Mrs. Martin's Backyard Wonders

Limpid water burst in a hastily flow out of the beast's perfectly
carved mouth, landing heavily continuously into the oversized cast
stone vase resting firmly beneath. The lion's carved mane was
exaggeratedly mighty. Its vermillion glass eyeballs protruded outward
slightly, savagely staring at the curious who sought an eye-to-eye
encounter.

"Now this is what I call a nice piece of art," Guy murmured.

Click clack. Click clack. Henrietta's chunky heels were stepping hard
on the ground again, leaving behind more prints of wide widths. "You
are always abandoning me! Why do you do that, Guy?"

Guy's focus unglued from the water fountain wonder. His analytical
stare persisted through his shaded spectacles. Henrietta's wonky false
eyelashes were the first attention grasper. They made her dark-brown
eyes appear smaller than in their last platonic date.

Henrietta waited with displeasure for his response while struggling to
sharply run her plumped, sweaty fingers through her sooty hair bob.

Guy's mouth opened a bit, showcasing half of his upper front
rabbit-like teeth—a physical trait that he most disliked. He mentally
flipped through his few unused excuses. The realization that he had
used all valid-sounding ones that week hit him. His lips touched again
and stretched horizontally.

Henrietta rolled her eyes. Guy's index finger gently pressed on his
sunglasses. He was safe. His oily face had not contributed to a slight
slip of it. With some contentment, his silence endured.

"Oh . . . you are still worried about that," Henrietta voiced, setting
her unfixable hair free. "It is not that noticeable!"

Guy pulled down his sunglasses, exposing his á la Jean Harlow
eyebrows, and his intense gray eyes, which he often referred to as his
go-to magnets to grasp the attention of women, particularly those with
very lumpy figures. "Ha! You call this unnoticeable? I told you to
trim them, not to thin them."

"Relax!" Henrietta ordered. "They will grow to be bushy and dreadful
again in no time." She stretched out her still very sweaty plumped
hand toward Guy. "Come on. Let's go back."

Guy's visage had turned sour, as he put his shades back on to hide the
mishap. "Just walk. I'll follow."

Henrietta shrugged. She led the way through Mrs. Martin's vivid green
backyard toward a wooden table with transparent glasses filled to the
rim with strong-smelling punch. In a corner they sat, staring at the
guests at other tables who were conversing about vain things that tend
to leave most souls feeling empty around the age in which going
downhill at steady pace is unavoidable.

"When are we leaving?" Guy inquired, resting his elbows on the warm table.

"After I at least say happy birthday to Mrs. Martin."

"How about you do that later on the phone?" Guy suggested.

"Patience!" Henrietta stood up. "I am the one who is now abandoning
you for a while. Try to fit it," she stated, revengefully.

Guy looked around. At another table, a crossed-legged man sat,
enjoying a Cuban cigar, while across him a worried redhead with a
compact mirror in hand checked her foundation and the prominent
contour lines present on her bulbous nose. That sweltering afternoon
had surely contributed to her cakey appearance. Guy looked at others,
but nobody looked at him. His sunglasses made him magnet-less.

Some chirping and screeching coming out of a slightly opened cardboard
box resting a few feet away shifted his focus. Guy marched toward it
and found a stressed green bird in it.

Within minutes, several guests began to surround him. "What is that
you have there?" a short-man wearing a shirt that was two sizes too
small asked.

"I think it is a parakeet," Guy replied, playfully placing it on his
spectacles' top base. The curious guests near him looked at the bird,
but a yell soon interrupted their spontaneous affair.

It was Mrs. Martin. Her right-hand covered her mouth; fingers spread
apart, grasping onto her thin pale skin as if their future movements
depended on it. "Move away from that young man," she demanded,
pointing toward Guy. "That bird has parrot fever!"

Guy could see that all eyes were on him as he swiftly removed his
sunglasses, uncovering the mishap which he had tried so much to hide
from everybody in town in the last few days. The guests walked a few
steps backward while curiously staring at the two new wonders before
them.