Yard Sale of Thoughts

A blogger friend sent me this photo for Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Photo Challenge #386, and I found it too tempting to not write. Hope this flash catches you off guard. Happy Sunday!

Live A Little

“This is it, Lucy. Come take a look.” Jimmy turned back, but I was out of breath. Climbing thirty flights will do that. When I finally reached the rooftop, I admit, I was relieved to see him sitting on the edge. I’d probably fallen a few floors behind making the climb.

“No, I’m good back here.” Layers of fluorescent light funneled downwards like a steep runway. I said I’d go up with him, but I wasn’t going to be bullied into anything else.

His feet dangled over the edge, playfully like a kid waiting to dive in the deep end of the pool, and he wore a genuine grin, the first one I’d seen all season. 

“It’s an illusion, you know,” I said when I’d caught my breath. I stood still, waiting to see what he’d do next. “Those distant dots you see, they’re living, breathing beings.”

“Think I don’t know that? He adjusted himself on the ledge. “Could be me down there among them, struggling for my own few inches of air. Been there, breathed that.”And at that, he lifted both hands over his head, cackling like a kookaburra.

Didn’t he realize, thirty stories above Macy’s Herald Square, where he sat, he was fighting for the same few inches of freedom, but this time on a concrete ledge.

Right then, a gust of wind rolled up the side of the building, a rollercoaster of sound. Jimmy grabbed the edges to ride it out.

“Don’t you feel that chill?” Even after dragging me up here, I longed to touch him.  

“Nah,” he spread his legs wide and sprawled further on the ledge. “Live a little.”

“Don’t need to.” I tried not to panic when a fleet of blue lights filled the square below. The highway patrol, most likely, flooding the view with blue.

The fleet of strobe lights was quickly followed by a life-size rubber giant. Massive black ears wobbled with each wind gust. 

“You’re missing it,” He was bobbing on the edge now, his joy bubbling over. 

I moved a bit closer. “He’s magnificent! Look at that sailor outfit, and all those strings.” 

Hundreds of tiny white strands, but then the threads started to sever from all sides, Mickey’s massive head took flight. Red britches climbing and yellow shoes rocketing off the ground. 

“Jimmy, watch out!” 

But Jimmy was leaning too far over the edge when a massive white glove collided with our building, rose rapidly along its sides.

Before I could react, Mickey’s hand in a salute knocked Jimmy from his perch. 

My stupor lasted long after the parade passed by.