Yellow

Yellow Lipstick

Martha lived alone in a studio apartment right outside a small city. She sits at her window contemplating all the lives beyond her sight. A vast few of cars set in motion, trees swaying, occasionally a few birds would fly up to the telephone wires to perch for a while. Everything was the same. Things remained constant.  As she neared the end of her cigarette, she blew out the smoke through the window screen and pressed the cigarette onto a plate of an unfinished sandwich. She knew she wasn't going to finish it, but its 1pm and she hadn't eaten all day.

    If the walls in her apartment could talk, they would only tell of sighs. Everything in Martha's apartment drenched in lonesomeness and boredom. That vase on the end table that never has flowers. The cup for her pens that is always empty because she happens to leave all her pens else where. Countless of journals that she has purchased without a single word written in them. Perhaps they ache for attention.

    After a while, Martha goes to her closet to get dressed. She pulls a beige shirt off a hanger along with overalls with a company logo: Sandlers Stems. She finished up by putting on   a natural salt quarts deodorant that her friend Jane insisted on her buying, and fixing her hair up in a bun. She grabs a jean jacket that already has her keys and wallet in the pockets and leaves her apartment.

    Martha walks down the sidewalk looking up at the tips of the buildings that edge against the blue sky. She fixates her attention to the people behind the windows of each building she crosses. They are all living their own lives. Her attention then gravitates to random sounds going on around her, listening to all the different voices and sounds coming from strangers that past her.

Couples holding hands.

She hears laughter.

She sees them smiling.

    A faint breeze finds its way under her jacket. The jacket lifts gently. She moves her arm to stop her jacket from lifting and continues walking down to the corner of the street. She stops at a small shop and walks in. The door rings as she opens it.  A woman who is kneeling behind the counter says, "Hi, welcome to Sandlers Stems. I'll be with you shortly." Martha continues to walk inside and goes behind the counter to take off her jacket. The woman stands up and fixes her shirt that had risen up. She looks at Martha, "Oh its you." She laughs. "Mar, you're not going to believe this... I had the craziest dream last night. And I know what you're going to say, Jane... I know when you talk to me about your dreams you're just going to turn them into ideas and try to make them become reality, but I will then answer to you by saying... yes thats correct, but... this one is a good one."

Martha replies, "I don't sound like that, and I am always curious about the dreams you have."

Jane continues to do an impression of Martha, "I don't sound like that. Blah blah blah. Okay so you know that guy across the street who always sits outside of Espresso Express?"

"I do, yes. You always say how hot he is. Everyday."

"I had a dream where he came into the shop to buy some of our lovely assortments... Tiger Lillies and White Roses to be exact. And I thought, 'Hmm, maybe it'll turn out to be a situation where he's noticed how beautiful I am and he wants an excuse to talk to me'. So I took him to the counter to pay." She pauses. "You know what he did next?"

Martha laughs, "Jane, I have no clue please tell me."

Jane laughs historically, "He says thank you. And just leaves! Then he walks over back to the coffee shop to a girl and hands HER the flowers."

"I've never seen him with a girl before."

"Exactly! Now I know Im not really the jealous type, but man! Apparently I can't get a hot guy... even in my dreams! This girl even wore yellow lipstick. Who knew he was into things like that?"

Martha walks over to a shelf to grab a pair of gloves. "Jane, this was a dream. I doubt that he is."

Jane does the same and they both walk outside to tend to the flowerbeds outside the storefront windows. "My dreams may be weird, but small pieces seem to lead on to weird things happening to me when I wake up." She turns her head across the street to see if  the guy was at his usual spot. He wasn't yet. She turns back around.

Martha adds, "Maybe he does have someone. A wife? Maybe children too."

"Mar! No! You will not ruin my fantasy. If any part of my dream was true, I would rather have a crush on a random guy who has a fetish with the color yellow rather than a guy who is actually married!"

     They both laugh and continue another conversation.

    Martha and Jane neared the end of the flowerbeds. The sound of a store door bell rings across the street. They both turn their head in hopes that the guy was the cause of the sound. It was. He entered Espresso Express. Martha turns back to the flower beds and continues to pull out the old flowers and exchange them with fresher ones. Jane continues to look. A few moments pass and the guy comes back out from the store with a cup of coffee and a lemon cake wrapped in a napkin. He sits on a chair underneath an umbrella. Jane gasps. She shakes Martha's shoulder. Martha being dazed and interrupted in thought says abruptly, "What?!"

Jane shrieks, "YELLOW!"

Martha turns to look at Jane and then completes the turn to observe the guy holding a yellow lemon cake. "Huh, well look at that."

"I AM looking, Mar. I must be psychic."

Martha continues to look, "Or he was hungry and lemon cakes are one of the very few foods that they have there."

Jane shakes her head. "No. It's defiantly a sign... maybe I'm and the girl in the dream. Maybe I have to buy some yellow lipstick." She looks at Martha in excitement.

    Jane turns back to the flowerbeds and adds more soil. She perks her lips in thought and quietly says, "But who would wear yellow lipstick. I mean, definitely not me. It wouldn't look good with my uniform." They finish off the soil and Jane goes back inside to the store. Martha takes off her gloves and wipes off any soil that was on her clothes. She takes one last look at the guy across the street before she walks back into the store. He looks up and meets her gaze and smiles. She smiles back.

    Martha walks back into the store and sets her gloves back on the shelf. She goes up to Jane and puts her hand on her shoulder. "Maybe yellow lipstick would be good for you. Everyone needs a little change once in a while."