Love That Red

An unedited, timed write on a prompt on the color red

Photo by Juliana Malta on Unsplash

Love That Red

by Cynthia Cummins

I remember being in the back seat of our LTD station wagon. Me and my cousins Leigh and Robbie in our still-wet suits, and Mom and Aunt Bobbie in the front. Sisters smoking and talking, and ignoring us. My lips were chapped. Probably from too much sun and chlorine after a day at the country club pool in Bristol. Did Mom and or Aunt Bobbie have any chapstick please? No they did not. But Aunt Bobbie fished in her purse and handed back her lipstick. I remember lacquering my mouth with it, hoping I looked glamorous – age 11. And I remember Leigh and Robbie dissolving in puddles of giggles at the sight. Elbowing me and guffawing. I couldn’t give the lipstick back to Aunt Bobbie fast enough. Not before Leigh had checked to see its name. Love That Red. “Love that red! Love that red! Love that red!” they cackled and whooped. To this day, whenever I find myself perusing the colors at Walgreens, that refrain comes to me. That sunny summer afternoon with the windows rolled down and a thunderstorm surely forming somewhere on the horizon.