#AtoZ — Iris

Join me during the month of April as I blog through the alphabet. My theme will be What’s In A Name. I will attempt to write up a short fictional character sketch beginning with a different letter of the alphabet each day. Remember that a place can also be a character.

Iris

“Eerees.”

“Earrees?”

“No. Eerees. Your language, Iris. My language, Eerees.” Shyly, he repeated her name and watched as she returned his smile with a slight nod. “May I walk you to the bus stop, Eerees?”

He really wanted to spend a lot more time with her than the couple of minutes it would take to walk to the end of the block and across the street but he knew if he suggested a longer meeting she would not accept. Who knew? Maybe it would even insult her. They didn’t know each other. Not really. He had been watching her get off of the bus three times a week and walk in front of his book shop on her way to Mrs. Symons’ house where she took cooked and cleaned. Mrs. Symons was more lonely than she was old so it was not an every day thing  and Iris didn’t work long hours. He had watched her for weeks before he had the nerve to walk out to the sidewalk one day and say hello to her as she walked by. She had averted her eyes after a very slight smile. It took another couple of weeks before he had tried another hello. The next time, she had returned his greeting and before long they were exchanging a couple of sentences, mostly about the weather.

There was some chemistry there. They both felt it. As they walked toward the bus stop together, he decided that he was going to close up shop early one day and ride the bus home with her if she would let him. That way they could talk a bit. Who knew where it would go from there? He just knew that he wanted to spend a lot more time with Eerees.

Alexa

Babs

Curtis

Diane

Eve

Fran

Grandma

Harold