The Challenge

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 Ted lowered himself slowly into the old, rickety chair, arranged as one of about 20 in a circle. Posters had been lovingly set up at the front of the room, with irritatingly uplifting phrases on them. One banner embarrassingly loudly proclaimed “The Twelve Steps”.

Ted glanced around his periphery, not wanting to appear to stare, not wanting to accidentally draw someone else into conversation. This gaggle of misfits was about the sorriest sight he’d ever seen. Though – some of them looked, somehow, normal?

A banker looking type, a Mum whose young daughters quietly played with their Barbies in the corner of the room, a woman wearing the outfit of a librarian and the pained expression of a woman badly in need of a drink.

Across from Ted glowered a tall, solidly built bloke, who had clearly left his Patch at home but had not forgotten his face tattoos. Ted avoided eye contact with this bundle of joy the most. He breathed through his enormous nostrils, reminding Ted of being nose to nose with a bull. Next to BullFace was, most terrifying of all – a Nun. Ted shuddered as a light breeze from the past rumbled across his shoulders. He’d rather take his chances with BullFace.

A kind looking man in his early 50s, or thereabouts, began speaking. “I’d like to welcome everyone to the Friday night Belrose meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, my name is Ken and I’m an alcoholic”

Quick as a flash, before Ted could even process locating the nearest exit, explaining to no one that it had all been a terrible mistake, he wasn’t supposed to be here, that it had all been an elaborate misunderstanding between him and a brick wall, the room melodically chanted “Hi Ken”.

Bullface’s wide, delighted eyes confirmed it. He was stuck.

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