Written with my Thursday night group with the prompts: he spotted me, stronger investment, dangerous, everybody knows your name, raining each day, water gets hot, warning-this bag is not a toy, dynamite, one muddy boot, luggage, tickle of dew on my toe, bright night air, out the door
He spotted me at the department store pocketing one of the more expensive tubes of coral lipstick. Dynamite Sunrise it was called, a very sudden shade of red.
He caught up with me in the luggage department, stood between me and the door, looking like a boy scout in his trim blue blazer and narrow navy tie. He had an ear piece and a plastic pocket protector. He looked as silly as the warning on a cellophane bag telling you not to give it to your baby to play with.
I decided to head upstairs. To lingerie.
I took the long way around, passing through china patterns and cutlery, counter-top appliances, fondue pots and espresso machines, hats, gloves, umbrellas, patent leather purses and boots. I wanted something more challenging, a stronger investment like a watch or a pair of gold dolphin earrings, maybe a silk scarf or an ostrich skin belt. But I knew I’d have to settle for something small, lace panties maybe or a pair of decorative socks. I knew I’d disappoint myself.
I stopped to check my hair in a full-length mirror and I saw him charging up. He thought he was dangerous, but he wasn’t. “Everybody knows your name,” he said as he came up behind me. Ah, now I was intrigued, but I couldn’t risk it. I dropped the lipstick on the carpet and walked into the mirror. I slipped back into the bright night air of my home base, feeling the immediate tickle of dew on the toes of my right foot. I looked down to discover that like Cinderella I’d left one shoe behind, a muddy hiking boot I’d been wearing for the past week and a half. I could see the hapless guard through the still shimmering portal, gaping at the boot and the Dynamite Sunrise. I had a moment of regret at my hasty departure, but it’d been raining each day and the river water was getting hotter and hotter. I needed to get out the door while I still could. But the lipstick, I’d really wanted that lipstick. Well, not the lipstick so much as the color.
We have nothing like red here. I just wanted to show it off. A mark of my boldness. A trophy on my lips.
Photo by Ashley Piszek on Unsplash
