ImPerceptibility

Today I was sitting at a stoplight and I looked over at the person sitting in the car to my left. It was a very old woman. She was dressed nicely, like old women do, and her hair perfectly styled. I imagined she was wearing just a little too much flowery scented perfume. I wondered if she was feeling happy for her independence or if she wished she had someone to drive for her. She was in the turning lane to go to the mall and I wondered what she was going to buy. Then I started to imagine what she looked like when she was twenty. It seems that some things are not to be imagined.

At that moment, a huge gust of wind came and blew through her window. One side of her hair lifted completely up and stood on the top of her head. It was still in a perfectly formed curl. The loose skin from the left side of her face was pushed under her chin and started to flap in the breeze. I thought, Holy Crap, I didn’t need to see that! I spent the rest of the trip with my eyes firmly focused on the road ahead of me. The literal road was familiar, but the metaphorical road, that one kind of scared me and it didn’t seem as long as it should be.

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