Twirling Rainbow Before The Rain

I am staring out of the window by my computer desk, trying to decide how long it will be before the rain pours down. A group of girls are passing by, on the way home from the bus stop.

One girl stands out from the crowd. She is alternating between skipping and twirling, her teal tutu-skirt a blur of sparkly color. This is a girl who has her own style. I am pretty sure she picked out this outfit without parental input. A teal tutu-skirt over jeans, bright yellow shirt, pink headband with sequined ribbons hanging down around her face, and purple shoes; she is carrying a backpack, and a sequined purse completes her ensemble.

It looks a bit like a sparkly rainbow threw up on her, yet somehow, it works.

The girls who are walking with her are laughing at whatever she is saying. She passes a tube of lip gloss around, and they all pause to put it on, looking in a small pocket mirror that also comes out of her sequined purse.

They determine that it is too cold to swim, and I see several of the girls glance up at the heavy clouds above. "Makeovers," the sparkly rainbow girl announces decisively. "I got a new box of lip glosses on Saturday."

A moment later the girls are gone. I stare at the spot they vacated, almost expecting to see a cloud of color and sparkle hanging in the air.

I remember days like that when I was twelve years old. Makeup was something fun to play with, instead of a quickly applied necessity to cover up blemishes. Afternoons were filled with twirling and laughter.

I never had the confidence to go in my closet and put on every item that made me feel happy on a grey Monday morning, regardless of matching colors or patterns, but I did think about it. I'm thinking about it now. Wondering why it is so important to match, when a teal tutu-skirt with sparkles would make any outfit feel happy, and any day brighter.

The rain is here now, but I already saw a rainbow - before the raindrops fell.

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