Her shoulders were naked to the world as a gust ofwind rippled her pleated skirt and produced an eerie glow on the end of hercigarette. Her hazel eyes stared into the burning red as her once-rich lipsturned pale blue with the cold. She took a long drag on her cig, flicked it intothe air and watched as the wind carried it away. As if on automatic, she reachedinto her tattered bag and pulled out another cigarette. She watched as the fireslowly burned the white innocence away and turned it gray. I watched in silenceas she tossed her disheveled hair behind her shivering shoulders. She slowlyswayed side to side, resting each scrawny leg in turn. Her mud-covered shoesscraped the ground like dogs scavenging for bones. The light of a singlestreetlamp flickered, threatening to leave her in darkness. All the while shewaited, she toyed with a loose thread hanging from her blue blouse.

Thatwas the last I saw of her, a faint silhouette of what was once a beautiful girl.I cannot forget those eyes, darkened with worry and shadowed with pain,flickering faintly as the streetlamp turned dark for good. She slowly saunteredaway, disappearing into the night. And even though I do not know why she wasthere, I had a nagging feeling she would be back againtomorrow.