Beauty (two sentences)

[sbraiden]

Her shoulders were freckled and sunburnt and shiney with sweat mixed with tanning oil. Behind her, the wind was blowing in from the covered porch making the curtains billow like a sheer spinaker. The overpowering fragrance of orange blossoms forced her to smile and drink the air in deeply.

Having no one there to share the moment with, her reverie faded and was dispatched abruptly by the sound of the telephone. Perhaps it was the absence of his voice on the other end of the line, or the ache of the wind through the window like a lover's unanswered touch. She felt her limbs uncurl and stretch to reach him, imagined the tiny lines at the corners of his eyes when he smiled, the windburned glow that swept his face, the rugged beauty of his shadow in darkening rooms.

She sat, watching the clouds shift, stealing and revealing sunlight across the floor, much to the dismay of the lounging cat. Twiddling the paintbrush in her hands, she was determined to back to the task at hand. She tormented the cat momentarily with the brush, smiling the smile of a gentle tease.

"Today, Mildew," she whispered to her furball, "today I am going to paint something."

The cat purred, curled gratefully around her feet, threw tiny little sparks of static stars into the air as she rubbed her fur across linen sheet-wrapped legs and skin. And then she saw it -- the arc of a calico back lit by pale porch-thinned sunlight and curtains that peek-a-booed tufted grins, a grimalkin flopped down on the pillows, transformed into a beautiful, sunlit sigh.