Number 16

I had an interesting experience yesterday.

I went to Wal-Mart, a nation-wide discount department store in the USA.  They were having a sale on computer paper, and I needed to restock my supply.

Anyway, I saw a woman there, who is difficult to get out of my mind.

She appeared to be in her mid-20’s, and was very pretty.  Of course, I think all women are pretty, in one way or another – you just have to look for it in some women, more than others.

This woman, you didn’t have to look very far to find it.  She was pretty in the sense of a healthy, vibrant woman – one who obviously enjoyed life.

Patience!  I’m getting around to what made her unforgettable!  I don’t think I even need to describe her long blonde hair, held up in a ponytail, and her natural “lack of makeup” look.

She was wearing tight jeans.  Obviously, she knew what they did for her torso, and was not ashamed to exploit it.  She was wearing short-heeled black pumps, and a white sleeveless blouse. You could see that she was wearing a bra and camisole under the white blouse.

The thing that made her unforgettable, was that she had a tattoo on her left shoulder – actually her upper arm, where the arm attaches to the shoulder.  It was about an inch high, and was an old tattoo – the colors had faded to a muted shade of blue, but were plainly visible.

It was the tattoo itself that was so intriguing…..

It was the number 16, preceded by the number sign.  Looked like “ #16 “!

It made you wonder what significance that number had in her life.

Why was it there?  And what did it mean?  Why would a woman have a number tattooed on her arm???

She must have known that by wearing a sleeveless blouse, everyone who saw her would be able to see the number.

As I passed her in the aisle, I had to take a second look to make sure I saw what I thought I saw.

One thing you don’t do, is invade someone’s privacy by asking them personal questions, especially if you don’t know them really well.  So I took a good look, then passed on.  She never noticed me, or acknowledged that I was looking at her.

As I walked on down the aisle, I began to fanaticize about what the tattoo meant, and why it was there…..

I imagined that she was some Arabian potentate’s wife – number 16 – and possibly one of many in some Sheik’s Harem.  All the wives were numbered, according to their seniority.

But then, I thought that they probably don’t tattoo the wives in Harems.  At least I don’t think so…..  Particularly numbering them.  So that idea quickly passed.

So I started another fantasy…..   I thought that she might have been kidnapped, and had been held by a pervert as his sex slave.  The pervert had her tattooed to signify that she was the sixteenth sex slave he had kidnapped.

But that fantasy fell apart when I remembered that unless he was a tattoo artist himself, he would have had to involve someone else to do the actual tattoo.  Well, maybe it was a pair of perverts……

No, that didn’t fit either.

So I thought that maybe she had been a rebellious teenager, and had gotten the tattoo as a sort of protest against her parents, or something, like maybe when she turned 16.  But that fantasy wouldn’t account for the number sign. ….  No, the number sign was significant, somehow.

So I tried to reach an explanation again…..

I imagined that maybe she had a boyfriend, who was a bondage enthusiast, who was also a “dominant”, and she was his sixteenth girlfriend.  Or maybe the sixteenth woman he ever had sex with, or tied up.

Some possibilities there, but that didn’t fit the facts, either.

I thought that maybe she had a cruel stepfather who had her numbered as his personal piece of property.  I imagined that the tattoo was to remind her that he owned her, and could do as he pleased with her. …..

Nah, that didn’t fit, either.  Child Protective Services and the courts would have taken her away from him for something so callous.

Maybe she was the sixteenth child in a large family of children.   Maybe at an orphanage or something.  Nah – Protective Services again!

Maybe she was a racecar driver, and Number 16 was the number painted on the side of her favorite car .….  Doubtful!

Maybe it was only a temporary tattoo.  But it sure looked permanent – and looked like it had been there a long time.  I realized that I was grasping at straws!

Well, I reached the checkout line, and forgot about her, and the tattoo, for a few minutes, while I took out my credit card and paid for the computer paper.

I thought about her again, as I was walking out to my car.

I thought that maybe she just had herself tattooed with a number, in order to create a mysterious persona – one which would be very hard to forget, once you saw her.  Or once you got to know her.  She certainly affected me that way.

So I don’t know WHY she had the number 16 tattooed on her arm.  But I won’t ever forget her!  And even though you never saw her, you probably won’t either!

And maybe that’s what she wanted all along!

 

08.05.08