It’s like a parallel world, Melanie thought as she peered at herself in the mirror…she saw a young girl with long, blondish brown hair wearing hexagon-shaped glasses – they were sort of in, and that patch, that darned eye patch that showed the battle scar of yet another surgery to see if the doctors could fix her blind eye, only they never could.
Her long bell-bottomed pants dragged on the ground which made her happy. Her mom hated it when her jeans frayed. Maybe she should wear the prescription sun glasses, she thought – but the kids in the neighborhood teased her when she wore those, said she looked like a movie star wanna be – her Mom said they were just jealous because they didn’t have sun glasses like hers. At least then maybe people couldn’t see the eye patch, or notice that she was blind in one eye and really it didn’t matter if she wore the patch or not.
Today was a special day and she wasn’t going to let the eye patch bother her. She sometimes wondered what it would be like to see out of both eyes – would everything look different? Would all the objects in her mom’s bedroom suddenly jump out at her like in that 3-D movie where everyone wore those special glasses? As she looked in the mirror, she could see her mom’s bed with the unmistakable blue bedspread, the colorful scarves hanging everywhere, and the beads – and the open closet door with the colorful clothing mixed with the suits from the past – from the early 1960’s…all in safe colors like brown, navy blue and black.
During the week, Mom wore the safe clothes and put her long, long hair up in a bun. But on the weekends she let her hair hang down and she wore tight-fitting black pants and cotton shirts with huge buttons and bright colors, and beads…it was as if Mom was two different people.
Melanie gathered her hair up and piled it up on her head. “Naaaaa!” she thought. She liked it down better – and she wanted bangs again. Why did her mom have to grow out her bangs? She had to wear her hair pulled back in a half-ponytail so it wouldn’t hang in her face.
“Melanie, are you ready yet! It’s time to go!” Mom shouted from the down the hallway.
“Coming!” Melanie’s wooden clogs made a loud clunking noise as she walked down the hardfood floor hallway.
Today was a special day and a momentus occasion – June 1, 1967, on the brink of summer of love – they were on a mission to stand in line at the record store on Haight Street to get the coveted new Beatles record – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club band.
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There was something so lovely & so heartbreaking about this! I just felt for the young girl with the eye patch. It's a bit of a departure for you, more like fiction than essay, and I really liked it!
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