E-mail: angelchildr@freaky.nu
Rating: PG
Summary: A connection between two people that never come closer than a room apart.
Distribution: http://penned-insanity.freaky.nu/ (My site) or ask.
Author's Note: Feedback always welcome.

* * * *

I spy her across the half-empty restaurant where she sits alone at a table and gazes out the window. It reflects her image so that I can see twins of one woman, both sets of eyes mirroring a kind of low, calm sadness that betrays some of the life she's lived. That she seems comfortable enough being seated alone belies the fact that she leads a solitary life; that seating another person at her table would make her as nervous and uneasy as dining alone makes most people.

I study her more, aware that if she were to turn her head only a few degrees to the left, she would find herself being watched, catch me staring. But somehow I seem to know that she would take even that in stride, most likely returning her gaze to the view out the window, so I allow myself to continue my survey of her.

She reaches one hand up from where it'd rested on the tabletop and separates a tiny section of her hair, absently winding it around her fingers. A soft smile plays around the corners of her lips, and I wish I knew whether it was a thought from her own mind or something she spied out the window that caused it. The smile, though small, proves what a change a single expression can create in a person. When she smiles, she is pretty.

It isn't a conventional sort of pretty, and she probably never thinks of herself that way, but it is a real sort of beauty. One that includes everything she's experienced that's ever changed her.

She has stories inside of her, of this I'm certain. Stories that only she knows. I wish I could go over, ask her to share just one of them. Ask her to create another one with me. But even as I watch, she finishes her drink and stands, setting enough money on the table to cover her bill and tip, and walks out the door, leaving me to turn and gaze out the window, a smile playing at the corners of my lips.

* * * *

Send feedback!