The following is an observation I jotted down in my Evernote after witnessing an intriguing family at the grocery store. This entry is direct from my personal journal.
There was this faceless redheaded woman at the store tonight with her two sons. The family drew the attention of everyone who saw them.
The mother was bone-thin. I never saw her face. It was obscured by her long, strangely red hair. It wasn’t a bright red, it was the pale red of a strawberry colored horse tail. She wore gloves on her hands that were the color of hospital bandages, which is what I thought they were at first. She wore a sweater that was nearly the color of her hair, a floor-length dress, black work shoes — the kind you might find at Walmart — and oddly patterned socks. A satchel hung off her shoulder at her side. Her movements were mysterious and jerky. She shuffled as she walked. When asked to pay for her groceries, she became flustered and spent several minutes searching through her bag.
One son, the older of the two, was maybe sixteen. He was tall with severe acne and messy black hair. He wore a plain yellow t-shirt, lumpy black jeans, and dirty, off-brand tennis shoes with velcro straps that were not strapped. He walked in a most peculiar and uncomfortable way, a sort of half-lumbering, half-bouncing step. He tripped a couple of times as he walked, and when he did, he raised up his hands in a defensive, feminine way with his palms held out, fingers spread. His mouth moved when no one was speaking to him, and his expression fluctuated between smug and confused.
The younger boy, who was maybe 10 years old, had red hair like his mother, but it looked more natural. He wore a clean collared shirt, white with blue stripes. He looked relatively normal compared to his family. He stood up straight, was still and observant, but uneasy. He was a different creature than his brother and mother. He seemed distant from them, always standing a few feet away, watching the expressions on other people’s faces. It was as if he was aware of their strangeness, like everyone knew there was something wrong with his family. His embarrassment was obvious.
