Gumption

The sorcerous waves of their hand always made them look just a little bit stupid as they ponced about in their hat the height of your average dog, their hair sticking out from underneath at wild angles. But, despite that, it seemed to me that they carried a speck of grace, a slight hint of certainty.

Sometimes they chose to stride through the cramped space like a two-legged cat whilst they moved their hands, passing down dictates to those working around them, occasionally pointing their fingers across the entire length of the room at anyone who dared to look away for a second. Then, after a few minutes, they’d fall to the ground, shaking, and we’d gather round to lie them straight, head turned to one side, and watch as grainy yellow-green foam dribbled from between their lips.

Before long however they’d come around, like a little electric shock had run its way through them, snatch up their hat from the ground and go about their day, none the wiser.

They were a slight annoyance to the rest of us, but we had always tolerated them, putting up with their antics for the most part with an awkward smile and a roll of the eyes. Better to have to sit though one of these infrequent lectures than deal with the hassle of sending them off. Why bother to get rid of them when we could keep an eye on them by ourselves? Who really wanted them hidden away like a stray in the doghouse, to yowl and scrape at their cell walls?

So we kept them on, listened to their lectures, nodding in all the right places, attention fixed squarely forward as our work was ‘sorted’, and laughing a little behind our hands when they took a turn and tumbled off a doorstep, or cut a finger on glass.

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