I parked my white Nissan Rogue outside of her house. I chose the spot right in front of the hydrant. It would only be a few minutes. I had to drop off some groceries. It was a dead-end street. I assumed no cops would be coming by. She led me to the front door. It was white with a glass frame in the middle. Upon entering the home, I could smell Tide laundry detergent in the laundry room. It was the first room when you enter the two-family house. The sound of the dryer was just going off. Ding, ding. The blue light shut off when the dry cycle was over. She leads me to another door. The real entrance to their part of the home. There’s a corkboard when family photos all over it. Alex when she was 5 with cake smeared in hair. Her sister graduating from college. Her dad starting his home improvement business. Their floors were light wood. You could hear the dogs feet pattering against it when they walked. Alex’s room was the best I ever have seen. She had a whole floor to herself. Walking through the kitchen to her room, you can smell spaghetti cooking. We walked down the carpeted steps to her room in the basement. The carpet is beige and it covers the stairs and her entire room. The room was so big she even had a chocolate-colored couch in there for herself. Her sheets were lavender and her duvet was freshly washed. She had 4 white decorative pillows. One of them was shimmery. Her tv was sitting atop of a long table. Next to her tv was her collection of funko pops she had acquired through the years. Her vanity closet was sort of old. The wood was chipping and its paint was faded. Her lesson planner lay on the floor next to it. The morning rush was evident. Her hairbrush on the floor, the hairdryer still plugged in, and work shoes strewn across the papers. She had a walk-in closet. The clothes and shoes were labeled for the season. She hid her favorite food in there under a black bin. The room made me jealous. She had all this space for herself to herself. It was what I dreamed of having someday. We walked back upstairs and I . could still smell the Tide.
As she stumbled through what felt to be a doorway, the stench of joop cologne lingered in the air. Through her blurred peripheral, she notices a tall, brooding shadow, just feet away from her. In her panic, she trips over a box, and lands on a futon. As she desperately tries to catch her breath but to not breathe too loud, thoughts of survival or lack there of swarm through her head.
She was exquisite. Even if I was the only one who saw her that way.
Her skin reminded of peaches. Soft and red, like a newly born baby. A Mona Lisa smile was permanently kept on her face. Her honeyed, petite lips were consistently curved into a mysterious expression. She reminded of me of character inside of Nancy Drew novel.
Her eyes consumed me. Blue like the Icarian Sea, with specks of yellow like sunlight dancing on the water. Her eyelashes only made the diamond shape of her eyes more prominent. With eyelashes so dark and thick, you could hold all your love on top of it.
Her face held the shape of a heart, like a reflection of the kind of soul she held. Her freckles were like constellations along her face. Perfectly placed by God like paint on canvas. They surrounded her nose. So small and delicate, you almost felt an urge to touch it. A nose so elegant it reminded you of Kensington Palace.
The hair that framed her beauty was black like the darkness of the night, almost daring you to come inside. Allowing you to be consumed by the shadows of it blowing in the wind.
She may not have been beautiful to others, but to me she was perfect.
Sibyl Randolph
ENW 302
Prof. Walia
Assignment: The tea kettle that whistled….
The aroma of good cooking hit Della as soon as the elevator opened on the ninth floor. She was looking forward to the meal more than the family night gathering, but obligation forced her to be there. As usual, she was late, but she happily greeted her big brother Eddie, her sister Trisha and her parents Mary and Eddie, Sr. After her usual greetings she put her contribution to the meal on the oven and joined the family around the dining table. Eddie and her father were at one end of the table watching the baseball game on the TV atop a tv stand that also served as a mini bar which held some Johnnie Walker, gin, rum and wine along with the bar ware appropriate for scotch on the rocks or a gin and tonic. Eddie and Eddie, Sr. were enjoying the game and talking trash.
‘Mom where are the tea bags?’ There is some in the cabinet on the left next to the sugar and coffee. I bought you the kind you like when your stomach needs soothing.’ Della hated when her mother pointed out how nervous she gets sometimes, especially when she was around family. Thankfully, the tea kettle whistled and she was distracted from her annoyance with her mother and busied herself with getting some lemon and honey to make a calming cup tea.
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