The mid-day rush of people frantically making their way to or from lunch swarmed around Kelly as she dodged along the wide, hot sidewalk. Her muted apologies (Sorry!, Excuse me!, I'm so sorry!) were smothered by the buzzing of conversations, traffic and the sound of the world around her. At a little over five feet tall and a tiny bit under 110 pounds, she felt like a (Duck? Water bug? Hamster in a hamster ball thing?) fighting the raging current of a monstrous river. She grinned at the thought of a hamster furiously scrambling in a floating ball before apologizing to a faceless stranger that accidentally elbowed her.
The crowd thinned a few blocks later as she neared her favorite little diner. As was her habit, she glanced at herself in the large windows of the Macy storefront to see if anything was out-of-place. Skirt still where it should be? Check. No under-the-boob sweat spots on my blouse? Check. No toilet paper trailing on my flats- Kelly stopped and turned to look across the street.