaking of. The woman opposite her, near death, nodded a lot and made-do with a lukewarm mug of tea. She was on a diet. Dieting to lose weight so that she could stomach her appearance in every mirror, puddle and quick reflection off of every shiny surface.

She never would achieve her goal.

But these are not crucial details, for it is how Dennis reacts to the world around him and those around him. It is easy to dissect the workplace with a few well placed stereotypes: Robert enjoys farting and laughing about it, there is the office go-between who only craves love with that crazy-maddening smile, than it is to get to the heart of one human's condition and why things have worked out as they were...

The way of the world astounded many and left others a sickening hatred of humanity.

Dennis however put up with it and paid it no heed.

Dennis goes for a stroll and opts for a pound baguette and a walk around the shopping complex. In all the years he has worked for network rail, nearing thirty now, he has never allowed himself to purchase anything for himself out of frivolity.

His family have always needed the money and he has never thought anything of it. If little Abbie and Matthew needed or as they got older, just plain wanted, he bent over backwards did a magic money flip and found a way to make them happy.

His wife, he gave all that he could and more.

However it never was never quite enough, as women with too much time on their hands often do, she gossiped. If Francine, her bestie, said something bad about her husband she felt it only right she replied with something similar or worse. It often got to the point where Dennis would look forward to hearing the absurd things said against or about him.