122. Hilts on the parking machine

He was beyond his comfort zone. Having to come downtown was one thing, facing her was another. A lifetime of pressures had vaporized into a small lady lying in a bed that folded, a broken bird in a nest. She looked at him with love and not judgment for the first time. His hardened heart was unprepared and he melted. He couldn’t wait to get out of there.

121. Spadina Matress

The memories had faded. The gang of four was long gone, their club dissolved, she was the only one left, cheeks pale with no recollection of the freckles of summer. The clubhouse was not the castle she remembered, it looked dingy and plain. Maybe she had grown up and rampant imagination had succumbed to reality. She didn’t wear her hair in two braids anymore and wondered about the other girls who had shared a life of abandon with her. She thought of next summer with trepidation.

120. Lee Garden

His parents had no idea. If they knew this was how he spent nearly every Sunday morning, heavy headed, foggy minded, they would make him come home and work for his father. This would surely kill his soul. As repulsive as this thought was he recognized that his attempt to tackle the big city, a struggle that should lead to success, was failing fast. He was just about out of ideas… just about.

119. Power station

It wasn’t as impressive as it used to be. At first it made her feel haughty and the ego trip began in earnest. She was in the corner office, she had the power to delegate, take a vacation if she wanted to and pandered to the boss with ease. Now with emptiness and devastation, it had ended abruptly. It slowly dawned on her it was a chance for real life to begin.

118. Streetcar man

For the first time he felt out of control. She had sacrificed a lifetime for him. Raised him, fed him, housed him when she had no reason to, she wasn’t even blood. But to him she was Ma and meant the world. He escaped within himself to say goodbye in a way that was meaningful only to him.