this is for Cal's character contest.

here's the link: http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/topic33572.html

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#2 Word: 038: Sneakers

Picture: 18

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I banged my head down onto my desk. I was sick of the constricting business suits I practically slept in. I longed for the days filled with pink high top sneakers and butterfly wings. Days filled with bright colors, home-cooked meals, more human contact than just asking for a mocha expresso, or getting my messages. Days with soft sunlight and gentle breezes.

I remember the first day I put the wings on. They had been my older sister’s Halloween costume years before, and she gave them to me before she went off to college. When she left, right after Dad had. Once my mom left to drive her to her dorm, I hooked the straps over my shoulders and tried them on.

I didn’t take them off for an entire week.

I would run around that trailer park like nobody’s business. I would pretend I was flying away to make-believe places. Places that existed just for me, so that I wouldn’t go crazy.

Those pink high top sneakers and butterfly wings were my sanctuary. They morphed that old trailer park into a world of fantasy. A world where my dad hadn’t died, and where my mom didn't cry all the time.

“Jenna! It’s the phone for you,” my secretary said, popping her head into my office. She mouthed the words “It’s Mr. Garnet.”

I snapped back to reality, and became the office woman again. The one that could always take care of business and didn’t have time for such frivolities as nostalgia. This was a big case, and they needed me focused.

However, when I went home to my apartment that night, I dug through some old boxes in my closet. Past the boxes that actually had time to collect dust on the top, was a creased cardboard box, in which I found a folded pair of butterfly wings. There was also a small dirt stained pair of pink high tops sitting next to them. They weren’t as brightly colored as I remembered them, but they must have faded over time.

I didn’t take them out of the box. I just looked at them for a minute, feeling that same comfort I had clung to as a child. The same comfort I needed reminding of much too often.

And then I closed the box and shoved it in the back of my closet before going to microwave my Lean Cuisine dinner.

If only I could still escape my life like I had then, I thought. Maybe then I wouldn't need to stare at friggin' sneakers to make myself feel better.