Preface: Okay, so i was bored out of my wits one night and i decided to do an essay. (yeah yeah, i know. No one thinks of doing an essay when they're bored.Well, i do) The last time i ever did a narrative was during the o levels. Anyway, I asked Ian for a word so i would have a start for the essay to at least get somewhere and he gave me "cocker spaniel". I wasn't daunted. And i came up with the following story. hehe. Enjoy!
____________________________________________________________________


Carmen sat by the ligneous bench in the middle of Central Park. Her fingers played around on the little intricate linings on the bench where markings etched with words of angst and despondency were left, manifestations of a high level of restive youths, like Carmen, induced in a state of vehement denial.The fingers on her other hand were clutched firmly around a piece of paper, little creases formed around the edges where they entwined. There was a grandiosely designed advertisment on the opening of the coolest pet shop downtown. A dozen frisky puppies were featured theatrically below the ostentatious headings-the name of the shop. Carmen was seething, her choler raising. The reason for her state of high dudgeon all attributed to the little pup on the page of the advertisment, a beautiful dusty gold cocker spaniel. Its ears were drooping just under it's adorable canine chin, a stout little tail and legs to complete the image of World's Most Lovable Dog. And, it was all Carmen ever wanted now.

Stirring from her reverie clouded by tears that had somehow formed, she looked down and glanced through the flyer once more. A thousand bucks for the lovable dog. Carmen's small beaded eyes squinted at the little digits. A teardrop dribbled down her blemish-abounding pallor. Clearly, she wasn't Prom Queen material. She was never good at even the simplest of social situations, she was cognizant to the fact she wasn't a people person. Carmen was the kind of girl you'd look back on in your high school year book and snigger at. Reminscing the time when your clique would pour ice cubes down her front or came to school with the unhippest bag ever. No, Carmen never had the chance, or even came close to the chance of being in the inner circle. Sure, she had friends. But it wasn't like it'd raise the level of her social status-Geek or anything; since they were no better. Her life was a nascent failure ever since seventh grade when she was nefariously proclaimed Flop Queen, as so she thought.

Through all her maelstrom of conflicting emotions and ambiguous introspections she vacillated to and from, she merely wanted to have someone who would hear her out. To truly understand and be candour. They need not have to be witty or engage her intellectually, but fill her up with zest and stave her off the fine line of insanity she was precariously perched on these days. To just be there for her and listen, Carmen had no idea who, or even if such a person existed, given that half her life was conceived in humiliation and the worse of humanity.
However, it was when Carmen took up a summer job at Uncle Johna's Pet Mart, and got to interact with the animals that she found her solution. She loved how the dogs would get all fervent when she approached, how they would just cuddle and slided up against her knees wanting her full-on attention and loving. Carmen had no qualms about them just being dogs. Through serendipity, she was revelling in the attention her new found friends were offering-friendship, love, and everything she seeked, everything she was devoid of in high school.
Uncle Johna was nonplussed with the fact that anyone would want to stay in that smelly mud hole for such a long period of time, not to mention how meager the paycheque was. However, he took advantage of the situation and decided that since his weird young niece was thoroughly enamoured with having the dogs as companions, he shall work her overtime while he skived off imbibing whiskey.

The long hiatus was over and school was in, Carmen was back to the usual chronic weekday anxieties. The days were a perennial torture and she found herself longing for a sense of belonging and security, missing how good it all felt the way she did during her summer job. It then occured to her how much truth there was in the phrasing -"dogs are men's best friends" And the sudden prospect of wanting one became overwhelmingly beguiling.

A lady cladded in an oversized jumper and track pants was running around the park tracks with her massive furball of a Saint Bernard. Carmen looked on enviously. The sun had already been engulfed by the dark evening sky and the evening air seemed to be dousing her in a bucket full of icy cold water, the chilly wind prickling her subtly on her skin. As though her mind had been penetrated by the crisp coolness as well, a sudden strategem to get what her heart desired struck. She would do part time odd jobs and save up the cash to buy a pup. Drats! Why did't she think of that? Pulling her sweater around her gaunt frame, she leapt up from the bench with new found zest. " Tomorrow, i shall go downtown to seek a job," she said to herself with implicit resolute.

sparkle in glamourous divine with Miss Vainity on Wednesday, April 26, 2006
|