THE COLOR RED

My romance/friendship, whatever it was with Hank had been over for awhile now, when I noticed a photo of him in the newspaper. He was wearing a bright red shirt.

The next time I attended the civic group to which we belonged he was also wearing it. I said "Hello" to him.

"I see you still wear that gaudy red lipstick!" he said.

"And you still wear that gaudy red shirt!" I replied.  -- At least the lipstick complemented my garish red hair he so admired.

Later, I ceased attending the group when they changed locations. So I saw far less of Hank.

He passed away in 2016. My friend Rose thought I should attend his funeral. I didn't see the point. His family had never really approved of me. They compared our relationship to a man's lust for a stripper, which I found insulting! Would they even remember me after 8 years? If so, to his many grandchildren I was probably that evil woman who broke Grandpa's heart. Sometimes it's best to be forgotten. Besides, he was history to me.

My elderly friend Irene never liked Hank at all. She called him an odd, pushy, little man which described him well.

Irene came home one day and sensed someone inside her house. She got a neighbor to come over for a thorough check before she settled in. He found no one. But later, the neighbor phoned to ask who was that man in the red shirt standing in her kitchen.

Irene assured him she was alone.

When she related this to me, I told her it must be Hank visiting from beyond!

I asked Rose why Hank would be haunting her instead of me. Irene didn't even like the guy!

 "Perhaps your father's spirit is keeping Hank's ghost away from you," she said.

Often times, I had suddenly smelled my father's body aroma. I've also smelled cigar smoke and the only person I've ever known who smoked cigars was my grandfather who died long ago. And I've smelled perfume when I wasn't wearing any. My mother didn't wear fragrance and my stepmother wore only Charlie. I have no idea who this spirit is. Also there have been numerous strange happenings in my house that I won't go into. I'm sure I've plenty of ghosts to keep Hank's at bay. However I believe that's only part of the reason.

I let my natural hair color grow out which is mostly gray. Plus it was now cut extremely short. The long red tresses Hank adored were gone. I was no longer the woman he loved to put on display.