Orange and Purple
By: Kristyn D’Angiolillo
Her name was Effie Freckle. She was about thirty-two when she lost it. She wasn’t quite sure what was going on at first, but eventually she accepted the fact that her voice was just plain gone. Except, for one little word. Orange. All she could say was orange. When someone asked her what her name was she said, “Orange.” When someone said good morning to her she said, “Orange.” People would often look at her strangely, but she could do nothing about it; she just stood there, saying “Orange?”
    One day, Effie was out walking her dog, Orange. She named him that for obvious reasons, of course. Anyway, she was walking carelessly through the park, looking at all of the beautiful trees and the shimmering stream when she walked headfirst into a man. The man was tall, lean and slightly pale with dark hair and eyes. He looked at her nervously as she said, “Orange!” instead of “sorry” or “excuse me”.
    “Purple.” He mumbled back and kept on walking, his little terrier trotting along behind him. She watched him curiously as he shuffled away, wondering who she had just encountered and why he had said purple. Shaking thoughts of the peculiar man from her mind, she hurried on home.
    The next day she was out walking little Orange again (Effie was a woman of routine, you see) and had completely forgotten about the man who said purple. That is, until Orange spotted a squirrel running down from a tree and decided to take off after it.
    “Orange!” Effie called frantically. “Orange!”
    Suddenly her cries became muddled by shouts of a familiar word. “Purple! Purple!” Tall tragic-looking man was also yelling for his dog that had apparently seen the same squirrel. So they met up and ran together both shouting the only things they could.
    Eventually, the squirrel climbed up a tree and left the terrier and Effie’s dachshund barking at the bottom of the tree. The two strange humans ran over and swept up their dogs and held them tight. Looking at each other, they smiled for the first time in a really long while.
    “Purple?” the man asked, which loosely translated to “Would you like to get some coffee?”
    “Orange.” Effie replied, meaning, “That would be lovely!”