NO, TURN ON RED - michelle orabona

NO, TURN ON RED

michelle orabona


She showed up as the sun was setting with an eyebrow raised and her incisors biting down on the skin under her lower lip while she bounced her bicycle seat against her hip. She knew I was going to do anything she asked. We sat on my porch till the street lights came on, then rode through town with a wide tip black magic marker and added inappropriate punctuation to billboards and traffic signs.

That was the night she sucked on a blackened finger at the corner of her mouth and said, “Hey, did you know Niagra Falls is moving backwards?” and then stared down at her chewed up fingernails without looking back at me because whenever she said hey, did you know… we both knew that she was going to be telling me something I never could have found out on my own.

That was also the night I looked down at my hand and saw her stained fingers alternating with mine. When I looked up again her face was right there.


The next time I saw her, her hands were clean and her face was far away.




Michelle Orabona
http://www.mayaswellbeme.blogspot.com/
The Book Thief
Markus Zusak