It was hot in the car, and she could feel the heat prickling her scalp and spreading down to her neck. Her face was probably bright red, but she didn't feel like wriggling up to the front seat to look in the mirror. She took a deep breath through her nose and let the air whoosh out of her mouth, letting her lips flap loose like an untied balloon. The parking lot air smelled like sweat. She crinkled up her nose and decided to breathe through her mouth instead.
She should have brought a book with her, but Uncle Joe said they were just going for a quick ride, making a quick stop, it would take 10 minutes, tops. She'd been waiting in the car for longer than that, but the clock in the car was busted, so she didn't know how long exactly.
An inchworm was crawling on her leg--probably climbed onto her clothes before the car ride, when she had been sitting under the tree--and so she watched that for a while. It was pale green and had stumpy little suckers for feet. She pet it gently and it felt soft, like the skin on a puppy's belly. She watched it move along her leg the way inchworms do, folding itself in half like it was touching its toes, and sometimes standing up on its back feet and waving its top half in the air for a few seconds. Her leg started to tickle and itch, though, between the little suckered feet and the prickly heat, and so she picked up the inchworm and placed it gently on the window.
She stuck her legs out and wiggled her toes, listening to her flip-flops make a slapping noise as they whacked against her feet. She sighed again, this time making a high-pitched sighing sound in the back of her throat. Still no Uncle Joe.
She started counting her freckles.
Posted by thevieve at August 12, 2005 12:30 PMWell done.
Posted by: cromulent on August 12, 2005 5:06 PM