Chapter 29: The Ugly Woman
I was on the walking trail around my condo complex when a turn suddenly put me across the path of a seriously ugly woman. She was a tall, pale, with longish blonde hair that had not seen a brush in a while.
She looked as disheveled as anyone I had ever seen. Her gym shorts and her sleeveless t-shirt were of clashing colors and too big for her. She was not wearing make up so her lips and eyebrows blended with her skin in a strangely blank Carnival mask kind of way.
We each stepped trying to avoid the other but ended up going in the same direction twice.
She looked like a puppy that knew it did something wrong and was going to get swatted by a newspaper. She was furiously blushing.
She started to apologize but I stopped her, took her hand and danced her unto a twirl that put us each on the side we were originally headed.
She gave a delighted little laugh and slowly resumed her march down the walking path. Her whole body was blushing.
Before she was out of hearing range I shouted after her, "We have to stop meeting like this, the neighbors are beginning to talk."
She did not turn but her shoulders told me she laughed at the line. I patted myself on the back for being sensitive and friendly to a woman of unfortunate looks and continued on my route.
I did not see her the next day, as my routine was one day on, one day off. On the following day it was raining about the time I intended to go for my walk so I spent the time power napping. I admit I liked the theory of exercise a lot more than the actual act.
I had just about forgotten about her on my next walk when I again ran into her under the same circumstances.
This time I immediately took her hand and gave her several twirls as we danced in the middle of the path. I took time to look at her a bit more closely and was duly impressed with her large blue eyes; She was in fact not actually ugly, just plain, very plain.
Those beautiful eyes, however, were looking at me with embarrassment.
I did not want to make her uncomfortable so I released her hand and semi walked/danced my way down the path.
On my next walking day I decided to reverse my route and prevent another direct run-in with her. Her reaction to a simple encounter was so strong I did not want to see her that disturbed again.
I did my two circuits and was checking my mail when she walked past me. I nodded in her direction and she smiled in return.
As she walked by I heard her say, "Missed our dance."
I turned to look at her while searching for a line to throw in her direction but she had not stopped walking.
Her skin was crimson. It had apparently taken a lot from her to say anything. She was shaking her head as if she could not believe she had.
Nice long legs, I thought, as I watched her walk away. Her thighs and butt were a tad too big but she was tall enough to nonetheless produce an overall pleasing effect. She was maybe just three inches shorter than me.
As walked into my home I chuckled to myself.
I thought, "Old man, you must be really horny to be looking at something like that."
But I had looked.
The next walking day we became acquaintances. She just happened to be going by as I started my walk. I started the conversation with nonsensical comparisons between the tango and the cha-cha. I was happy to see that I had her giggling in short order. I saw her visibly relax.
She started her end of the conversation by praising my patio garden, admitting that on days there was no car in the carport she would make a quick detour into the garden and enjoy the flowers.
She again was blushing.
I told her, "You are welcome to stop even if there was a car in the drive."
Our conversation stayed light and breezy until she detoured towards her home, I learned that this was her third and last lap on the circuit.
I was surprised to learn that I was somewhat disappointed by that turn of events and resolved to leave my home earlier the next time. It never crossed my mind to ask myself why I would want to do such a thing.
Two days later I was opening my door just as she walked by. I started to slowly catch up to her, no small feat for me. Her long legs covered a lot of ground with each stride.
I stayed behind her for a bit studying her a little more closely. She still looked disheveled, but her body started to look to me more like that of an ex-athlete working itself back into shape. She moved with a fluid gracefulness that made me think that once she must have been serious stuff.
When I caught up with her I wondered if it was because of my increased speed or if she had slowed her pace to allow me to catch up to her.
Our conversation resumed as if two days had not gone by. We finally exchanged names.
Hers was Sharon. She had just moved to Felicity. I learned her daughters were grown and married and she learned from me my son was too. Neither of us asked about our present relationship status. I have always though it was impolite to ask and apparently so did she. Yet, somehow, we both knew the other was unattached.
In time we became friends, we learned a lot about each other. Her first residence in Felicity had been the Women's Shelter. She had moved out after a year of counseling year then she got a job. She was a teacher as I was but at different schools so I had not seen before. We had several common acquaintances. It is a small world.
She was exactly six months younger than me. Her ill-fitting clothes were result of the thirty pounds that had disappeared from her body in the last eight months. Her goal was to lose another thirty pounds.
Without thinking I said, "that's too much, anything more than ten pounds would be excessive."
She looked at me to see if I was giving her a line or if I really thought that way. Apparently she decided I meant it and blushed.
She confirmed my guess that she had been an athlete, a college swimmer at a school that was a rival to my own. Had I gone to a swim meet or had she gone to a baseball game we would have seen the other.
It is a very, very small world.
Over the course of several weeks and without her actually telling me I guessed her marriage had been a horror of mental cruelty that ended when he crossed the line into physical abuse. Neither of her daughters invited their father to their wedding; much less give him the opportunity to walk them down the aisle.
It explained the large inferiority complex she was carrying and her habit of apologizing for everything
In a roundabout way I admitted that my marriage ended four years before when I realized my wife would never meet a cock she did not want. Sharon was surprised to hear that my ex and I remained friends and acted as a couple for our son's wedding. I did not mention that of all the times I had gotten laid since our divorce fully half of them had been with my ex.
I decided I liked Sharon. She accepted the possibility that I liked her and her habit of apologizing for non-existing blunders subsided.
I eventually noticed that somewhere along the line she started brushing her hair and tying it into a ponytail.
I liked ponytails.
She also began to wear a hint of makeup, just enough to frame her facial features.
In my eyes Sharon had gone from ugly, to plain, to OK, to nice in little over two months but I was only vaguely aware of that.
We started to wait for each other before starting our walks. We never agreed to do so, it just happened.
I now walked everyday and extended the walk to three laps to match her. I told myself that the change was to speed up the rate of my conditioning. I probably knew it was just so I could spend more time with her.
She probably knew that too.
