Escape - Short Story

She sat at the café and placed her notebook on the table in front of her in case any thoughts or ideas needed to be written. She waited to see if a story would come. Practising patience, with her head held high, she looked at the people around her and watched.

She noticed a woman with her eyes closed, her head over the steam from her coffee. Her blonde hair was slowly falling in front of her face as the pushchair next to her rocked slightly from side to side as a child played with a toy. Exhaustion emanated from every bone in her body.

Across from her were a couple who were on their phones. They were smiling at the words or pictures on their screens, visiting a world that didn’t include the other. She watched the man quickly glance up at the woman in front of him and saw a faint crease on his forehead appear. She thought he looked puzzled; he took a sip of his drink and then dove back into the escape hatch he held in his hands, and smiled.

She moved on and contemplated a lone man reading a book, with a large mug and a half a piece of cake in front of him. His crutches had been pushed to the side and the plaster cast on his leg looked aging, blackened by the polluted streets he needed to swing through to get around. He turned the pages with intent, focused on the next stage in the story. She wondered how he had hurt his leg.

Slowly her eyes passed over people and she looked at each person until her eyes met a man across the room. He was looking at her and smiling. They looked each other as if they both knew a secret and nodded, then they both looked away and retreated into their own worlds.

You can read my short stories here: Gracie's short stories


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