The Color of Sorrows

©2023 by A.J. BrownAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a newspaper, magazine or journal.The author grants the final approval for this literary material.First digital versionThis is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.ISBN: 978-1-68513-119-7PUBLISHED BY BLACK ROSE WRITINGwww.blackrosewriting.com For Molly A NOT SO NORMAL DAYIt was a normal morning. A coffee breakfast, chased with dry toast and orange juice, a shower, a shave, and a bathroom break. All normal. Workout clothes on, an early morning jog and another shower after. See? All normal. Dressed for work and out the door on time. It was a five-block walk to the office, and me in my pressed shirt and slacks and nice shoes and a blue tie to offset the lack of color in the shirt, would be there in short time. By my watch, I had half an hour and I had never been late to work.Everything was normal.The boardwalk bustled with people already selling their wares in storefronts and center kiosks. Most everyday folks paid no attention to them, but the tourists … ahh the tourists ate up the salespeople and their pitches, especially the ones with the Hollywood smiles, perfect hair, dazzling eyes and plastic bodies. On the beach, just beyond the boardwalk, people already gathered and milled about, some on blankets, some in the water and some walking hand in hand with a lover or holding the leash of a dog. Oh, such a normal, normal morning.Until I met Kathy and Dave.They were a cute couple, he with his disheveled hair and horn-rimmed glasses and stubbled chin, and she with her pulled back red hair, green sparkling eyes, and rosy cheeks. He couldn’t have been a day over twenty. She might have been sixteen. Maybe it mattered. Maybe it didn’t. You didn’t have to know them to see the love they had for one another. To me, that is what mattered most.He pushed a stroller, one of pinks and whites in a pattern of rattles and hearts. She carried a diaper bag on one shoulder. It was the same pink and white pattern of rattles and hearts as the stroller. The top of the stroller was pulled down, possibly to shield the baby (a girl I presumed) from the sun and little old ladies who liked to squeeze the cheeks of wee ones. The wheels were big, made for going over just about anything.An all-wheel stroller, I thought and couldn’t hold back the smile that formed on my lips.The smile is what changed my day. It’s not that I don’t smile. It’s just the young couple saw it.They exchanged a glance, then she nodded tentatively. As we passed each other I gave them a “good morning.” Yeah, that was probably another thing that attracted them to me. I smiled, I nodded, and I spoke, making eye contact with him as I did so.Just beyond them, he called to me, “Excuse me, Sir?”I turned. He looked hopeful with his raised brows and a nervous smile on his face.“Yes?” I asked.“Hi, I’m Dave.” He put out a hand. His fingers were long and thin. He might have played piano at some point. I took his hand, gave it a good pump and released it.“I’m Kathy.” She extended her hand, as he had, and I took it, as I had Dave’s.“We were wondering,” Dave picked back up, “do you have a minute?”Uh oh. Salesmen? Zealots peddling their religion? Con artists? All of these were normal thoughts, and all of them were wrong. Thinking on it now, I wouldn’t have minded if they had been all three.I guess the look on my face and the hesitancy to respond said I wasn’t sure about them.“I’m sorry,” Dave said. “We’re not trying to sell you anything or want any money. We just want you to take a picture of us and our baby.”I relaxed. A breath escaped me, one both full of relief and embarrassment. Not everyone is crazy in this world.I glanced at my watch. “Sure. I can do that. I have a little time before I have to be to work.”Their faces lit up with smiles and he stuck his hand out for me to shake with a “thank you, we appreciate it,” on his lips.“No problem,” I said.Kathy set the bag on the sidewalk and rummaged around in it for a moment before bringing out her cell phone. She handed it to me.“Just press and hold this button for it to focus. When it does, a green square will appear on us. Let the button go, then press it again and it will take the picture.”Normal. See? Everything was normal.She lowered the stroller’s top with her back to me. I admit I had to look away because the view from where I stood was pleasant. When I looked back, Kathy and Dave stood by the black steel rail separating the boardwalk from the beach. He smoothed out his shirt with the palms of his hands, and she held the swaddled baby in the crook of one elbow.“Are you ready?” I asked.They both nodded enthusiastically, but their smiles looked nervous, almost forced.I held the phone up, the camera facing them and looked into the display. The view zoomed in, then locked on the happy little family.Then things got weird.The phone’s screen showed Dave and Kathy standing side by side with strained smiles on their faces. Kathy had removed the blanket from the baby’s head.I shook my head and lowered the phone. From that distance I could barely make out the child, but when I raised the phone