Tell Me The Color Of My Eyes

There is a story, I'm not sure if it's real, or if, in all the years that the story's been tossed around by lips and ears, it still remains the same.

But there is a story, and it's about a girl.

She went about the world, asking people what the color of her eyes are.

Once she had found a boy, who sung sad songs and played sad tunes. When she asked him the first time, his eyes were sad and he wasn't looking, he wasn't hearing.

When she asked him the second time, he was busy playing his tunes and after looking up at her for a passing moment, went back to the keys.

He was too busy drowning himself in his sorrow and sorrowful music to notice the girl and she left.

On the road, she met another boy. He rode a motorcycle, and owned a little, devilish grin. That was what had drew her in.

The boy offered to take her anywhere in the world, and she so happily accepted.

The first and last time she asked him what the color of her eyes are, he had smiled his little devilish smile and said, "Does it matter? They're beautiful." and he kissed her.

She let him. But in the morning, while he was still asleep, she left again.

I don't know what she wanted, or what she hoped to gain with this little venture of hers, but she was adamant and asked everyone she came across.

After a while, there was another boy. And he was a simple boy. He wore gray shirts and combed his hair and smiled a simple, normal smile.

One sunny day, while she sat in the swings right next to him, she asked him.

He looked at her and said, in that simple tone of his, "They're brown."

He was right, of course. And she knew he was right. So she smiled.

But somehow, she didn't feel this monumental assurance that she thought she would feel. She didn't feel full or satisfied. If anything, she just felt hollow.

But she did not think to leave for he was right. Her eyes were brown. And after all that searching for a boy who would tell her what the color of her eyes are and failing time and time again, she finally found him.

She found that boy.

(Hadn't she?)

So she spent many of her days, with this boy. The boy who always wore gray shirts, and always combed his hair, and who had told her that her eyes were brown.

But then came that day, when she was walking without a destination and kicking pebbles as she went.

This day, she heard an odd little click, and looked up to see another boy holding a camera whose lens were watching her.

After another click, when the girl was still a bit shocked to have reacted, he put the camera down and she had witnessed the crookedest smile in the world.

"Pretty day, isn't it?" He was right, it was. It was sunny, and windy, and the clouds looked like feathers.

She just looked at him, wondering for several moments. She wondered about the odds of this boy giving her the answer she's been looking for.

And then, she felt how tired she really was. Of going and asking and now, she was just fine with the boy who had answered that her eyes are brown. Just fine.

So she turned and walk away, leaving the boy a little confused. And she never looked back.

I think, that for the sake of moving forward, we shouldn't dwell on the should've beens. But, since, some of you would be at least a little curious, I'll tell you what would've happened, if only she had stayed a moment longer and watched things unfold.

She would've demanded. Plain and simple.

"Tell me the color of my eyes."

And he would've chuckled a little, at the bluntness of which she spoke, and then squinting his eyes the tiniest bit, would've said, "They're the color of the sun filtered through maple syrup," and looking a little closer would've added, "And you've got tiny little orange squiggles all around."

It would've made her heart sing, and she would've replied, trying to keep the smile out of her voice, "Some people just say brown, you know."

And he would've shook his head, "Well, some people have really limited color palettes, and eyes that dismiss the details. Poop is brown, dirt is brown, tree bark is brown. I'm not saying that brown is bad, no not at all, but brown is ordinary and you're eyes aren't. Please don't spend your life with people who think your eyes are ordinary."

But she had.

And this tiny little scene, fictional or not, never happened.