Burntcore Week 70: Color

Burntcore
Thursday


Picture 1

Picture 2


Burntcore's Choice: both


Title: Color

She should be happy. She had the life that many would dream about, but it was all so dull. Sure, she was beautiful, had expensive clothes and a healthy bank account, but the life of a model wasn’t everything it was cracked up to be. Despite everything she had, all she saw was drab in black and white. Sure, she was thankful, but what purpose was she filling? She posed and walked down a catwalk for a living. Who was she helping by doing that? Oh yes, she was helping the bottom line of the designers.

She just wanted to find a purpose in life. Something to make her life matter.

Standing outside of an outdoor festival, Moira watched as people walked from booth to booth, looking at something before moving on. She saw color in their lives, something she wished she could find. However, she wasn’t sure she could find it in any booth.

Laughter cold be heard, and music played from a local band around the corner. Moria thought they were pretty decent. She bobbed her head to the music as she continued to people watch. She still felt like an outsider, a voyeur to how real people really lived.

As she watched, she noticed a woman and a small child drifting from the different booths. The woman’s clothing looked practically threadbare compared to Moira’s. The child’s wasn’t much better. The boots Moira was wearing cost more than all their clothes combined.

The little girl walked with her eyes huge, like she was in awe of her surroundings. Moira wondered if this was the first time the girl had been to a festival. It had been a long time for Moira, not since she was a teenager, before she was discovered and before her life became so meaningless.

Something caught the little girl’s eye and she stopped, pulling excitedly on her mother’s sleeve. Moira heard the girl pleading wit her mother asking if they could buy one of whatever was on display . The mother shook her head, saying something about how they couldn’t afford it. The child stared longingly at the booth, even as her mother dragged her away, but said nothing further.

As they walked, the mother and child approached someone handing out free bottles of water. The woman eagerly grabbed one for her and her daughter. They walked past Moira, the woman glancing briefly at Moira’s clothing before flickering down at her tatty clothing. The woman’s face became blank as she stood a little straighter as they continued to walk. Her dismissal angered Moira. The woman never bothered to look past the superficial. There was more to Moira than just her fancy clothes.

Finally spurred on to be more than a living clothing rack, Moira walked into the festival. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for but she was sure she’d know it when she saw it. She was determined to find something that would give Moira purpose. Moira was about to make her second pass through when she saw it.

It was a booth of cheap, plastic sunglasses in a rainbow of colors. They even had little hearts on them. The booth owner didn’t seem to be having much success at selling them that day. When Moira saw the price, she understood. Ten dollars was a bit steep for a dollar’s worth of plastic. However, Moira also saw how many kids looked eagerly at the table, the bright colors catching their eye. Their parents saw the price and balked, knowing it was too much money even for a simple bauble.

Resolved, Moira marched up to the owner and told him she’d take all of them. The man didn’t seem to understand just what she meant at first so she spelled it out for him.

“I want to buy every single pair of these sunglasses on the table. Each and every one. In fact, I’ll take the table too. Here’s my card. Just run it up and go.”

She waved her debit card in front of the man’s face a few times before she said really sank in. Deftly, he swiped her card, charging her an exorbitant amount of money for his nearly worthless wares.

“What are you going to do with them?” he asked as he gathered up his cash box and receipts.

“I’m going to give them away to whomever wants one,” Moira said simply, walking behind the table, plucking the price sign from the table, and throwing it in the garbage.

“Giving them away?” he sputtered, his face confused. “Why?”

“Because I can,” Moira replied.

Looking over the table, she quickly grabbed a red pair of sunglasses and put them on top of her head. She didn’t want them over her eyes, but she wanted to show people what they were.

The man shook his head and walked off, never looking back. Moira shrugged as she looked around, a feeling of happiness taking over. She hoped that little girl would come back over so Moira could give the little girl a pair in every color, for ever day of the week.

A few children came by, and before the parents could pull their children away, Moira said that they were free to deserving little girls and boys. The children’s eyes lit up as they asked in their small, innocent voices if they were deserving enough. Moira laughed and asked which color they wanted.

Before long, the stock of sunglasses started to dwindle as more children came by, the word spreading of the beautiful woman giving away sunglasses. As Moira hoped, the little girl and her mother that she first saw made their way back over to the booth. The woman’s face reflected surprise at seeing her behind this booth.

“I thought a man was running the booth,” the woman commented softly.

“He was. I bought him out,” Moira replied as she watched the little girl look over the sunglasses, touching a few.

“Why?”

“Because I could. Too many children wanted one but the man was charging too much. Now, the kids can have them.”

The woman’s eyes softened. Her little girl continued to examine the sunglasses, going back and forth between two particular colors.

“You like those two?” Moira asked.

The little girl nodded wistfully. “We can’t afford them,” she said.

“Sure you can. They are free to deserving little girls, and I think you deserve not just one but two pairs!”

The little girl’s eyes became as large as saucers as she looked towards her mother. Her mother nodded and the girl carefully picked the two pairs she had been looking at before. One was a red pair like Moira’s own, the other was a bright neon green.

“Oh, you picked a red pair, just like mine!” Moira exclaimed, touching her pair in her hair.

The little girl nodded. “I picked them because of you. I hope I am as beautiful as you are when I grow up.”

Moira’s eyes misted and her lip trembled. “You already are, sweetheart.”

The child’s mother glowed at the compliment, before thanking Moira and leading her daughter away with her new sunglasses. Moira felt a feeling of accomplishment that she hadn’t felt in years.

This was what would give her life purpose. Not necessarily giving away free sunglasses, but just giving back to those who deserve it. She wouldn’t just give money to charity, she would be an active participant. Maybe she would start up a charity of her own. Something that would mean more than walking down a runway. Something that would mean more and give her life purpose.

After her last pair of sunglasses were given away, Moira drove back to her apartment miles from the festival, downtown from the suburbia she was just in. She looked over all her possessions, some of which she didn’t recall even buying. Moira knew she liked having nice things, and was happy that her lifestyle allowed her to be able to have nice things, but she also wanted others to be able to have nice things too. Moira decided that she would sell off some of her things, not everything, but the things she didn’t even notice. Perhaps someone else would like them better.

For the first time, Moira knew that when she woke up the next day, her life wouldn’t be dull and drab any longer, but full of color and life.