The Misshapen Moons of Magnolia Place

By: Weston Taylor

I

 Up the swirling stairs and through the lengthy hall, Marie Lyons stood before her bathroom mirror, critiquing and correcting God’s intentions for her natural appearance with several of her finest staining stencils and a soft sponge of skin colored powder. Her evening aura was dark, and as always, beautiful- her straight hair flowing down her neck and blending with the tight shoulder straps of her favorite black dress, creating a worldly contrast to her fair skin, and an irresistible, inexpressible poise of which only the most desirable of women possess.  

    She was, to those ever so grateful men who often saw her jogging down the street or shopping at the grocery store, a breathtaking view at the peak of a treacherous path, one that made them stop and say:

   “Well John, I’ll be damned. I guess the whole thing was worthwhile in the end.”

     And to those college boys – who had been lucky enough to cut in on her post heartbreak, two week drunken waltz amongst the town- she was an unforgettable kiss, a distant but clear memory that would never fully diminish from their minds. But to her, that was all just the child’s play of her college days, and she brushed off those boys’ treasured memories of drunken breath and eager lips like they were but tiny white specks of dust on her tight, classic black dress.

   “Tonight’s gonna be great,” Marie told herself as she began to outline her eyes with a dark blue eyeliner. “It’s gonna be… fantastic.” The last word popped with an exquisite, cocktail-party flair.

   Marie had two remarkable peculiarities, one of which was her unparalleled attractiveness amongst the majority of the female population, the other, a subtle secret, told only to her closest friends. It was a secret that only a mind of great admiration might spot- hidden somewhere beneath the overwhelming first impressions of her beauty. The secret, blatantly staring into the faces of any who dared to wonder at its existence, was coolly hidden within her eyes. She once told her sister the following:  

  “No matter how many men sit me down to tell me they love me, I will only take the ones who mention the rare condition of my eyes seriously.”