Tiara in Transit

2 days post tattoo

Sue and I wake up extra puffy and swollen the morning after our tattoo trauma.

Roy, views us both and jokes – ‘What time does the show begin?’

As a thankyou for being incredible hosts, I take Sue and Roy to Chillies for lunch, a Western Mexican grill-house that serves the best burgers in South America (according to Sue). As we’re seated in the diner, Roy’s taunt rings in my head and I self-consciously take off my sunglasses.

T, to Sue – ‘Do I look like a bad drag queen?’

Sue – ‘No! I think you heal very fast, not like me!’

I looked at Sue, who didn’t look bad at all apart from swollen eye-lids that were slightly red, and realised that we were both being extra hard on ourselves.

At that moment a handsome waiter walks past our table and stares at me, but not with a ‘grab your pitchfork and run!’ horror, but with a flirtatious, seductive look and a cheeky grin.

Seeing this, Sue turns to me with a smile that said ‘See, you and you’re permanent eye-liner are going to be just fine … ‘

Sue, sitting across from me and close to Roy – ‘You know, after Roy and I had been married for many years, I asked him once to close his eyes and tell me what colour my eyes are’

Roy, who was in the middle of devouring his juicy Chillies burger, chokes, then starts giggling at the memory fondly.

T – ‘Oh no, don’t tell me you got it wrong?’

Roy, his blue eyes squint from laughing heartily, honestly says – ‘ I thought they were green!’

I look at Sue with her olive complexion, that tans so easily, and her dark hair. Anyone would have correctly guessed that her eyes were brown!

Sue, her warm brown eyes filled with disbelief, even after all these years – ‘He said green! Not even black! But GREEN!’ throws her hands up in exasperation.

Roy, who has loved Sue from the moment he set eyes on her 39 years ago, was doubled over laughing. He too was amazed that he had answered a question, that should have been so easy, so wrong.
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I learnt something very important that afternoon, that just because your loved one doesn’t remember your important features, like the colour of your hair or the colour of your eyes, it doesn’t mean that they don’t love or appreciate you! No, it means that they are colour blind.