Aria: 1st edition

While Aria rummaged noisily through her rainbow colored Indian bead purse, the strap tugged at the saxophone player on the reproduction of The Three Musicians that eternally jammed on her T-shirt. The little jazz figure was singing his cotton heart away over some Hello Kitty print that left him aching of a broken heart or at least that is what Aria saw in the glimpse of her reflection on the passing subway train.

Between the ledge and the train, there lay a crack no bigger than two inches. In one of her playful moods, Aria closed her eyes like Phoenix from “A Worn Path” with her dyed red blonde streaked hair blazing atop her pretty head. A secret smile developed on her face as she reveled in her own personal game. She found an orange plastic seat across from a group of heterogeneous passengers. She coyly tucked a red strand behind her ear and continued her game. Recently finishing a heist book, she began cracking the so-called passengers scheme. First, the old man would create a diversion. He would pop a hard candy and over dramatically fake a heart attack. As the sly geezer lay rolling in his blue cardigan, a wide woman would rush to help making sure to run in front of her mark. The husky woman would then be blocking Aria’s view while the third party, a sleeping hobo, stole Aria’s paper mache wallet. It was a clever heist, but Aria knew she would be leaving with her wallet intact. Aria made her way down to the little bakery on the corner and as she went her red shoe nose caught a crack in the gray sidewalk, sending her stumbling awkwardly onward like Frankenstein’s monster. Recovering to her normal step she walked over to her usual table just big enough for two. She ordered a white chocolate freezer and a peanut butter sandwich. She chuckled to herself remembering a Charlie Brown quote she read, “Nothing spoils a peanut butter sandwich like unrequited love.” Her eyes became large and shiny as they drifted onto the sidewalk. She eagerly bit her lip, and the foolish smile of love moved across her glowing face.

A lanky young man came walking down the sidewalk to the bakery. He had deep black hair and forest green eyes. As he closed in on the bakery, she saw how he grew more and more animated like he always did when he got excited. Then like Holden she half fell in love with the green eyed boy, when the same foolish smile of love motioned upon his face, after the gray crack allowed him permission to stop stumbling around. They talked and laughed for hours in that warm bakery until dark. When they said goodnight he slipped something into her hand. As they parted with their grinning faces, Aria discovered the love poem he wrote her. She read the love poem a hundred times and let the words diffuse into her soul. Then like the island women in National Geographic she moved her flower barrette over her left ear and heart to show her love.