A Bad Day for an Urban Sasquatch

By Colin Reed

Herman, having recently been made redundant, is being fussily groomed by his wife as she perfects the state of his suit he is obliged to wear for a job interview that morning. He is used to wearing overalls for work, and being generally casual or careless in his ordinary, everyday, dress sense.To walk the streets like a tailor's dummy is completely uncharacteristic of him, but he has to do it because he needs to work. He would have preferred not to exist today. It was like going on a dangerous recce into enemy lines, away from the security of his home in which he can find his true self expression. Like a glass of water to a man wandering through a desert, the music in his head is his only means of survival.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Colin Reed
• Release date: Jun 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311045102

Colin Reed

From Blackpool Uk. Am beyond 65yrs old now. Not had a career, but have had plenty of different jobs at different social levels. I enjoyed being an archaeologist and my self-employment in building work, as well as a short spell as a toymaker. Educated at state school, private religious boarding school and also on the streets of Europe. Married to Barbara, we have two sons, and three grandchildren.

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A Bad Day for an Urban Sasquatch

By Colin Reed

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Published at Smashwords 2016

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Copyright 2016 Colin Reed

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Cover Illustration arranged by Alex Reed

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'Sweet Child of Mine!' cursed Herman to himself in despair, as he considered his reflected image in the mirror of the hallway of his home. He hated wearing a suit and tie. It was bad enough having to cut his shaggy, long hair to a short back and sides. But today, he had to subject his stout, slightly overweight, and occasionally, lumbering frame, to walk the streets like a tailor’s dummy. It eroded his confidence to the core. It was only for one day only, he hoped. He had never been used to it. He was always more comfortable in jeans, trainer and T shirt.

In contrast, and for the first time since their wedding some ten years ago, his wife Mahindra could feel proud of him. With narrow, bronze fingers of hands which belonged to a nervously active, and much slimmer, body than her husband's, she completed the job of arranging his clothing. It was a job that he was incapable of doing himself. So it was left to her to create a good, external image to world in her husband. If he had put his underpants on back to front, then that was his problem, not hers, since they would not be on view.

'Come on. Hurry up and get on with it,' thought Herman in the continuing frustration of his impatience. 'Finished with my woman 'cos she wouldn't let me dress myself…' he delved into the music inside his head. He wanted a different rhythm of life to the one he was painfully experiencing just now. The day couldn't finish soon enough for him.

Mahindra, straightened the lapel of his suit and, with the back of her hand, brushed off a piece of dandruff, visible to her eyes only. Herman allowed her busy fingers to groom the material. ‘Everything has got to look right.’ She spoke with assertiveness and insistence. 'The men in my office look very handsome in suits, and there's no reason why you can't look as good as they do.’ She worked in an accountants’ office. He had been a steel worker until he had been made redundant last month, and he had been looking studiously for work ever since. Today could be the day when all that could change. Hence the suit and tie, and the carefully manicured image. 'You have to look your best for the interview.'

He had been invited to the Job Centre