I'm sitting in the Hall of Flags.
I hear the "duh-duh" of David Ball's synthesizer in the intro to "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell.
I look up from my reading to see a tall, skinny boy dressed in tight jeans and a black t-shirt holding his iPhone out to a shorter girl in tight jeans and a gray blouse.
The boy starts bobbing his head along to the song. As Marc Almond's vocals come in singing "Sometimes I feel I've got to run away, I've got to get away from the pain you drive into the heart of me..." the boy begins to sing along, making the girl giggle in delight, though the boy is horribly out of tune. "You're crazy," she says as she laughs and lightly pushes him and his phone away, clearly sending the message that she wants him to come closer.
I smile to myself as my ankle and knee take on a mind of their own, tapping and swinging along to the beat. "Take my tears and that's not nearly all. Tainted Love..."
The girl starts singing, too. My imagination says she's trying to sing over the boy, who is still seriously off. I find myself humming softly, trying to help the boy find the pitch.
Coming from the opposite direction, a guy is taping his soda cup to the beat. "Duh-duh." I thought it was a happy coincidence at first, but he did it again, and he was smiling.
"We're almost a musical," I thought. "Someone should start dancing."
Just then, the tall, skinny boy did a little hop-step to the beat, and starting shaking his hips. "Don't touch me, please. Can't stand the way you tease."
I love sitting in the halls on campus.
2 comments:
This is a lovely passage.
That is awesome. It must be something about that song. Once I was sitting in the Malt Shoppe and that song came on. Every one started singing (perhaps someone danced); it was the closest I've come to living a musical. Beautiful.
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