This is a very short, short, story that really hit home to me today as I was coming back from the grocery store. Perhaps it will hit home to some of you as well. Beautiful Eyes As many of you know I’m a storyteller or novelists or “Minorcan Bullshitter” as many in the village of my birth refer to me. In any case this short story I’m about to tell you is the truth that happened to me just today. I was checking out my groceries at the super market this morning when the young lady bagging the groceries looked at me and said, “You have beautiful eyes.” The unexpected flattery caught me off-guard seeing as how I’m seventy two years old with the young lady perhaps being seventeen. I placed the groceries into my truck and on the way home the words of the young lady kept reverberating in my aging brain. Admittedly my bony chest had swollen about three inches with self-gratification as “Beautiful Eyes” kept echoing like a timeless rhapsody within the darkened and webbed corridors of my innermost mind. However, by the time I had put away the last of the groceries another thought had slowly casts a shadow over the compliment, “Beautiful Eyes.” It seemed I had received that compliment several times within these last few years not to say I hadn’t been told that many times in my youth. There was a difference however; during my youth I had also been complimented by several young girls for my other attributes such as “You’re ruggedly handsome! Look at those huge muscles! And the list goes on. The “Beautiful Eyes” compliment was quickly transforming into an insult as I hurried into the den and began racing through my old family albums gazing at old photos of myself. I grabbed four or five of the ones with the best view of my eyes and headed for the bathroom and the floor-length mirror next to the sink. I looked at the pictures and then at the mirror comparing my eyes of today and those of yesterday. It was true my eyes hadn’t faded with time they still retained the lustrous blue as when I was a boy. I stood back and began to look at the rest of my body and as I did so it struck me like a bolt of lightning. The young lady at the grocery store had paid me a compliment as indeed my eyes hadn’t changed over the years but their supporting casts had. Unbeknown to me the relentless law of gravity had bent my once straight and muscular shoulders while tugging at my skin forming wrinkles lining my face. Yes, my hair had thinned and my body had wilted but my eyes had retained their youth like a bright star shining in a black sky. Like a colorful rainbow emerging from stormy clouds. Like the sparkle of moonlight reflecting off an aging sea. I smiled as I took one last glance into the mirror at my wonderful eyes and said, “Thank you young lady at the grocery store for such a wonderful compliment.” I wiped the tears from my cheeks and turned away from the mirror.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 01:57:25 +0000
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