Marigene Willson's Writing Workshop

WA 2, Draft 2

She floated into the room, any unsuspecting, initial glance not drinking in much of her seemingly ordinary outward appearance. But as you watched her walk, you noticed just how dreadfully wrong first impressions can be. She stood out, as did her bones. She looked as though she had been graceful at one time in her life. But now she could only fight her body enough to drag her feet lightly across the floor, in a seemingly exhausted saunter. Pitilessly, your glancing eyes read over her body, looking through every crevice in her face. Her skin was a tallow, sickly color as if it hadn’t seen the sun in ages. She had such sunken eyes, a cold nose, and cracked lips. All of her features seemed somehow out of place on her delicate and bony face. Her eyelids clung over hers pupils, now dulled, as if you could simply take a polish rag and wipe them clean. Looking into them, you wondered if there had once been a bright, sharp glimmer where now only fog remained- or maybe just concealed it. Her jawbone protruded in a painful way. Her mouth stretched over her teeth in a half smile, but you could see there was no valiant effort behind it. As your eyes traced her outline, they dropped to her collarbones, sharp enough to cut, the surrounding skin bruised and pulled. Her chest was flattened, her hips agonizingly jutted out from under her clothes, it was as if her skeleton was shrink-wrapped in skin, it was so close to the bone. Her arms were thin, her veins showed blue under tissue that possessed no energy to have colour. You wanted to hold her, this shadow of what was once a human being, but before you could reach her, she had abandoned herself.

posted by Marigene Willson @ 7:02 PM