Story - An afternoons Viewing

Anna sat at the table, a drink in one hand and her face cupped in the other. She sat alone daydreaming, her thoughts very quiet in a place that was bursting with sound. She had found a table in the corner of the pub, away from the claustrophobia of the bar. This service area a wash with men socialising in harmonious thirst. Men of all statures and features their faces sharing an animated torture, awaiting the decision of who would buy the next round.

This aggravation, soon relieved and conversations resumed. sarcasm ruled here. Projectile comments turned to peer pressured laughter, sending vibrations though the floor boards and snapping her out of her daydreams with a poisoning of the ears.

Fully awake now, and facing the deflated Coca-Cola in front of her, Anna lifted the glass to her mouth to take a sip of the liquid, just about able to make out the sounds of its last dying bubbles.

The wall in front of her seemed very ordinary, that of the red brick kind, and aged. She now studied its flaws and facets,some of its three dimensions hidden from her.

She noticed a stream of light from a hole in the wall with a settling of dust in the air, the light making one patch of her jumper a lighter shade of blue. The hole from which it was coming from now intrigued her in her boredom. She felt drawn to look through it, unaware of how others where staring at her and making comments of insanity behind her back. She didn't seem to care, as her concentration was purely stuck on the hole in the wall. Her eye pressed tightly against it, she observed another room, somewhat identical to that she was in, but the atmosphere, attire and purpose of the place was different.

" Ladies and Gentlemen, may I have your attention. Tonight we have the pleasure of introducing Anna to our entertainment's. Please welcome the lovely Anna."

It was like watching a movie set in the past, as the girl called Anna who looked exactly like her, engaged in a dance sequence that appeared to her to be the cancan. The crowd of well dressed gents in their boaters, crisp white shirts and neck ties, applauded her as she danced through a three number routine.

Anna could hardly believe her eyes, witnessing herself on the other side of the wall. The girl Anna after finishing her routine started to walk towards the wall that Anna was peering through. The girl Anna pressed her eye tightly up against the hole in the wall. Anna withdrew in shock, pinned to her seat and unable to speak.

" your mad you are, what do you think your doing ."

A pot bellied pig of a male that she didn't know, addressed her accusingly, and she fully believed him.

" Well Anna, what have you got to say for yourself?"

How did he know who she was. Some how, she came unstuck from her chair and started to make for the door. As she walked shakily across to the other side of the pub and man was making an announcement.

" Ladies and Gentlemen, may I have your attention. Tonight we have the pleasure of introducing Anna to our entertainment's. Please welcome the lovely Anna."