Mia and the Crack in the Sidewalk

The bus shelter in the rain was crowded with commuters huddled as far away as possible from the buckets of cold water being dumped from the clouds overhead. Traffic moving slowly through the streets occasionally sent unwelcome showers from puddles amongst the group. The smell of fresh mint drifted from the market nearby providing some relief from the dreary day. Mia could almost taste it as it mixed with the rain bringing back an almost forgotten memory of an afternoon teatime in a London eatery. While browsing through the Tate Modern, she had bumped into an old schoolmate who convinced her to join him for tea. What transpired would read like an old Danielle Steel novel! Lost in her thoughts, Mia almost missed her bus as she hurriedly squeezed through the black and tan trench coats surrounding her to dash up the steps just as a loud thunder-clap boomed overhead.

Settled into her cubbyhole at the Call Center thirty minutes later, Mia told herself yet again that she must get busy looking for a new job. Though she liked the people she worked with, a dead-end job was not the most exciting in the world and needless to say, not too good on the self-image either. It could be time to pull out those dreams that were folded away in her old journals and see about pursuing them. Maybe that sniff of fresh mint under the bus shelter earlier that morning had started something! Mia’s gaze locked on the picture that hung on the wall across from her cubicle that she had seen a million times before but only now really saw for the first time. A sidewalk with a crack was being jumped over by a small child who looked down at that crack as if it was an insurmountable obstacle. But in her expression, there was delight along with the thrill of a risk taken about to be rewarded with success. The little girl in the picture was calling out to Mia to follow her, to take the risk, to jump with anticipation and determination.

On the bus ride home that evening long after the rain had pulled itself back into the clouds, Mia found yesterday’s daily newspaper laying on the seat she found herself settling quickly into and began to thumb through its pages. An ad for an art museum caught her eye just as she was tossing the paper aside. At the same instant, horns honking diverted her attention out the window where she saw a big, green bus narrowly missing the back of a taxi pulling out from the City Hotel a little too hastily. Much to Mia’s surprise the side of the bus was covered with the same ad she had just noticed in the newspaper! As the moving bus she was on left the colorful ad far behind, she turned back to read its description word for word. A new art museum was due to open in the Sweet Ivy District of the city this summer, classes would be offered, some positions were still available and the deadline for checking into everything of interest to Mia was tomorrow! Could she actually do it? Could she step over that crack in the sidewalk that was set before her?

What dream is waiting for me to follow, what risk that seems impossible to take, what sidewalk crack beckons for me to jump over with the sparkly eyes of excitement I remember as a child?