Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS WRITER.
Once upon a time there was a group of people at a party playing ping pong. There were drinks and food and everyone was having a great time. At the party there was a mixture of single friends and couples and even a few children running around.
The ping pong game wasn’t competitive at the start but soon became a real competition. They were playing doubles, round robin style. Everyone was forming teams and lining up to play the winning team.
At some point, someone suggested that there should be a prize. There was a lot of debate about the nature of the prize and it was finally settled that all the losers would have to pitch in and buy the winning team a bottle of decent wine each. Once this was decided it became clear who the wine drinkers were.
Bruce and Margie were lined up with everyone else waiting for their turn to play. Everyday Bruce and Margie drank a bottle from the case of Shiraz they kept in the corner of their 2 car garage. None of their friends would have thought that they were so unhappy that they needed to dull the pain of existing together with wine. It had been a number of years since they felt comfortable in each other’s presence without drinking.
One day when work had become routine for both of them and there were no children to distract them, Bruce suggested that they have a glass of wine with dinner. Instead of talking about anything meaningful they discussed the wine and its many aspects and fruity notes. This became how they passed their time together. Because of that they didn’t really know each other anymore.
During the ping pong game they just naturally stood together as a team without speaking. They didn’t know if they could work as a team, especially with something so fast as ping pong. They both stood there waiting for their turn wondering what would happen and wishing they could just step back and not participate. And because of that they were feeling anxious and wanted to be anywhere but standing in that line, together, waiting to play ping pong.
When they were about 3 teams from the table, Bruce had an idea. Without saying a word to Margie, he stepped out of line and grabbed his vintage black and white camera. Bruce announced to the group that he thought such a momentous event should be recorded for posterity.
Margie was left standing in the queue alone while Bruce walked around the table taking photos from various angles. Before long Margie was next in line to play. It became clear that Bruce wasn’t putting down the camera any time soon. In fact he hadn’t glanced in Margie’s direction for over 30 minutes. Margie, as casually as she could, left the line and went inside on the pretence of needing to use the toilet. She stayed inside wondering how her life had ended up like this. Until finally she walked outside to find that the ping pong games was over. Frank and George had been crowned victors and Bruce was busy taking lots of photos of them. It was while watching this scene that Margie realise that this wasn’t the life she wanted. She knew that she had more to offer and wanted a partner in more than just drinking mediocre Shiraz.
Calmly Margie walked over to the hosts and said her farewells. Resolutely she moved towards Bruce and…