Day 23 - Sugar

 SUGAR

Prompt - Sugar : Write something so sweet, it makes your teeth hurt

I'd had that job for six years.  I was good at it.  I was very good at it.  Everyone said so, the boss, my colleagues, the customers.  They couldn't do without me, could they?

And so it seemed.  The pandemic hit, the lockdown froze us out of business, the company shut down for who knows how long?  There were redundancies, but not for me.  Instead I was put on the furlough scheme nd, to begin with, the boss man topped my salary up to full pay.  But when it became clear, after the first three months, that even without a full lockdown any more we still wouldn't be able to get back to work, that luxury came to an end.  

No real worry, I still got more than enough to pay the mortgage, pay the household bills, feed myself and... well, there wasn't much to spend the rest on anyway.  Going out?  Don't make me laugh.

But the months dragged on the end of the year loomed, and another big wrecking ball headed our way.  Brexshit.  The boss kept us informed of what he needed the deal, if there was ever going to be one, to give us to keep us viable.  It was soon clear that the dog's breakfast of the end product was a killer blow.  The red tape would have soon wrapped around us in a slow death of strangulation.  This was the end.

Redundant.  No matter how much the word was sugar coated, no matter that I was released ever so reluctantly and with such huge regret.  I was still out of work for the first time in my life. During the biggest recession, with rocketing unemployment in a country that was going backwards, under a government that blended heartlessness, greed and incompetence into a mediocre cocktail of despondency.  I'd never claimed any benefits, but I knew the scare stories about universal credit and how badly it had been implemented.  With few savings my mortgage was going to become an immediate problem.  I saw myself becoming one of those people who have to make decisions about whether to feed myself or keep warm.  In a world without hugs.

Morose about my uncertain future, aware of how easily I could let myself roll about in a mud pit of self pity, I took myself out into the daylight.  Trying to avoid the idiots walking along with their heads down looking screenwards.  Or the couples who were too oblivious of others to walk single file for the five seconds it would have taken.  I tuned into the local park, where at least the pathways were wide and there was space to get away from people.  

I didn't see her at first, hidden behind the approaching pair of legs.  I sought eye contact with the woman approaching, seeking to determine which side we'd each be safest on, but she turned away, looking back.  And then I saw her, a scurrying leg-whirl of white.  I moved to my left, the lady to hers, and her companion stopped in the middle, and looked at me.  Little brown ears, soft eyes, frantically excited tail, and so, so tiny.  

"How old?" I asked.

"Nine weeks, too wee for a lead yet.  And she's curious about everything and everyone."

I crouched down to get a closer look, and little Ms Nosey came right on up to my outstretched hand.  Trusting, fascinated, expecting to be loved.  She was gorgeous, cute, infectious in her 'the-world-is-wonderful-cos-I'm-in-it' confidence.  I wanted to pick her up and take her away in my pocket, and never let her go.

"She's lovely."  

"I know."  The dog walker grinned her delight at this addition to her life.  

"Maybe I'll see you both again." I said, rising, thinking it was the puppy I really meant.  But when she said "I hope so.  I'll be round again this time tomorrow.  Best be going now, too cold to stand around."  And she walked off up the path.  The pup, uncertain who offered most, stopped to look up at me, looked up the path, and bounced off after the one who would feed her.  Her owner looked back to check.  On me and the dog.

I completed my walk with smile welded to my face, and a lighter step.  Was that all it took to make my world seem a brighter place?  Yes.  The cutest bundle of joy turning up, an attractive woman who didn't see the darkness I'd felt possessed by, and a future that, however uncertain, would always throw up a life that needed to be lived.  There's always a way.

Footnote : We encountered just such a puppy in the park earlier today, and it really was a boost to the spirits.