The young man traversed the center of the city at night without stalling looking for his would be lover. They said they would be there but weren’t at the spot they said they would be. He had this worried expression on his face and he carried a single rose in his right hand.
The rose was wilting by the minute for every minute that passed without him entrusting the rose to his beloved.
I have to find her, he thought.
He texted her on his mobile phone. Where are you? He wondered if maybe she was ghosting him.
He gauged the many couples hand in hand and thought about how lonely he felt without her around. The city lights were almost like a spotlight on him and this was his performance. Though no one really wondered why he carried the rose with such haste.
Upon entering a bar he saw a woman with brown hair much like his loved one. He maneuvered through the large crowd to get to her and he set his hand on her shoulder. She turned around with a jolt.
It wasn’t her.
“Sorry.”
The woman went back to conversing with her friends. At this point he’s distraught. He circles the floor of the bar when some girls at a table notice him.
“Are you looking for someone?” One of them asks.
“I am. I’m looking for a girl with brown hair, pale skin, she’s really short. Have you seen her around here?”
They all shook their heads.
“Do you want a lollipop?” The same girl asked.
The man thought they were being nice in offering him a treat.
“Sure,” he said.
“One dollar,” the girl said.
The young man was bewildered. It seems they were having a birthday party but were selling would-be party favors at a price. He turned them down and went about his business.
He stepped outside of the bar and surveyed the passerby’s and then looked up at the dark night sky. There weren’t many stars. It was just empty blackness. Which summed up his night pretty well.
He trotted some more, occasionally resting on park benches. He held the rose in his hand and decided it was time to go home. She wouldn’t show. He threw the rose in the trash. It was one of the most painful things he had ever done.
As he was walking a man walked next to him at about the same pace.
“Man I’ve walked all this city looking for this place and I still don’t know where it’s at, man.”
The young man turned to him.
“I understand, I’ve been looking all over for this girl. She said she’d be here and never showed.”
“Sorry to hear that, man,” the man said.
At that point the young man looked up at the roof of the cathedral and a flock of birds took flight in a V-pattern. This is pain, he thought.
Artistic Apathy 