It had been a long time since Alexander had felt at peace. He’d been living with a vague sense of global doom for some time. As he rose from his bed, he opened the curtains expecting to see a catastrophic change in his surroundings. Yet all was at peace and the grey clouds had that familiar, cozy comforting feeling.
He felt a tickle in his arch and he thought, as he zipped up the legs on his tight, calf-fitting but baggy pants and pulled on his long black seamless top, that this might just be a day of great change. Little did he know that it looked like he had just gotten out of a spaceship from the Planet Zog. Truth be told, had Alexander thought of it, he’d have been happy to be from Zog and not of this earth, for the world he lived in did not feel like home.
The coffee shop he was heading to was only one block from his apartment and frequented by protesters and social justice “freaks and geeks”. Alexander liked them but didn’t get too involved lest his friends at the generic running shoe store he worked at find out he was a closet environmentalist and social activist at heart.
Alexander ordered his usual fair trade Americano and as he started to settle into his usual corner, before his butt even hit the seat, his eyes locked onto hers. In that stare, he saw his past and his future. He knew at that moment that his life had been forever altered. The world and the future he saw was now clear and madly beautiful. Alexander’s world had opened up and he was now in complete freedom to roam and go where his will and sole took him. He knew he was on the winning side.
And was that girl a figment of his imagination? No. There she was in all her simple splendor, sitting across from him. He blinked and she blinked and the vision did not disappear. They slid next to each other and words were not necessary. They rubbed feet under the table and a new life began. Together, they explored the mysteries of the universe, free from the drudgery of the everyday grind.
And it should be said that they did end up graduating from playing footsie under the table to snogging together on the planet Zog.
Oh yeah and Alexander quit his job.