The Unbound Eyes
Eyes that saw beyond all distance and reason. Eyes that pierced your face because you knew they saw too much. Eyes as green as they come, filled with the knowledge that they will never burn out. These eyes belonged to her.
People did not like her face, because it was too beautiful to exist, too beautiful to have eyes like those. If her eyes were plain, she would seem more decent, more kind and approachable. You cannot approach someone with eyes like those. They were always a little too big, a little too knowing, but worse, a little to calm. It is not decent to be calm when you look as if you know the secrets of the universe.
Her face was hard and cold, as if it was made of marble, and she was a statue. It would have made sense if she were a statue, her body always strait and tall, her head leaning back, raised to the sky. Her hair was always tangled about her face, somewhat Medusa like, which made sense, because her eyes made you feel unsafe, like nothing you could do would ever lift you to her state of being.
Since she was poor, she was always a bit too thin, which gave her a ballerina like quality, though it was not an innocent look. Her body seemed to say that though it looked fragile, it was anything but.
Boys would try desperately to talk to her, but they would always leave unsatisfied…and afraid. It is not that she was evil, no. She was just different and they did not understand her. Sometimes, when she liked a boy, she would talk of engineering, motors, and bridges, things that made her happy. They would talk of her beauty, love, symphonies and the stock exchange. At times she would fall asleep to the sound of their pointless droning.
Once, she had brought a boy named Jake to a construction site. He had a quiet and sophisticated manner about him, but his face was a kind of beauty she had never seen before. She would look at him and talk of how she loved to watch the men work, and he would listen courteously, as if every syllable she uttered was interesting. Then she told him that she liked to see him in this setting with steel and metal burning and reaching up, up into the heavens in front of them. He thought she was a brute after this, and never spoke to her again. She was seventeen that day. She would simply stand there and watch at times like those, until someone asked her kindly to leave the sight.
On a chance occasion, at a construction sight for a building, a construction worker noticed her not staring at him, but at what he was doing.
“Hey Leo!” he shouted.
“Get a load of her!” he again exclaimed.
And then she saw him. And then he saw her. They stood there for countless minutes, looking, seeing. She was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen, and those eyes! He was everything she was in those moments. He stood tall, erect, like the metal columns that outlined the building.
His face was angular, and tanned from the sun. He had piercing blue eyes and gorgeous auburn hair that the sun gleamed on, leaving golden strands that fell across his face. He was muscular, but not in a self conscious kind of way. He was lean, and his body looked like that of a Greek god. But his eyes matched hers, not in color, but in manner. They seemed to see what she saw, and he was fixated. He smiled down at her knowingly, as if he knew what held her there. She smiled back, because she held him as well.
He was on the fifth story of the building looking down at her, and her head was raised to the sky, looking up at him.
This is the way it should be, she thought. This is the way it should always be.
Leo’s friend yelled down to her after watching them both for quite some time, (he knew she was Leo’s type. Literally),
“ Come on up young lady! I’m sure Leo will be a wonderful host to such a lovely young lady!”
Then, he turned casually to Leo and whispered, “good luck”. Leo laughed, his eyes still not moving away from the strange little thing bellow.
“Alright,” she almost whispered in response, because in that moment she had found what she had been searching for, and she was the happiest she had ever been.
The mysterious girl made her way through the dirt and stone, past the friendly whistles, and instead if using the lift, she began to climb up the side of the building, in a childish, exciting manner. The steel in her hands lifted her up, and her body propelled itself, grabbing, pulling, pushing herself up, each step and each climb bringing her closer to him. When she had climbed her way up to the fifth floor, he was waiting for her there. More quickly than she was able to notice, he was bent down, kneeling his hand outstretched for her to take. It was as if his outstretched hand was always meant for her, and she hesitated to take it, holding on to the moment. He fully understood, and a second later, he was lifting her up her hand in his.
After he had lifted her up, they stood, embracing each other and she realized that she knew everything about this man that was important, and nothing about him that everyone else would think important.
She was the first to break the silence, and when she realized this afterwards, she was not shocked.
“Hello…Leo.”
The young creature embraced his name, every letter of it. I love this man she thought, in a happy, calm revelation.
“Hello.”
He had said it simply and calmly, and did not ask her for her name, as if he knew it already, and saying it made no difference.
“Have you worked here long?”
She was instantly satisfied that she had asked him that, and not something irrelevant. He was also happy that she had asked him about his work. He loved her.
“Five months. Since the building was first being put up. I’m glad you asked me that.”
“I’m glad you happily answered me. You are not like most men.”
He laughed loudly and splendidly, his head lifted up to the shy, and again the sun made a sharp halo of golden color around his hair that fell across his forehead, into his eyes.
“ I hope not! I’ve come to realize that being different is a joy most people do not welcome. I do. When I was younger I sometimes envied the “normal” children, but then I asked myself, “normal? By what standard?” and I’ve not cared ever since.”
“ I don’t think I’ve ever cared, or had the opportunity to care, for that matter. People never really liked me, and I got so used to it, that it became what was normal for me. I suppose even if people did like me I still wouldn’t care. When did you stop caring?”
“When I was six.”
He stated it so simply and relaxed that she knew she would never stop loving him.
“When did you realize you didn’t care?”
“ I don’t really know. I just know that I never did, and that made it easier to be alone.”
“ You know, and you should know this by now, I like your face. No, “like” is such a simple, pathetic word. When I use it I feel as though I’ve reverted back to the fifth grade. I think I love your face. People hate you for it, don’t they? Let’s not talk about that actually. What do they matter?”
“ You’re right, lets not. I’ve spent so much time dealing with them, and I would rather not think about that when I have such company! You know, you don’t even know my name and your telling me all there is to know about you, except anything on the surface. I feel as though I do know you, somehow, not by what you say, though I love what you say, but your body and posture seem to tell me everything…Leo.”
He was sitting on the floor of the fifth story of the building, sitting totally relaxed, and smiling at her as if she was a childhood friend he had not seem for quite a while. One he had missed a great deal.
“You know, your eyes are quite peculiar…and familiar. They seem to say that they know everything about a person, and you expect them still, to be more than what they are.”
“Oh Leo! You know, everyone seems to get the first part of what you said, but you’re the first to realize it’s the second one that counts.”
“ It is, isn’t it? The second one that counts? You know, I enjoy your company a great deal, who ever you are, more than I enjoy anyone else’s. Would you be very upset if I told you I loved you?”
Every ounce of her marble existence felt numb, and then a moment later her whole body was buzzing. Who was this man? she wondered. She knew she loved him totally and completely, and to hear him say that he loved her made her want to scream in joy.
“Oh! Darling, this is so…strange! I love you too, though we’ve just met! It’s funny, I never believed in love at first sight until the moment I laid eyes on you! I feel we’re the same, you and I. Oh, I wouldn’t have it any other way! I love you, all of you, completely, and this is the first time in my life I am completely vulnerable to anyone!”
Leo looked at her, her face, her arms, her legs, her whole body. He looked at her and knew that he loved her and she loved him.
“Oh…I’m sorry, my…dearest. I have work to do, but you are welcome to stay until I am finished. Then we can go and find something to eat.”
“That is the best proposition I have ever heard! I would love to watch you work, for hours and hours! Do take your time!”
And so, for five hours, she watched her love carry wood and nails and metal bars. She watched him with great eagerness in her eyes, the eagerness of a child’s eyes when examining a theme park. The young thing watched his body weld metal, and she bit her lips eagerly when she saw him straining, as if she wondered if he would break in two, though she knew he wouldn’t. He did not strain his body often, and she was glad. He was so magnificent! thought the girl desperately in love. He worked with a fluent movement that was irresistible, and from time to time, he would glance back at her face, exited and young, like him. He did not know that the mysterious creature watching him was nineteen that day.
When he was finished, he took her down the lift, his arm wrapped around her back, her head resting on his shoulder. They did not speak, and her body moved with his in the night. The stars seemed to wink at them in congratulations for finding each other, as random vagrants barked at them for money.
They entered a diner, and Leo asked the woman that belonged to him, “What is your name? It would not matter to me, except that I want to sing your name and I have none to sing as of yet.”
“My name? That’s right! I still haven’t told you! It’s-’’
The moment she uttered her name he embraced her and mused it, over and over. He loved her! He loved Kira. They rocked back and forth together in the booth of the diner, the tearing material of the booth such a contrast to the couples unmatched beauty.
That night, the lay together, talking about everything for hours, and there would be times when they did not say anything at all. It was in those hours that they gave each other a silent promise always to love the other, always to stand tall against a world so eager to crawl on all fours. They lay, wrapped together in Leo’s bed, totally happy and in love. The sheets clung to their skin, and he held her as she fell asleep. Her unbound eyes were closed, and he watched her face in the dark.
When Kira awoke, she smelled the sweet aroma of bacon and eggs. The room was bright with the sun shining through Leo’s large window, and she noticed the room in full perspective for the first time. It was very plain, but she loved it. There was a hard wood desk and a wooden closet to her right. After examining the room, she followed the smell and found the kitchen where Leo stood. He smiled that knowing smile, as she walked over to the kitchen window. He stood next to her, his arm wrapped around her shoulders, and then the unbound eyes both looked out the window, and saw a world with such potential.
Gender:
Points: 890
Reviews: 5