Free Write Woman in White

Note: Even Julia, who suggested this prompt, found it a bit difficult. All three of us have been regular riders on the E Bus.

Julia's Free Write

It was her lucky day.

Sitting in a coffee shop of the expensive, plus kind, she was there to meet a young friends on home leave.

Weather – and coffee – just right, she spent the two minutes waiting idly watching passers by.

Then she saw her: the woman in white.

Middle-aged, but in white from head to toe, including a hat that wouldn’t have been out of place in Ascot.

Questions and conjectures flowed. A wedding? Perhaps her own.

A Mexican funeral? But hey, they were in the wrong country. A costume party- At 4 p.m. in the afternoon-

The mystery was further compounded when she simply took a bus – one that would end up near the border.

Eccentric? Crazy? A date? We’ll never know as it didn’t make the news.

Rick's Free Write

Could it be her? Was that Melania? The current and former First Lady of the White House?

Or just her doppelganger in the white Spy Vs Spy (MAD magazine) hat?

You get all kinds riding the bus. Cleaning ladies heading out to the suburbs for the day. Shop clerks to and from the store. UN trailing spouses with not much to do other than window gazing.

Unusual though, to see such a formal hat, paired with a long white coat.

Maybe Madame Trump tired of the pomp and ceremony of the ‘royal’ visit and decided to hop over to Switzerland to maybe meet some real people.

Was she looking at a text from Donald?

“WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU? Thank you for your attention to this matter !!!”

She had no idea of the bus’s destination. But “village” sounded nice. She liked village people. She grew up in a village. Long before she ended up trapped in a political bubble.

Nah, couldn’t be.

Shall we ask her?

D-L's Free Write

People were staring at her. She'd removed the veil from her white hat. Her white suit was not a typical wedding dress.

She wondered what happening at the mairie where the civil service was to take place  followed by a church wedding.

Her father would be furious yelling about the cost. It was him who pushed her to marry his Vice President to "cement the business."

He'd fought her going to art school, saying it would be wasted money. 

She had her MBA but took art classes when she could find the time. 

If she liked Tom, her fiancé, maybe she wouldn't have had that moment of panic. After saying she had to use the toilet, she called her friend Janice who lived just across the Geneva/French border.

"Take the E Bus to Hermance," Janice said, "I'll meet you there."

As the bus passed through Vesenaz, Collonge, Corsier, she felt herself relaxing. She would go to Paris and paint. 

She wished she could see the faces of the attendees at her non-marriage. 

Visit Julia's blog. She has written and taken photos and loves syncing up with friends.  Her blog can be found: https://viewsfromeverywhere.blogspot.com/ 

Rick Adams is an aviation journalist and publisher of www.aviationvoices.com, a weekly newsletter reporting the top stories about the airline industry. He is the author of The Robot in the Simulator. AI in Aviation Training.  

Visit D-L.'s website  https://dlnelsonwriter.com, is the author of 15 fiction and three non fiction books. Her 300 Unsung Women, bios of women who battled gender limitations, can be purchased  at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/300-unsung-women-d-l-nelson/1147305797?ean=9798990385504