Leanne
1
The sky had spread blue that summers morning, and the idea of riding the town-bus west to the sanded coast pricked at Leanne from the moment she woke to the gold inflected day. The picturesque July summer's day, worthy of camera's snap in every direction, had watered a blossoming within her shriveled soul. Standing by the window of the parlour, she peered through the curtain nets, and watched the business of the street. Across the road, the portly white-aproned baker, Tony, stood with his arms folded leaning against the door-frame. Eyelids shut, he tilted his face towards the sky, bathing in the sun's rays. A few doors down, Aunt Marie had laid out the furniture outside the second-hand shop, and cloth in hand, she wiped at the old, knobby legged, table which had now not found a home for three months. Beside the second-hand shop, Mr Howells, sat behind a cash-till, and peered out from the dusty glass front of the convenience store. The man's eyes were glued straight by the day-dreams he often inhabited, a thing which began on the passing of his wife to tuberculosis five years ago. A woman pushed a white-wheeled, red pram along the pavement, stopping behind the telephone box to give way to Mr Hermes, a resident of a flat down the road. Hunched forward and hatted black, the old man pressed his walking stick against the concrete, and gingerly raised a hand in thanks as he passed. As she began to step away from away from the window, Leanne caught Little Marco's black tattered shoes hurrying down the street. A piece of paper flailing in his hand, the boy bolted into the convenience store, and Mr Howells turned away from his dreaming to receive his greeting. Leanne stood a few moments longer, a half-smile stretching her lips as she guessed the boy's shopping list, ever ripped from his mother's yellow covered notebook and pressed against his small chest once carefully revised under her spectacled eyes. It was then, at her periphery, strolling along the pavement, a man stepped into sight. And clutching his hand, came to view a woman dressed in green pea-coat. Her auburn hair hung draped over a shoulder, and even in the distance, her eyes held the glint of bliss, and her smile shone full and hearty. The couples unheard conversation culminated in laughter and a shared look.