A Fable

A neat and clean-shaven young man is taking the subway to Manhattan to begin his first day on the first regular job he has ever had. He feels happy, thanks to his new status as a middle-class office worker, the prospect of being able to buy things that he has always wanted, and the day’s invigorating weather. Indeed, he is in love with the whole world because of the optimism and self-confidence infused by his new career. When he spots a beautiful young blond, who is evidently out shopping with her mother, he is so strongly attracted that he cannot help staring.

"A Fable" originally appeared in The Midwestern University Quarterly, 1966:no.3.
It also appeared in Sudden Fiction: American Short-Short Stories, (Gibbs M. Smith, 1986)