Wednesday, February 22, 2006

What if she's boring?

I only have a moment, but I want to write about this woman--I'll come back to her, someone should put her in a novel.

5'7". A little taller than me.

Straw coloured hair halfway down her back. Almost 80's big hair. Curly, obviously teased. Parted at the side, no bangs. It looks oily and the individual curls stick together--an unwashed rather than a coifed ropiness.

She is thin and wearing a peasant skirt, it has a big pattern like fall leaves, is full and drops to midcalf. Her tank top is yellow, loose and low cut. I look away when she bends down. Her breasts sway when she walks--no bra. I feel like a snob or a prude, but I just don't want to see them.

Her espadrille sandals are laced about 6 inches up her calves.

She wears a trollop's make up. Fake tan, red lips, heavily lined eyes.

What grabs me is that she has to be about 80 years old. The skin on her thin brown arms and calves in not just wrinkled. It looks like a seamstress carefully gathered it into pleats and folds. It drapes over bones without any intervening flesh.

The lines on her face are deep and her red lipstick bled back onto her lips--sort of vampirish.

What is this woman's story? She could be mad. She could be defiant. She could be apathetic. Maybe she just hasn't gone shopping since she was 35. She could be about a million different things. I have no category for her and I am deathly curious. I almost prefer to make up a story--what if she turned out to be dull?