Probably

Probably Preston Jones quietly closed the door behind him. It was a new day, the start of a new week, in a new place.

The noise and hurry of a new city was a gamble. A faster pace, yes, and no familiar faces.

Except, of course, his girl friend.

“Probably,” she had said firmly, “no one will know.”

Ah, but they would. He knew that — and it made him tremble. He allowed the memories to crowd in again, then made a conscious choice to let go of the hurt.

He pressed the elevator button to take him to the sixth floor. The ambient music did nothing to calm his nerves.

When he got off the elevator, the receptionist greeted him. “Preston Jones?”

He nodded.

“Just a few formalities,” she said. “We need to verify your insurance.”

He saw the machine on her desk which he knew she would feed the card into. He hoped that she wouldn’t look at it carefully.

But she did.

She studied the card and looked back at him. She looked confused. “Mr. Jones, I need some further verfication that this is your card,” she said.

The elevator door opened again behind him. Another person entered the reception area. Probably grabbed the card out of her hand and ran to the open elevator, quickly pressing the button to go to the lobby again.

“You okay, man?” asked another person in the elevator, detecting the stress in the newest passenger.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine,” said Probably, starting down at his insurance card that read “Probably Preston Jones.” It matched his driver’s license.

Would he have to spend the rest of his life explaining that his mother named him Probably?

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This is my response to MLMM’s Wordle challenge this week in which we are challenged to use these words in a post: machine, tremble, quietly, detect, firm, hurt, noise, hurry, pace, pressed, let, music.