"When I was a young girl, much like you but not nearly as beautiful, my parents would take me to a wonderful resturant. We'd eat and laugh and smile. And everytime we went, I saw a woman in the corner, looking straight at me. I told no one of her."
The look in my grandmother's eyes was undescribable. She looked almost lost. "Why not Nana?" I whispered.
The look left her eyes momentarily. "Because. Well because......" She looked lost again. "I'm not sure. There was something about her that seemed....almost unreal." She nodded her head as to confirm what she had said. "She'd always be there. Looking at me. The first time with curiousity. The second with shock. The third with envy. Then back to curiousity. I remember the twelvth time." She leaned in real close to me. "Do you want to know why I remember that one so well?"
I nodded my head. "Yes ma'am!" I smiled.
She smiled. "Thought so." She settled back in her wooden rocking chair. The squeeky one that was never annoying. "She looked happy. She smiled and actually took a step away from that corner of hers. Something I never saws her do." Nana rocked back and forth, the squeek soothing. "Then another. And another. Until she was right next to me. I looks at her and smile, taking in what she looks like." She closed her eyes and took a deeeeeeeeeeep breath. "She was so pretty. She had hair as black as a raven's feathers. So shiny and sleek it looks like it has blues and greens and purples in it. And her blue eyes so deep you felt like you was looking at an icy cold lake that hadn't frozen yet. A figure so perfect you knew she was in sports. And her face so even and blemish-free. And I? I got lost looking into those eyes. Filled with such happinness. And under that right eye of hers was a tattoo of a tear. Almost as blue as her eye.
"But that look on her face was so happy and fulls of joy, that it look like she was crying from all those happy feelings and thoughts insides of her." She frowned and opened her eyes just then. "Then she sits next to me, and I happilly scooch on over. And she places her hand on mine. I imagined for those hands to feel soft as a pillow. Only to find it pass right through mine. And the shock on my face musta made her a whole lot sadder, cuz she ran back to that corner so fast she was a blur. And she never made a sound. Not one." She shook her head.
I felt my eyes go wide as saucers. "What? Her hand pass through yours? That's impossible, Nana!"
She scowled at me, but that look in her eyes was more sad than angry. "I be telling this story, not you, Child." I nodded at her, feeling bad I burst out. She searched my eyes and nodded. "So she looks like she crying, but no tears be falling. I tells Pop that I needs to go to the bathroom so I can pass her. And even though she looks like she sobbing a boat load. She makes no sound. And I gives her a look that tells her that I was sorry, only to see that those deep blue eyes of hers went red. Red as fresh blood. And she still looks like she sobbing with no tears. She twitches with greif so large I feel it as I drives home with Pop. And the next time I go to the resteraunt......She's gone." She shook her head, as if she were still trying to figure it out.
"Gone....." I whispered. Nana nodded.
"And so I comes again. And again. And finally, on my eighteenth visit, she's back. But she don't look like her. Those deep blue eyes, that once went red, were blank. Empty. That smile or frown or snarl she had was gone. The way her eyebrows would raise or fall went still. Her beautiful jet black hair looked dull. She was like a statue. But then she moves and I feel hope. But no expression change. She just stays like that. the only thing the same is her shape. And that tattoo of that tear.
"And that was the last time I saw her. No matter how many times I came back, I never saw her again. But I still have those images of her fresh in my mind. But it's getting weaker. The only thing I can seem to cocentrate on when I think about her anymore is that tattoo."
"That Eternal Tear." Someone in the corner said.
I turned my head to look at the beautiful woman, smiling gently, sitting cross legged on the floor. I looked back at Grandma. She musta not heard her. Or seen her. I looked back at her. Taking in her look. So much like Nana said. I turned back to Nana and repeated what she had said.
"The Eternal Tear."
The End
