To The Light

Dedicated to K-R and the Light. Fanfiction to The Muppet Show characters, Mildred Huxtetter and George the Janitor.

A woman in a large pretty coat was walking alone by the yard in front of a big house. The woman was from a rather rich family. That's why she wore mink coat, pearl necklace and luxurious dress. Despite her expectations, she looked awkward and lacking in confidence, as if she was very scared of night. It sounds ridiculous since there was a lot of street lamps in the yard and it was quite a snowy winter (when it's snowing, it's lighter because snow reflects light). In the house the woman was standing in front of there was a party. She was a guest on the party, and now it was time to go home. She watched pairs which were going home. Being scared to go alone because the whole party thing saddened her a lot, she was thinking of how it turned so that she's one of the few guests to go home without a partner. It was depressing to think that she is on her own responsibility, and there are no her friends, no her parents.

"Jeffrey! Can you take me home?", the woman asked the organiser of the party when he left the house."Hey Mildred, you see, I can't. I've got my ladies tonight, yeah" answered Jeffrey, holding his girlfriends from both sides. They smiled and came back into the house (because one of the girls forgot some possession, Mildred thought). So, until becoming completely alone, Mildred had time to walk by the windows of the house where the light was joyfully coming from. She looked around and realized that without window light it will be much darker (even street lamps won't help it) and so much lonelier. Mildred had to go before the light will be turned off. At the same time she couldn't do it - it was scary to go to the street where no light she could see at all. It was a pain to decide what to do.

It was easier to think about more simple things. One of them was remembering her school years. How it leaded her to be alone? What did she follow? She always had a lot of friends. Sarah, Jennie, Jeffrey. He had an enormous crush on her. Mildred liked him. They were a seemingly nice couple. Jeffrey presented Mildred lovely gifts, such as numerous cards. One with bunnies on, which he drew himself, another with a poem, which he wrote himself. Mildred submissively accepted the presents, but she knew that they won't be together for a long time. Jennie and Sarah watched her. In a nutshell, Jeffrey wasn't a cool guy like a boyfriend of Jennie and it didn't make her leaders happy. Because Mildred was a follower, she had to obey the leaders. "Are you going to stay with this dork? Mildred, come on, you're better than this! Are you really hooked on him?" Jennie asked once. Mildred doesn't remember accurately how she dumped Jeffrey. Maybe there was drama, maybe not. Mildred though remembers that it made Jeffrey extremely disappointed. She couldn't predict it at all, and it provoked her sympathy to him, but much later, in her early forties.

The last party Jeffrey organised, he talked about it to Mildred. "Girls, look at my school love, Mildred Huxtetter! I can remember how beautiful she was. Really, she was very pretty!" His speech raised a laugh. Attracting stares, poor woman was at the end of her tether. She realized that they were looking at her glasses. "She didn't have glasses, girls. Imagine her with long straight hair, smaller eyes and shorter and narrower nose. She was charming, I swear. Mildred, you're still my favourite girl!" The girls snickered, giving Mildred their dirty looks. Later on this party Mildred came up to Jeffrey when he was alone. "Jeffrey, do you still truly love me?" She can't identify sarcasm at all so she had to make sure. "Well, that's a good question, darling. Do you remember how you broke with me? You were one of those haughty bitches. At that time I needed a nice girl that would share my interests, you needed a jerk. Now you need a man with a good attitude, but what about me? You guessed it! I don't need a permanent girlfriend. I'm lucky with my current girls. They are here when I would like to spend time in entertainment. I'm fine living alone. It doesn't bother me. Yes, I still have a sort of affection towards you. It doesn't automatically mean I would like to see you or talk to you every day. Damn it, even thinking about it makes me feel insecure. So, my dear, I would suggest you to move on. And change your hairstyle, for the love of God!" Mildred nodded absently; she was thankful for taking her question seriously ("How could I think that he still loves me?..").

This party she purposely ignored him until the last moments. Mildred was very upset. "I should have continued developing our relationship back in when I was seventeen... Instead I followed the strongest. I was weak." The street lamp light glared down. Ground glittered with rather large snowdrifts, that if Mildred would step into one of them, the deepest hole she makes is up to her knee. Such big snowdrifts suggested presence of slippery ice somewhere, Mildred thought. Knowing her abilities, she would avoid them. It became a necessity to have a companion.

She looked around once again. Outside of Jeffrey's yard she could see vagueness. It is that sort of feeling when you know that you, despite your wish, can't stay in comfort zone, but it is also tempting to see what is outside. Once you're out of former bounds, you feel a need to watch, watch very closely the place you left until it becomes no more the place it was...

Light. It was still light. Mildred got nervous. "I have to go", she thought. A little fragment of some song flashed across her mind:

When a lonely lady strives for a goal
That she couldn't achieve for her life,
She seeks to revive her weary soul
For the love of friends who are not alive...

When a lonely lady makes tries to find
Her soul mate whom she lost
She seeks to leave alone her mind and past
For a man who'll love her the most.

Mildred liked it, but she never related herself to it. However, now she got enough experience to realize a simple truth - she has failed at many things in her life, starting from having no use of knowledges she's got during education and finishing with relationship-wise failures like this. "What did I do in my life? Well, I got education, I got nice job... A job which I was fired from few weeks ago. I should give up living in entertainment and find new job."

"When a lonely lady strives for a goal..."
Mildred unwittingly circled in a dance, holding her own shoulder like it was another person - her partner. She loves him, he loves her, what a lovely romance of the young. But it wasn't going to happen. Mildred is not a girl any more. She is not young, nor her partner is going to be young. Her youth has gone years ago, perhaps when she became thirty, or earlier. She thought that there will be enough time to find 'the man of her life'. Unfortunately for Mildred, she couldn't use her life effectively, and thinking about it almost made her cry. A thought about that man on the party dawned upon her mind. Mildred knew this man and talked to him. He was quite grumpy, but he was old, too.

Lights off. Last moments. Comfort zone shrunk - now it was a very little circle rounding the entrance (as there was still light, because the guests didn't exit the house yet). She precisely watched the entrance, standing still, bating her breath. She could hear nothing but steps in the house.
Waiting, in a way as hard as it can be...
"After all, we can change our destiny, can't we?" Mildred thought.

Jeffrey and his girls were coming from the house. One girl had a beautiful sleek mink coat (unlike Mildred's "heavy furry jacket"). Another girl was dressed rather poor - down-padded coat with no fur whatsoever. Jeffrey was smiling to his girls as they were smiling to him. He was hugging that girl with no fur on her outfit.

Mildred, trying not to notice the coming lovers, ran hastily against them straight into the house. Jeffrey shouted, "Where are you going, girl?" Mildred didn't answer, and as she expected Jeffrey didn't care much. He was all about his girls then.
She entered the house and called loudly, "George! Can you take me home, please?" George, puzzled by her almost crying voice, said, "No. I should stay here 'til J. come home..." Mildred pleaded, "Please, George! Jeffrey won't be against it, I know!"
"No", was his answer.
"George, you know... Jeffrey mentioned that he's inclined to discharge you. I heard you did something wrong... and, the dog is getting old, as he said."
George didn't believe but it took him few seconds to think this, and it was enough for Mildred to take his arm and direct him to the exit.

Now, finally, it wasn't as scary as when Mildred was alone here. They passed the courtyard and walked away to the bus stop.
"It's the beginning of new life. I'll find new job for both George and me. We really can change our destiny! I should say it feels so good when you do rash things."

...

Rash actions are good, especially when your soul is calling for new life, tired of your routine boring existence. But Mildred, as boring as she is, sought something that would correspond to her lifestyle. This action leaded her firstly to a very rich life with a man who doesn't say much and always there for her. But then, she wasn't really happy, whiling away her time for something better, something that she doesn't know what.