Sunny Garden

    She's at Eyewear Now at one-thirty. She's wearing a short black dress and I'm fighting off the emergence of a speech impediment.
    I say Hi.
    Hi. She looks at me as though I might be kind of comical and she smiles, but only by lifting the right half of her upper lip.
    Technically this may be no more than a quarter of a smile, but it kills me. I'm lucky she didn't use any more. (p. 211)

    The next fifteen minutes are a joy as Rachel, who might know what she wants but clearly wants something very specific, tries on frame after frame, as best she can. And says things like, So, does this go with my eyes? Is this right with my cheekbones? How does this make me look? Before ending up with frames very like the ones I broke, but three times the price. And that doesn't bother her at all.
    The glasses will take twenty minutes, so she says, How about we go for coffee? And the nearest place is the Koffies I usually frequent with Jeff, and that's where she walks. (p. 212)

Continue with the Zigzag Street tour.

Excerpts from Zigzag Street are © Nick Earls and are used with permission.

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Disclaimer:
Sunny Garden is designed, written and maintained by Liz Perkins, in cooperation with Nick Earls and Penguin Books. Any questions about Sunny Garden should be directed to Liz

All original contents are © Liz Perkins.