Disclaimer: Just borrowing.
Never Stop
by Echo Norfleet
It had been a long day. All I wanted to do was relax in the afternoon sunshine. I walked out of Forrester with my big, white sunglasses on, to hide the tiny tears slowly streaming down my face.
I had to get out of that place. Usually, I loved my job, my work, my art, but I was feeling old. Chewed up and spit back out, like a piece of gum, on the bottom of someone's shoes, face crushed into the sidewalk, over and over and over...
I'd been designing dresses since I was 4 years old. I made my first sketch in the sandbox.
Younger designers were hip. With it. Cool like that. They knew what was wanted, what was trending. I was old. I was so old!
I was in the middle of the street when I started feeling a little crazy. I didn't know what to do. I started panicking. I was a washed-up fashion designer! I'd been making the same dress for years! I broke down in front of an ice cream man, at an intersection.
"I can't do this anymore!" I screamed, tears pouring from my eyes, beneath my shades.
"Ridge! Ridge, don't you ever stop!" the ice cream man screamed, holding a vanilla cone at me, almost threateningly.
"You don't understand..." I whispered.
"Ridge, you've gotta go on."
"Don't you understand, ice cream man?! I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE!"
"You can never stop! You're the best! You are number one in fashion, man!" The ice cream man gestured around, to the buildings standing tall, and the kids on the school bus, the hobo in the dumpster, the airplane in the sky. "The world can't go on without you." He handed me the hot ice cream cone, which dripped onto the pavement.
I lifted my sunglasses, revealing my red-stained eyes, and I looked up at the clear, blue sky. I watched the airplane nosedive, heading right for the ocean. I nodded my head, my long hair blowing in the wind, and said, "You're right." I turned around, melted ice cream pouring over my hand. "I can never stop."