Status: Complete.
I Was Married to the Sun
On a Day Bled White with Rage
Hazel should have realised it was hopeless. Casting about as she stepped into the street, she'd caught a glimpse of green disappearing around a corner but by the time she reached that spot, the girl had vanished from sight. Groaning in frustration, Hazel tugged at the ends of her scarf and turned back towards the coffee shop, the phrase reverberating in her head.
"Where'd you rush off to, Hazelbee?" Donnie asked as she reentered.
"I just -" It was then that Hazel realised she had no explanation for where she'd gone, she didn't even know herself why she'd followed the girl. She sat back behind her laptop and sighed. "I don't know, I just wanted to ask that girl a question but I lost her."
"Well, she's heading towards regular status, why don't you ask her the next time she comes in?" Donnie suggested, replacing the now cold latte with a fresh one.
"That's probably a better idea than roaming the streets looking for her," Hazel admitted, wrapping her fingers around the mug to warm them.
In fact, Donnie's idea would have been absolutely perfect had the girl actually shown up. It seemed whatever she'd intended to do had been accomplished with the line of casual graffiti, although it was a week before Hazel could accept she wasn't coming back. She couldn't, however, accept that she would never know why.
I was married to the sun... Hazel couldn't get the words out of her head, they resonated right through to her core and she became intensely preoccupied with working out the reason behind them. Typing them into Google had yielded nothing of value, not even a reference to some obscure aspect of pop culture. As far as Hazel could tell, the phrase meant nothing to anyone but the girl who'd written it in the first place, which was unbelievably frustrating.
Hazel found herself venturing out into the city more often, tending towards the areas that catered to a more individual crowd, constantly on the lookout for a certain red headed girl. Anything within a few shades of the green of the girl's coat earned a second glance and closer inspection.
When she began going out of her way to discover other hidden cafes, Hazel knew she was crossing the line into obsession. Her need to find this girl wasn't something she could justify or even explain, but it was driven by her desire to understand the single sentence that had started it all and, somewhat twistedly, was fed by the utterly fruitless search she'd conducted so far.
Ducking through the doorway of a yet another coffee shop, Hazel slipped into a pattern that had become routine. Seeing that the room was empty, she took the longest possible route to the counter, scanning the tables for any sign of the girl's presence. She ordered her caramel latte to go, and on her way out passed whatever tables she hadn't seen coming in.
There, written in the same cursive hand across a table in the corner, was one sentence that proved Hazel hadn't imagined the red head's existence: I was married to the sun in front of an audience of stars.
She left the coffee shop feeling vindicated.
"Where'd you rush off to, Hazelbee?" Donnie asked as she reentered.
"I just -" It was then that Hazel realised she had no explanation for where she'd gone, she didn't even know herself why she'd followed the girl. She sat back behind her laptop and sighed. "I don't know, I just wanted to ask that girl a question but I lost her."
"Well, she's heading towards regular status, why don't you ask her the next time she comes in?" Donnie suggested, replacing the now cold latte with a fresh one.
"That's probably a better idea than roaming the streets looking for her," Hazel admitted, wrapping her fingers around the mug to warm them.
In fact, Donnie's idea would have been absolutely perfect had the girl actually shown up. It seemed whatever she'd intended to do had been accomplished with the line of casual graffiti, although it was a week before Hazel could accept she wasn't coming back. She couldn't, however, accept that she would never know why.
I was married to the sun... Hazel couldn't get the words out of her head, they resonated right through to her core and she became intensely preoccupied with working out the reason behind them. Typing them into Google had yielded nothing of value, not even a reference to some obscure aspect of pop culture. As far as Hazel could tell, the phrase meant nothing to anyone but the girl who'd written it in the first place, which was unbelievably frustrating.
Hazel found herself venturing out into the city more often, tending towards the areas that catered to a more individual crowd, constantly on the lookout for a certain red headed girl. Anything within a few shades of the green of the girl's coat earned a second glance and closer inspection.
When she began going out of her way to discover other hidden cafes, Hazel knew she was crossing the line into obsession. Her need to find this girl wasn't something she could justify or even explain, but it was driven by her desire to understand the single sentence that had started it all and, somewhat twistedly, was fed by the utterly fruitless search she'd conducted so far.
Ducking through the doorway of a yet another coffee shop, Hazel slipped into a pattern that had become routine. Seeing that the room was empty, she took the longest possible route to the counter, scanning the tables for any sign of the girl's presence. She ordered her caramel latte to go, and on her way out passed whatever tables she hadn't seen coming in.
There, written in the same cursive hand across a table in the corner, was one sentence that proved Hazel hadn't imagined the red head's existence: I was married to the sun in front of an audience of stars.
She left the coffee shop feeling vindicated.