lunch break

I was nibbling on my sourdough and smoked ham sandwich when she approached me. For a second, my mind took me to New York City. I sat in the window staring at the activity on the street, but I couldn't fool myself. New York? Sure, but the buildings were chopped in half and the taxis morphed into cars of all colors - Buicks, Hondas, Chevys, Toyotas and Fords - great staples of the midwest.

She told me I was beautiful. She was old and looked a little disheveled, up to the wart on the tip of her nose, but she was simultaneously beautiful. Sprouts of hair grew on her aged face but her eyes and smile carried something that made me look past her appearance and into her. After she told me I was beautiful, she told me to turn my back to her. I did, puzzled. "Yep," she said with a chuckle, "You're beautiful. Women these days don't look in their rearview mirrors, so to speak."

She proceeded to tell me a story about spotting a beautiful woman, but this woman, she said, was only beautiful standing up. From behind, this woman "looked like a man." She used the word hideous. I laughed this time. She told me that she went to one of the best fashion schools and although she may look like a bag lady now, she still knows beauty when she sees it. Then she bit her tongue and apologized for "talking my ear off." I laughed a genuine laugh, again, and told her that I talk too many ears off. I tell her listening is something I'd like to do more of. So she talked. And I listened.