What's The Worst... Chapter 15

Clare didn’t quite dance her way through the passing people… but she certainly had a knack for travelling easily amidst the general flow of the busy high street.

To be fair it wasn’t exactly Regent Street, but the ability of gaggles of mothers with pushchairs going this way and that, the old folks making their steady and deliberate progress and the bag laden general shoppers to impede one’s own progress was truly astonishing.

There was always the option of adopting the anti-social approach of just picking your target location, dropping your head forward and marching, but that was neither British, nor always successful… pedestrian versus pushchair usually results in tripped pedestrian and an indignantly squawking mother.

The human traffic had been reasonably light in the roads just outside Kevin’s club, but these were still open to vehicular traffic. About 100 yards further up at the junction between the through road and the pedestrianised main street the people thronged between the old shopping mall on the east side and the main shopping centre on the west side, including the new shopping mall.

Trisha and Clare had turned in the direction of the more major crowds, in the hope that this would allow them to complete their distribution most quickly and effectively. Each had a small bundle of fliers in one hand, pushing them one at a time into any accepting hand that reached forward; it seemed that urban man had become trained to accept loose bits of paper and card that were shoved in their general direction; it had become an instinctive, unconscious action.

As such their respective piles were diminishing quite quickly. Clare kept glancing over her shoulder back at Trisha, a huge grin across her face. Trisha couldn’t help but smile back. The effect on those around them was obvious to see; another instinctive human reaction is to smile back when somebody smiles at you.

Dorothy flowed carefully through their wake of fleeting happiness. She could clearly see the faces coming toward her brighten, nod, pause and then slowly revert back to wherever they’d started. The duration of the cycle varied from person to person, and some were clearly oblivious to pleasantness, resentful of others happiness, but they were a definite minority.

It occurred to Dorothy that some were simply unaware of the world around them; lost in their own reality.

Her own smile faded a little at the thought of those closed, preoccupied minds but then that was the modern world.

She continued to follow the two girl’s steady progress as the throng grew steadily thicker.