Dancing
A load of raucous.
That's what Admiral Boom had called it, staring into his telescope. Two streets away, the shadowed silhouettes of the chimney sweeps were seen. Jumping, kicking, hollering. It was unseemly. And so, Admiral Boom was wheeled back into his house by Mr Binnacle.
His parting words were better left to the imagination.
Not that the sweeps had noticed. They had little care for what happened around them; this was their time to brush the remnants of soot from their faces. To forget, for tonight, their worries and cares.
They had cleared into a circle, one young man dancing on his own. He had been asked to step in time and step in time he would.
Finishing with a flourish, he spun until he could hardly tell which way was up or down. His heel dug into the floor and he came to a stop. Arms flung out to a collection of cheers and whistles.
He always knew how to please a crowd.
Hopping onto a nearby chimney stack, he clung onto the brick, shouting a greeting to another sweep across the roof. The young man was halfway through a laugh when he felt as if someone were watching him.
One look told him that there was nobody else there. Apart from the sweeps. Repressing whatever doubt he had, he hopped back into the circle. Plenty of things were possible but an invisible onlooker was not one of them.
Ø
Brushes in hand, he skipped along the tiles, barely paying attention to where he was stepping. He knew the way well enough.
"See you, Bert."
Glancing over his shoulder, he doffed his cap. "See ya, Tom."
His gaze ran over the empty rooftops, his friends having left for home. That feeling remained. As if he were staring into the eyes of someone who wasn't there.
He decided to think nothing of it. Perhaps the day had been harder on him than he thought. A slight gust of wind caused Bert to shiver, wrapping his thin jacket tighter around him.
He didn't notice the woman behind, perched atop a chimney stack. Holding out her arm, umbrella in hand, the wind lifted her into the air. Not once did she look away from his retreating figure.