A Green Story
Written by: Nessa
She was having a very blue day; it seemed only fitting to wear her blue hat. Striped, straw, soft. Her eyes were blue, her lips blue, her fingers blue, her mind was blue. She reached around and pulled her coat tighter against her thin frame, trying to find warmth inside this blue day.
“Cold?”
The words startled her, she thought she was alone. She looked up and saw yellow. His voice was yellow, his eyes were yellow, and his mind seemed yellow. Warmth. He was warm. The warmth was like opening a door from the darkness and seeing the sun. It almost blinded her.
“I’m fine.”
“Would you like some gloves? I have an extra pair.”
“Really, I’m fine.”
“Suit yourself. I will just put the gloves here, in case you change your mind.”
“Seriously, I’m fine. Take your gloves with you: they’re no use sitting on the bench.”
“I have two pair, one I am wearing, one I will leave here. They’re mine to do with what I wish. If you do not take them and use them, then perhaps someone else will come along and need them. Sometimes we must not only think of what is happening right now, but what will happen.”
“Very well, leave your gloves there to be stolen, if that is what you want.”
“They are a gift, giving when one has more than enough is what I strive for. What you give, is what you get.”
“Is that why you have two pair?”
“Yes. Something I gave came back to me. And now, it is time to send it around again. Doesn’t matter if it is to you, or to the next person.”
At that moment he took the gloves off his hands and put them on the bench. As he turned to walk away, he pulled another pair of gloves from his pockets and put them on his hands. She looked at the gloves sitting on the bench. Yellow. He was walking away when she noticed that one of the gloves he was now wearing had a large hole on the side.
“WAIT!”
The yellow stranger stopped, and turned back around.
“What is it?”
“Why are you wearing gloves with a hole? Why not wear these, and put the other ones on the bench?”
“These gloves…are the reason I had those.”
“But these gloves are better than those, don’t you want them instead of the ones with the holes?”
“It does not matter which is better for me.” With that being said, he once again turned around and started to walk away.
“Wait.”
He turned once again and looked at her, waiting to see if she understood, or if she would object more. He watched as she took the yellow gloves from the bench, putting them on her hands. She looked at them, and smiled. She looked into his eyes and took her blue hat off, putting it where the gloves had sat.
“Won’t you miss it?”
“No. It was just there to keep me warm, and now I have these. So I will leave the hat.”
“Isn’t the hat better?”
“No, if not for these gloves, I would not know you.”
“Would you like to go get coffee with me? There is a shop down the street.”
She smiled, and stood up, taking his blue-gloved hand in her yellow-gloved hand, and they walked together, leaving footprints in the snow and a blue hat on a park bench.