The Ombré Sky

Aurora watched the sky turn a myriad of ombré colors just as the sun set. The sea seemed to reflect those same ombré colors and she wondered if these could be captured realistically in a picture. She took her phone out of her pocket and clicked a couple of pictures. Each picture looked different even though they were taken from the same position and angle. “Interesting,” she said to herself. "There’s not a single day that the sea and sky looks exactly the same. The same can be said about our lives, I guess." She stood and brushed the sand off her shorts, and walked toward the waves to dip her feet one last time before heading home. The water felt cool as the waves gently touched her feet. She loved being here. This beach was isolated; there was hardly a soul to be seen. She occasionally saw a few people walk along the shore alone like her, but strangely she had never seen tourists. The people who came to the beach were locals and Aurora by now could recognise them. She had been visiting this beach every single day for the past two months. She never made an effort to smile or talk to the locals and she was relieved that they didn't bother making an effort either. She was only going to be here for a few months, so she didn't feel the need to make any friends. 

As she walked away from the beach, she wondered what she'd have for dinner that night. "I don't feel like cooking tonight, I'll probably have a sandwich," she muttered to herself. She always had simple dinners because she never had the time to cook an extravagant meal for herself when she worked and lived alone. But now that she was back home, time was definitely not an issue, but she seemed to have lost all interest in cooking. “I should probably start cooking better meals from tomorrow,” she said aloud to herself with sheer determination. “Well, let’s see if I feel the same tomorrow.” She turned on the music on her phone and walked for 20 minutes to get home. Once she was home, she fed the cat, took a bath, made a sandwich, and turned on the news. After dinner, she brushed and then crawled into bed with her phone and a book. She looked through the pictures of the beach she had clicked that evening. As she was scrolling through the pictures, she noticed that she had unintentionally clicked a picture of a young boy. “Oh! How did this happen?,” she wondered. “I remember seeing this boy last weekend. Should I delete this picture or keep it? The picture looks too good to be deleted. My photography skills have definitely improved!”

“The boy looks good too!”

“Was he always this handsome? ”

“How come I never noticed his strikingly handsome features before?”

“Gosh! I seem desperate! He seems way too young and it’s definitely inappropriate to keep a picture of him without his approval.”

“I should delete it.”

“Maybe I’ll keep it for a day.”

“It’s not like I can remember his face without the picture.”

“No! This is not right!”

“Delete! Delete! Delete!”

“Okay, I’m giving in.”

Though she was confused, Aurora finally deleted the picture. She read for a while and then went to bed.