{"id":290,"date":"2016-01-19T09:24:13","date_gmt":"2016-01-19T14:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/?p=290"},"modified":"2016-01-19T09:24:13","modified_gmt":"2016-01-19T14:24:13","slug":"a-strangers-fleeting-glance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/?p=290","title":{"rendered":"A stranger’s fleeting glance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"demon-harpy-16\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He was lonely. He saw her on a crisp Tuesday morning as he got on the train. She gave him just a fleeting glance\u2026but he was lonely and it was enough. She was attractive. His mind wandered after her all day\u2026.no, it raced!<\/p>\n

He saw her the following Thursday. She smiled at him (he thought) and he lost himself again in sweet daydreams full of romance. He was lonely.<\/p>\n

Two days later, in a light snow, he saw her drop a glove without noticing. He got there first and took it to her\u2026she thanked him in a voice like pure milk chocolate. He was SO lonely. He dreamed of them\u00a0holding hands on the beach, of spooning by the fire, of marriage and contentment. She was so nice\u2026so perfect\u2026<\/p>\n

Monday night was a late night at work \u2013 a late train home \u2013 a late walk through the park toward his lonely apartment building. He saw her standing in the cold. She greeted him with a warm smile. They spoke together quietly. His fatigue melted into a pool of elation\u2026anticipation\u2026happiness. This was his moment! She was so much more wonderful than he ever dreamed. He asked her to join him for a drink \u2013 perhaps dinner \u2013 sometime? She smiled as she reached elegantly into her purse…pulled out an exotic handgun and forcibly inserted the barrel into his left nostril. And as she fleeced him of his wallet, cash and remaining self esteem, she melted into a screaming demon harpy…..and shot him in both kneecaps\u00a0before she walked away.<\/p>\n

He never saw her again but his loneliness wasn\u2019t much of an issue for a long while after.<\/p>\n

***Aaaaaaaah!\u00a0 There’s nothing like a bit of romance to soothe those lonely winter nights.\u00a0 This little piece sums it all up neatly for\u00a0most people in our modern society.\u00a0 Some writers waste volumes to essentially come to the same conclusion (though I have been known to be pretty cynical).\u00a0 John’s\u00a0image was first published in\u00a0the November 2013 issue of Analog Magazine.\u00a0\u00a0 -Marsha\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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He was lonely. He saw her on a crisp Tuesday morning as he got on the train. She gave him just a fleeting glance\u2026but he was lonely and it was enough. She was attractive. His mind wandered after her all day\u2026.no, it raced! He saw her the following Thursday. She smiled at him (he thought) … Continue reading A stranger’s fleeting glance<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124],"tags":[79,7,19,102],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=290"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":307,"href":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions\/307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sallemander.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}