Experimental Short: The Strip

I sat at my window as the other kids walked by my home. I can’t remember the details of the day, whether it was a sunny day, cloudy, or if it had rained. I can’t remember what made me ill, or how long it lasted. I may well have been lying in order to take a day off school, I was notorious for that… I can’t remember what the time was, if it was lunch time or after school. I can only remember how I felt when she walked down the street and away, and the pink strip of dye in her hair.

I looked out, she went by, but something made her turn back and smile. She smiled at me, and I smiled back. My body went hot, my heart began to beat so fast it was almost painful. In that moment, with only seeing that simple smile, I fell in love for the very first time. Then she was gone.

The next day I waited by that window, but she never passed by. I waited again the day after that, outside the gate of my house after arriving home from school. She never passed by. I asked others if they knew her, if they had seen her, if they knew of the girl with that unique hair, but they did not. I never found that girl.

Her image became lost to me over time. Was she older or younger than me? Was she a schoolgirl or no? What colour was her skin? What colour were her eyes?

I’m forty-five years old now. I have a wife I love, children who I adore. I’m not sure I would change a thing about my life, but then I close my eyes and picture a smile that I’m not sure was real, and a pink stripe in colourless hair… And I make a guilty wish…