Brown

She was a peculiar girl. Not funny peculiar but strange peculiar. I've had colleagues on both sides of the equation, so I feel my discernment is spot on here. However, decide for yourself after becoming familiar. I think it best to begin with her physical appearance and work our way inward. It is the appropriate direction for this introduction, I promise.

Though her face presents a fascinating visual study - we will get to that - it was her hair which, shall we say, stood out. Quite literally. The color: just brown - an unassuming brown with no discernible highlights of red or blond. The texture: coarse and thick. Nothing extraordinary thus far. Highly forgettable over all until you consider the manner in which she displayed her 'crowning glory,' shall we say. Two raised and curving braids on either side of her head, originating from the bottom of a tight part running down the back of her head and worked close to the scalp, traveled a winding maze of a path from rear to front before suddenly halting at the apex of her high forehead. There the ends of the plaits rose in the air a good six inches, each one curved in the middle forming a space which brought to mind a parenthetical holding tank for possible thought-escapees. Often, I half expected to see her unspoken words pop up in the blank oval perched so oddly atop her head.

Moving down just a bit, I arrive at her face as promised. The individual elements comprising her features lacked any distinction as far as classic proportions go. No patrician nose or elegant brow or angular cheekbones. Her lips were neither too thin nor were they too full. Though I've previously set forth the condition of her forehead, its height was not out of place. Everything panned out as fairly average. Having said that, these pieces formed an arresting whole yet to be adequately captured by my vocabulary. Perhaps if I better understood the art of Picasso and Van Gogh and Gaugin, I could draw upon their images for comparison. Perhaps. You would not label her homely or comely. Really, you simply would not label her at all.

I have yet to describe her eyes. They seemed to exist separately from her face though they did, indeed, do their part to aid in the defiance of an adequate description. Again, the color brown is useful here for my purposes as they were brown but decidedly moreso. Their brown was the earth underfoot. Their brown was a faded autumn leaf. Their brown was as mother nature intended the most basic and elemental shade to appear. To be held in their gaze was to be held in esteem by all creation as they exuded timeless age, history, revelation. I was never quite comfortable in her gaze and yet I sought it, time and time again. Whatever disquiet I felt, a silent deep part of me responded to the promise of a mystery soon to be revealed. All of that from a pair of eyes before ever I truly understood who, and what, she was. Peculiar, yes?