To Paint Plainly

Being a hair fan I ignored her face after I'd sentenced it to plain-ness, and judged her hair style to be suitably plain. But the color. Yes, the color. Going away from brown towards a soft red. Another frill behind the counter. Like the red napkins under the cakes, and the dangling Coca-Cola ads. She doesn't always keep her hair like that. I wonder what it's like when she goes out. I thought of my cousins. Then I gave her face a retrial.

You Don't Come Here For The Bear Hunting, Do You?

Not plain. I don't know why. There seemed to be something alert there and maybe I thought there shouldn't be if she's an ordinary girl working quietly away at an extraordinary hour. She looks as if she's afraid you're going to complain loudly and aggressively about something, anything, the way travelers do because they're not really travelers. Then she smiles and now she could be enjoying this more than me.

Customer Service

I want to touch her hair where it touches her face. The forehead, the cheeks. Push it back tickling the insides of my fingers. A girlish playful look when she talks. When silent, her upper teeth hang poised for another smile or a polite defense of an unfair complaint. The lady in front of me asked for another egg because that one you're giving me will me cold. I burnt my lips on mine.

Menace With A Spoon

A young overweight man with very short blonde hair sits in the next booth. He tosses sugar lumps high into the air trying to land them in his coffee. He stops when all four lumps have landed in the cup or on the floor. He does it in a way as if to tease the two young girls he sits along from. He then menacingly stirs the successful lumps.

Cookies

He gets up for food. She sees to somebody else's chips at the far end of the counter. His left hand puts two packets of cookies in his left pocket, while his mouth tells the person waiting for service beside him what he's doing and why. He goes towards the sandwiches loudly and picks up a BLT.
-Have you got any of these without the bacon?
She shakes her head toyfully and brings her upper teeth down to rest on her lower lip. The sandwich unwanted, he pays for just his coffee.

Once Plain

I look away. A boyfriend doesn't look pleased when he sees me seeing his girlfriend putting her hand up her sweatshirt to relieve an itch. My eyes go back to the face I once deemed plain. How do I paint that?

Crystal Clear

Finally it comes to me with total clarity. Abstract. Black with amber.

Paul Dorrell says:

Your job is to be out experiencing the world, and questioning it...