Wednesday, July 31, 2013

At the Laundromat

Watched, she pulls the door closed behind her, shutting out the heat that threatens to sweat her dry. Eyes Cast to the floor, she carries a basket of her under-things to a washer in the back and dumps it haphazardly in. A single sock ends up in the neighboring machine, and a pair of striped panties falls to her feet, blue on grey and lace edged. She scrambles after the sock first, lips tight with heat and consternation - five pairs of eyes flick to the moment of bare flesh and away again as everyone pretends not to notice the koi peeking out upon her briefly bared midriff. The panties are next, crumpled between her near-dead sneakers, but no one looks this time; her eyes are everywhere at once, prancing about the room in her embarrassment.

Metallic clunks seem to chime the time as she jostles coins out of her pocket and into the slot - and then she has slid across the room and onto an empty table, basket abandoned on the floor and a letter in her lap. She pushes herself back to the wall, drawing her knees to her chest as she does, and sets her sea blue eyes to the letter. She breathes heavily for several minutes, eyes locked to the lines in her hands. Eventually, her eyes flutter closed and she presses her face into her legs, the letter left to crumple between her cheek and her thigh.