The Balloon: Part 2
Continued from The Balloon: Part 1.
A small gang of men and women pass by the bench briskly. Suit jackets flapping and black ties bouncing up and down, they do not stop to acknowledge the bench, or the window. Identical briefcases swing at their sides. Contrived laughter dances about the group, though it is difficult to tell exactly where it comes from. (An exceptionally well dressed man at the front of the group has recently made a joke at a minority’s expense). Suddenly, he puts up his hand, and the gang grinds to a halt. He kneels, and leisurely ties his shoe.
A short man near back spills the contents of his briefcase on the ground. He unfortunately had missed the signal to stop, and lurched abruptly into a stationary colleague. He watches helplessly as several documents float to the ground. The accident is especially taxing for his nearby colleagues, who are faced with the difficult task of carefully averting their eyes from the fact. They concentrate furtively on the man tying his shoe at the front. The short man stoops down to pick up the mess, his face flushing with blood. The man at the front stands up, and wipes some dirt off of his knees. Near the back, the short one still scrambles for his papers, and doesn’t notice the sound of laughing footsteps gradually fade away.
He stands up, his documents loosely organized. Briefly, he wonders where his friends could have gone. Ah, they must have left me behind. The man tries, for a few seconds, to trick himself into being surprised by this. However, he is unsuccessful, and shuffles over to the bench. He wipes some dirt from the bench, and sits down. He is careful only to take up one corner. He adjusts his mustard hat, and smooths down his tie. To keep from boredom, he sets his briefcase down and reads a document at the top of his pile.
He, engrossed in a chart of meaningless statistics, barely notices a little girl run by with a colorful bouquet of balloons. She continues to run as one of the balloons peels from her grip, and floats lazily onto the pavement a ways away from him. The man notices it only too late; the young girl is already out of sight before he can flag her down. Disappointed, the man returns to his reading, and leaves Balloon lying on the ground. She won’t miss it.
The numbers and lines on the chart slide in and out of focus. At last, something catches the corner of the man’s eye. Distracted from his reading, he looks up. He sees that the balloon is floating a few feet in the air, trailing a few inches of string on the pavement. Despite a slight breeze, it hovers stationary.
The wind’s acting awfully strange today. The man returns to his reading, hoping that the charts will push the the balloon’s bizarre behavior from his mind. Maybe these charts are interesting, he decides. He continues reading as he feels someone sit down beside him; the man nods cursorily in this new person’s direction, but doesn’t really see who it is. Ah, these charts are pointless. The man reaches for his briefcase, and places it on his lap. With a sigh, he opens it and replaces his documents.
Large red letters on his briefcase read:
Sharpe’s Steel Co.
Flame hardened PINS, NEEDLES, KNIVES,
RAZOR BLADES, AND MORE
...Satisfaction guaranteed!
The man pauses.
Curiosity nags him to turn and look a bit more closely at the stranger to his side. This person sure looks odd in my peripheral vision. He turns his eyes sideways. Instead of a stranger, he sees a balloon floating beside him at eye level. Its string hangs down, coiling loosely on the bench. The man’s eyes widen, and his briefcase falls shut with a loud snap.
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