V
She was the strangest woman I had ever seen. She wore a bloody pearl choker. Costume jewelry, or was it real? Heavy mascara around her eyes. She looked like a model. Like a mannequin from a thrift store that got bored and walked out. She was short, petite, with large perceptive eyes that seemed to scan everyone and everything, and absorb anything of interest. She looked wealthy, but I wasn't sure she was. Her clothes were thrift store vogue, and her knee-high socks mismatched under a vintage dress. She was twenty-something, maybe thirty, or three hundred, and she looked like she hadn't slept in three days, yet it didn't make her less attractive. If anything, it made her more engaging to the eye. She was cat-like. Cathartic to look at. This, I wrote down in my notepad as I watched her in the delicatessen. She didn't order anything. She just stood there, looking at the menu board making various facial expressions before picking up a bag from the counter where take-out
