Deteriorated

         Though, it was hardly apparent now, in front of me were a pair of the most beatiful eyes. A shadowed version of what they were, I think to myself, as I return the framed picture to its rightful place and my gaze to a face that was no longer picture perfect. Thirty more years had come and gone since her senior year in high school and taken away their vibrancy. They were now taken over by emptiness and the blue had dulled to a neutral gray. Enclosed in wrinkled skin and underlined by a baggy darkness that can only be caused by restlessness her eyes darted from her computer screen to the cigarette she had left unattended. Not much was left of it and she put out the burning filter and lit a new one. After inhaling deeply she placed it on the side of a full ashtray to rest. A stream of smoke flew from her mouth and exploded into a cloud as it bounced off the computer screen and enveloped her. I fixed my eyes on her hair as the haze lifted. A washed out blonde that ran from the middle of her back almost to the top of her head where it met a greasy black growth sprouting three inches from her scalp. I examined the photo once more and recognized how distinctive her eyes used to look when complemented by her hair; the naturally dark brown hair that fell beneath the edges of the picture. I brushed my fingers across her full, and smiling lips wishing I could go back in time to catch a glimpse of this person I had never known.
         “Mom?” I called to her.
         Coming out of her zone she glanced at me quickly as if she hadn’t known I was there, “What is it now?” She replied in a rough, congested voice as she tapped some ashes off of her cigarette and took a drag. Her attention returned to the screen in front of her.

Written for: "Invalid Item"   by A Guest Visitor