As I walked home on my lunch break, I saw a glimpse of long, wavy, brown hair. Just for a second and I thought, no it can’t be, but I had to see for sure. I walked past a dead tabby cat that lay rotting in the street flies landing on it and having their feast. I peered into the thrift store I had saw the hair disappear into.
I looked, and just as I had thought right next to the sweaters filled with mothballs and a leather jacket that looked like it had seen its fair share of wear, I saw her. I saw Mara.
Except of course it wasn’t Mara, it was her daughter, she’d grown taller, and her face seemed to have matured though she couldn’t have been older than 11.
“Mommy, can I have this” she held up a small purple dress that flowed and looked like it was meant for a much older girl. Her mother didn’t even look and just waved her away.
The small petite woman that I had seen 10 months previous was no longer there, she was quite large now, particularly around her midsection, where it appeared she was with child. She looked tired, with large dark bags under her eyes, and I didn’t see the husband anywhere in sight.
“Mommy please, can you just look please” the now largely pregnant petite woman shook her head and waved the girl away again.
“Not now darling, mommy’s busy” the girl huffed and threw the dress back on the rack. She started heading toward me, and I moved quickly out of her way. She began walking up the block, and I quickly went after her. She was wearing a pretty little blue dress, with white frills on the edges, you don’t see many little girls dressed like her anymore, like a little girl, she looked lovely, so innocent and pure. It was the only thing distinguishing her from Mara. Her little black buckled shoes were tapping on the ground, and her long hair swayed. She briskly walked down the sidewalk, she didn’t even look behind her to see if her mother was coming after her. She looked both ways before crossing a street; it made me nervous to see her doing something so dangerous she needed to be safe.
“Hey,” she turned slightly, and when she saw me began walking even faster, a car honked at her. It wasn’t her light. “Little girl! Where are you going? Shouldn’t you wait for your mom?” she stopped in her tracks and turned to me, spinning on her little polished black heels.
“She’s not my mother” she huffed, wringing her hands “She just pretends to be, I’m adopted, and now that they’re having a real baby they don’t want anything to do with me, they want to return me” she put her hands into the pockets of her dress. “I won’t let them return me I’m going away, somewhere far from here and I’m not coming back” I laughed, and the sound of it startled me, I had almost forgotten I was capable of such a human thing. She furrowed her brow, and she looked so much like Mara I had to ask.
"Would you like to come with me?"
YOU ARE READING
The Tinted Sky
Roman d'amourWhen Nathan's wife Mara is killed in a mugging downtown, Nathan plunges into a dark place. As he goes between the flashes of his life and the flashes of his wife, Nathan loses touch of what is real and what is now a part of a long gone past.
