REFER TO GREY: Contemplations by Robert Greigos © 2007-2024

The couple disembarks from a 30 year old Ford, red with lots of chrome. He wears black slacks, a pink shirt, sandals. Her slacks are white, bright white. The audacity of her emphatically formed ass steals all attention. She walks with a kind of strut that alternately stresses left, then right, then left again. Her arms swing with an easy rhythm, relaxed counterpoint to the sharpness of her stride. Amber curls echo by half the swing of her arms, caressing the crisp lemon of her blouse. One wonders what combination of arc and tempo her unseen breasts are taking.

The weather is hot, dry, very bright. The couple cross the dusty parking lot to enter a carry-out liquor store. Undoubtedly their plans include sipping ice and exotic spirits with another couple. It isn't hard to imagine the impression their anticipated counterparts will cast.

Across the street is a simple blond brick building whose main entrance is on the right. Above that entrance is a large, wide, white canvas banner undulating in warm air. Block letters that match the color of the couple's Ford across the street spell: SURRENDER ROOM. Who it is that might surrender on this particular afternoon and for what reason is not apparent. Surely not the couple in the 30 year old Ford or their friends.

Paths cross with little consequence. One person anticipates pleasure, possibly joy, another chilling hollow fear. Circumstances alone do not account for the difference. Neither do genetics. At some point, spirit, striking outward, connects with encouragement, comforting reward. Or alternatively, it meets discouragement, is beaten back, crushed. Forever after, the pattern repeats. Neither phenotype understands the other. Paths cross, they do not intermingle nor intersect.

Beside the blond brick building is a billboard. In out of sync colors the sign reads: "Got Dirty Birds?? We got birdbaths. Shop Andy's". Andy's is not the name on the liquor store, nor on the blond brick building. Andy and his mission are unrelated, a third strand. And yet, whomever surrenders will undoubtedly be offered opportunity to cleanse. Through imbibing, the couple and their friends will likely melt barriers to intimacy. And somebody sometime, a lonely widow perhaps, might see that billboard and decide a birdbath would be just the thing to help undam emotions and reconnect. Paths cross without intersection but processes, especially water processes, touch and include everyone.