"She & Him"
"A portrait of my family, once a week, every week, in 2013."
She: Sitting at an outdoor table setting on top of a lookout in the coastal breeze, she tried to secure her messy bun with bobby pins as loose strands of chestnut hair quivered with the wind.
Him: The moment before he pursed his lips to whistle for his puppy. He had secretly slid on her sunglasses without her noticing until after she took his picture. It was a very bright day on top of the lookout.
I sometimes wonder what others might think when they see us. We usually walk side by side, his arm linked around my waist and my hand securely supporting him in an odd key-lock fashion. We naturally walk in step, always have done. The first time we went to a café together we ordered exactly the same breakfast, including the way our eggs were poached.
We're the same height, down to the centimetre and we often find the same things funny when we people watch: a dog's walk, a baby's giggle, a lady's psychedelic 70s fashion, a skinny boy with a giant lollipop fuzzy afro. On Sunday it was watching a very old man attempt to focus as he reverse parked with his wife nagging at him about crashing.
'Careful George! You nearly bumped that car! Do you want me to get out to direct you?!'.
'Stay there Betty, I've nearly got it. You're not helping dear.'
I wonder how many years George and Betty have been through this ritual on their Sunday mornings; George hunched over the steering wheel, his hat kept out of his eyes by his large-rimmed glasses and Betty squinting into her side mirror under a crop of tight cotton candy coloured curls. It may have taken George three or so swings to get it right but as soon as he perfected it, he stepped out from the driver's seat, walked around to Betty's side and opened the door for her. They then toddled off up the shady path under the Moreton Bay fig trees, hand in hand. Decades of love and patience appeared to be their thing.
Byron and I have been together for two years, the blink of an eye in comparison.
For now finding the beauty and humour in what surrounds us is our thing.
Bella xx
